Calculating dynamic value from request body parameters in Paw - paw-app

I have methods in my API that have so be signed with hash of request parameters. Let's say I have three params in my request: 'first', 'second' and 'variable', which is set from environment variable. I need to add fourth parameter 'hash', which is equal to MD5([first][second][variable]):
test_var equals to 'test_variable'
To do this I calculate MD5 with Request Parsed Body params, which are read from current request. I get warnings that these params cannot be used because of self-dependency, and that request has an empty body, but MD5 is actually calculated correctly: MD5(firstParamsecondParamtest_variable) = 09f8669986f4152487da543e12e1e393
But, when I send this request hash value changes somehow, and is no longer correct:
first=firstParam&second=secondParam&variable=test_variable&hash=d3a0cc12d51633f07820b9d5ff167126
What's wrong?

It has been fixed in newer versions of Paw. You can simply do like suggested in the question. Right-click and pick Request > Request Parsed Body.
Add all the references you need, and you'll have the wanted hash:
You now have the MD5 of the three first params concatenated (no error reported).

Related

Posting binary buffer payload using Node-RED

I am trying to send a byte array through POST using Node-RED. I can successfully create the buffer using this module and storing it in msg.payload. However I can't figure out how to add it as a parameter in a http request node.
The receiving application requires enclosing quotes. So I use the payload in the following url: localhost:port/path?var=\"{{payload}}\", but it gives
"Error converting http params to args: invalid character '\' looking for beginning of value"
If using it in the request url without quotes: localhost:port/path?var={{payload}} nothing gets through (I can see on the other end).
I am using Protobuf due to the application on the other side, but I've also tried creating a buffer, as described here. However, nothing changes.
POSTs should not have arguments in the URL. The data should all be in the body.
Do you need to make the msg.payload an object with keys matching the arg names.
msg.payload = {
var = [buffer]
}
You will probably have to play around with the content-type header as by default I believe Node-RED will send a JSON body and you probably want application/x-www-form-urlencoded
You can set the headers by adding a msg.headers object

Using a substring of a return value in a subsequent request

I'm attempting to construct a series of Paw calls using the variables feature. I have one situation I'm unable to solve.
At authentication into the server I'm using, I get a JSON response, with one value that looks like this:
endpoint = "https://sub.something.com/thingone/thingtwo.php?token=sometoken&id=blahblah"
The endpoint portion "https://sub.something.com/" is then used as the base for subsequent calls, where a call might be "GET https://sub.something.com/data?id=123".
I don't want to hardcode the endpoint in Paw, as the endpoint will vary based on factors I can't predict at my end.
Is there a way to do basic string processing like this either in Paw, or by calling out to a shell script and using the return value of said script as a Paw variable?
That's doable using that RegExp Match dynamic value extension. Click on that previous link and hit Install Extension.
Type "Regexp" in the field you expect this value to be used. Pick Regexp Match from the completion results:
Then enter a regexp that matches your need, https?://[^/]+/? should be good:
I've put your example string in the screenshot above to show that it works, but you can instead put a "pointer" (Response Dynamic Value) to the response you want:
In the choices, pick Response Parsed Body if you want to parse a JSON or XML from the reponse. If the string is simply in plain text in the response body, pick Response Raw Body.
Once these steps are completed, you've got a working "Pointer" + "Parser" to the response that extract the part of the string you need. You can do the same operation with another regex for the token…
Tip: these dynamic value tokens can be selected like text and copy/pasted (Cmd+C/Cmd+V) :-)

How to reuse variables from previous request in the Paw rest client?

I need to reuse value which is generated for my previous request.
For example, at first request, I make a POST to the URL /api/products/{UUID} and get HTTP response with code 201 (Created) with an empty body.
And at second request I want to get that product by request GET /api/products/{UUID}, where UUID should be from the first request.
So, the question is how to store that UUID between requests and reuse it?
You can use the Request Sent Dynamic values https://paw.cloud/extensions?extension_type=dynamic_value&q=request+send these will get the value used last time you sent a requst for a given request.
In your case you will want to combine the URLSentValue with the RegExMatch (https://paw.cloud/extensions/RegExMatch) to first get the url as it was last sent for a request and then extract the UUID from the url.
e.g
REQUEST A)
REQUEST B)
The problem is in your first requests answer. Just dont return "[...] an empty body."
If you are talking about a REST design, you will return the UUID in the first request and the client will use it in his second call: GET /api/products/{UUID}
The basic idea behind REST is, that the server doesn't store any informations about previous requests and is "stateless".
I would also adjust your first query. In general the server should generate the UUID and return it (maybe you have reasons to break that, then please excuse me). Your server has (at least sometimes) a better random generator and you can avoid conflicts. So you would usually design it like this:
CLIENT: POST /api/products/ -> Server returns: 201 {product_id: UUID(1234...)}
Client: GET /api/products/{UUID} -> Server returns: 200 {product_detail1: ..., product_detail2: ...}
If your client "loses" the informations and you want him to be later able to get his products, you would usually implement an API endpoint like this:
Client: GET /api/products/ -> Server returns: 200 [{id:UUID(1234...), title:...}, {id:UUID(5678...),, title:...}]
Given something like this, presuming the {UUID} is your replacement "variable":
It is probably so simple it escaped you. All you need to do is create a text file, say UUID.txt:
(with sample data say "12345678U910" as text in the file)
Then all you need to do is replace the {UUID} in the URL with a dynamic token for a file. Delete the {UUID} portion, then right click in the URL line where it was and select
Add Dynamic Value -> File -> File Content :
You will get a drag-n-drop reception widget:
Either press the "Choose File..." or drop the file into the receiver widget:
Don't worry that the dynamic variable token (blue thing in URL) doesn't change yet... Then click elsewhere to let the drop receiver go away and you will have exactly what you want, a variable you can use across URLs or anywhere else for that matter (header fields, form fields, body, etc):
Paw is a great tool that goes asymptotic to awesome when you explore the dynamic value capability. The most powerful yet I have found is the regular expression parsing that can parse raw reply HTML and capture anything you want for the next request... For example, if you UUID came from some user input and was ingested into the server, then returned in a html reply, you could capture that from the reply HTML and re-inject it to the URL, or any field or even add it to the cookies using the Dynamic Value capabilities of Paw.
#chickahoona's answer touches on the more normal way of doing it, with the first request posting to an endpoint without a UUID and the server returning it. With that in place then you can use the RegExpMatch extension to extract the value from the servers's response and use it in subsequent requests.
Alternately, if you must generate the UUID on the client side, then again the RegExpMatch extension can help, simply choose the create request's url for the source and provide a regexp that will strip the UUID off the end of it, such as /([^/]+)$.
A third option I'll throw out to you, put the UUID in an environment variable and just have all of your requests reference it from there.

What is the difference between PUT, POST and PATCH?

What is the difference between PUT, POST and PATCH methods in HTTP protocol?
Difference between PUT, POST, GET, DELETE and PATCH in HTTP Verbs:
The most commonly used HTTP verbs POST, GET, PUT, DELETE are similar to CRUD (Create, Read, Update and Delete) operations in database. We specify these HTTP verbs in the capital case. So, the below is the comparison between them.
Create - POST
Read - GET
Update - PUT
Delete - DELETE
PATCH: Submits a partial modification to a resource. If you only need to update one field for the resource, you may want to use the PATCH method.
Note:
Since POST, PUT, DELETE modifies the content, the tests with Fiddler for the below url just mimicks the updations. It doesn't delete or modify actually. We can just see the status codes to check whether insertions, updations, deletions occur.
URL: http://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts/
GET:
GET is the simplest type of HTTP request method; the one that browsers use each time you click a link or type a URL into the address bar. It instructs the server to transmit the data identified by the URL to the client. Data should never be modified on the server side as a result of a GET request. In this sense, a GET request is read-only.
Checking with Fiddler or PostMan:
We can use Fiddler for checking the response. Open Fiddler and select the Compose tab.
Specify the verb and url as shown below and click Execute to check the response.
Verb: GET
url: http://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts/
Response: You will get the response as:
"userId": 1, "id": 1, "title": "sunt aut...", "body": "quia et suscipit..."
In the “happy” (or non-error) path, GET returns a representation in XML or JSON and an HTTP response code of 200 (OK). In an error case, it most often returns a 404 (NOT FOUND) or 400 (BAD REQUEST).
2) POST:
The POST verb is mostly utilized to create new resources. In particular, it's used to create subordinate resources. That is, subordinate to some other (e.g. parent) resource.
On successful creation, return HTTP status 201, returning a Location header with a link to the newly-created resource with the 201 HTTP status.
Checking with Fiddler or PostMan:
We can use Fiddler for checking the response. Open Fiddler and select the Compose tab.
Specify the verb and url as shown below and click Execute to check the response.
Verb: POST
url: http://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts/
Request Body:
data: {
title: 'foo',
body: 'bar',
userId: 1000,
Id : 1000
}
Response: You would receive the response code as 201.
If we want to check the inserted record with Id = 1000 change the verb to Get and use the same url and click Execute.
As said earlier, the above url only allows reads (GET), we cannot read the updated data in real.
3) PUT:
PUT is most-often utilized for update capabilities, PUT-ing to a known resource URI with the request body containing the newly-updated representation of the original resource.
Checking with Fiddler or PostMan:
We can use Fiddler for checking the response. Open Fiddler and select the Compose tab.
Specify the verb and url as shown below and click Execute to check the response.
Verb: PUT
url: http://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts/1
Request Body:
data: {
title: 'foo',
body: 'bar',
userId: 1,
Id : 1
}
Response: On successful update it returns status 200 (or 204 if not returning any content in the body) from a PUT.
4) DELETE:
DELETE is pretty easy to understand. It is used to delete a resource identified by a URI.
On successful deletion, return HTTP status 200 (OK) along with a response body, perhaps the representation of the deleted item (often demands too much bandwidth), or a wrapped response (see Return Values below). Either that or return HTTP status 204 (NO CONTENT) with no response body. In other words, a 204 status with no body, or the JSEND-style response and HTTP status 200 are the recommended responses.
Checking with Fiddler or PostMan:
We can use Fiddler for checking the response. Open Fiddler and select the Compose tab.
Specify the verb and url as shown below and click Execute to check the response.
Verb: DELETE
url: http://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts/1
Response: On successful deletion it returns HTTP status 200 (OK) along with a response body.
Example between PUT and PATCH
PUT
If I had to change my first name then send PUT request for Update:
{ "first": "Nazmul", "last": "hasan" }
So, here in order to update the first name we need to send all the parameters of the data again.
PATCH:
Patch request says that we would only send the data that we need to modify without modifying or effecting other parts of the data.
Ex: if we need to update only the first name, we pass only the first name.
Please refer the below links for more information:
https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/
https://github.com/typicode/jsonplaceholder#how-to
What is the main difference between PATCH and PUT request?
http://www.restapitutorial.com/lessons/httpmethods.html
The below definition is from the real world example.
Example Overview
For every client data, we are storing an identifier to find that client data and we will send back that identifier to the client for reference.
POST
If the client sends data without any identifier, then we will store the data and assign/generate a new identifier.
If the client again sends the same data without any identifier, then we will store the data and assign/generate a new identifier.
Note: Duplication is allowed here.
PUT
If the client sends data with an identifier, then we will check whether that identifier exists. If the identifier exists, we will update the resource with the data, else we will create a resource with the data and assign/generate a new identifier.
PATCH
If the client sends data with an identifier, then we will check whether that identifier exists. If the identifier exists, we will update the resource with the data, else we will throw an exception.
Note: On the PUT method, we are not throwing an exception if an identifier is not found. But in the PATCH method, we are throwing an exception if the identifier is not found.
Do let me know if you have any queries on the above.
Here is a simple description of all:
POST is always for creating a resource ( does not matter if it was duplicated )
PUT is for checking if resource exists then update, else create new resource
PATCH is always for updating a resource
PUT = replace the ENTIRE RESOURCE with the new representation provided
PATCH = replace parts of the source resource with the values provided AND|OR other parts of the resource are updated that you havent provided (timestamps) AND|OR updating the resource effects other resources (relationships)
https://laracasts.com/discuss/channels/general-discussion/whats-the-differences-between-put-and-patch?page=1
Simplest Explanation:
POST - Create NEW record
PUT - If the record exists, update else, create a new record
PATCH - update
GET - read
DELETE - delete
Think of it this way...
POST - create
PUT - replace
PATCH - update
GET - read
DELETE - delete
Request Types
create - POST
read - GET
create or update - PUT
delete - DELETE
update - PATCH
GET/PUT is idempotent
PATCH can be sometimes idempotent
What is idempotent -
It means if we fire the query multiple times it should not afftect the result of it.(same output.Suppose a cow is pregnant and if we breed it again then it cannot be pregnent multiple times)
get :-
simple get. Get the data from server and show it to user
{
id:1
name:parth
email:x#x.com
}
post :-
create new resource at Database. It means it adds new data. Its not idempotent.
put :-
Create new resource otherwise add to existing.
Idempotent because it will update the same resource everytime and output will be the same.
ex.
- initial data
{
id:1
name:parth
email:x#x.com
}
perform put-localhost/1
put email:ppp#ppp.com
{
id:1
email:ppp#ppp.com
}
patch
so now came patch request
PATCH can be sometimes idempotent
id:1
name:parth
email:x#x.com
}
patch name:w
{
id:1
name:w
email:x#x.com
}
HTTP Method
GET yes
POST no
PUT yes
PATCH no*
OPTIONS yes
HEAD yes
DELETE yes
Resources :
Idempotent -- What is Idempotency?
Main Difference Between PUT and PATCH Requests:
Suppose we have a resource that holds the first name and last name of a person.
If we want to change the first name then we send a put request for Update
{ "first": "Michael", "last": "Angelo" }
Here, although we are only changing the first name, with PUT request we have to send both parameters first and last.
In other words, it is mandatory to send all values again, the full payload.
When we send a PATCH request, however, we only send the data which we want to update. In other words, we only send the first name to update, no need to send the last name.
Quite logical the difference between PUT & PATCH w.r.t sending full & partial data for replacing/updating respectively. However, just couple of points as below
Sometimes POST is considered as for updates w.r.t PUT for create
Does HTTP mandates/checks for sending full vs partial data in PATCH? Otherwise, PATCH may be quite same as update as in PUT/POST
You may understand the restful HTTP methods as corresponding operations on the array in javascript (with index offset by 1).
See below examples:
Method
Url
Meaning
GET
/users
return users array
GET
/users/1
return users[1] object
POST
/users
users.push(body); return last id or index
PUT
/users
replace users array
PUT
/users/1
users[1] = body
PATCH
/users/1
users[1] = {...users[1], ...body }
DELETE
/users/1
delete users[1]
Reference to RFC: https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc9110.html#name-method-definitions
POST - creates new object
PUT - updates old object or creates new one if not exist
PATCH - updates/modify old object. Primarly intended for for modificaiton.
There is few interpritation of RFC like mentioned before, but if you read carefully then you can notice that PUT and PATCH methods came after POST witch is common old fashion way to create native HTML Forms.
Therefore if you try to support all methods (like PATCH or DELETE), it can be suggested that the most approapreate way to use all methods is to stick to CRUD model:
Create - PUT
Read - GET
Update - PATCH
Delete - DELETE
Old HTML native way:
Read - GET
Create/Update/Delete - POST
Good Luck Coders! ;-)

Paw - pass response to subsequent call

The documentation for Response Parsed Body Dynamic Value doesn't make much sense to me. I r-clicked on the JSON response element as described, in this case, userid
{"authorization":"T98J_J8QcH5lC83TOKZxaWB","userid":"T98J_J8QcH5lC83TOKZxaWB","lastLogin":"2014-12-15 15:17"}
but did not receive the menu option to Copy as Dynamic Value as stated. I got the standard text editor context menu. So, either I'm misreading the doc, or it's incorrect. Here's what I want to do: Take the dynamic value for the userid and pass it as part of the URL (not a parameter) to subsequent calls. Is this possible with Paw?
Here's how you can do it manually.
Right click on the field where you want to reuse the value. In the contextual menu, pick Response > Response Parsed Body
Pick the request you want to extract the response from. Enter the JSON key path. Make it explicitly JSON format (Automatic uses the Content-Type, which may not match in some cases).
The Copy as Dynamic Value may not work if your response is not interpreted as JSON, maybe the server is not setting a Content-Type: application/json header?

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