How to use data in a file with postman? - api

Question

I have a list of IDs and Values in a file and would like to use postman to connect to an API and update the records found in this file.
I tried with the Runner but am stuck in writing the syntax.

Answer 1

The answer is pretty simple and very well explained on this page
You can start with the a basic "put/post" - try to modify one single data set with static values to determine how the final query needs to be build. In my case the API accepted only RAW JSON formated data payloads.
As soon as you have your static postman query running - you can start automating it by determining which parts should be replaced. This data should be found in a data file (JSON or CSV). The schema is important for postman to understand the data. As reference I state the example as if I would like to replace an ID and a Value. My data document has one more column which is not a problem.
+--------+--------+--------+
| id | email | value |
+--------+--------+--------+
| data 1 | data 1 | data 1 |
+--------+--------+--------+
| data 2 | data 2 | data 2 |
+--------+--------+--------+
| data 3 | data 3 | data 3 |
+--------+--------+--------+
Column two (aka email) will be ignored and not be used. Notice how "id" and "value" are written in the header.
I would like to replace the ID which needs to be attached to the API endpoint and like to update a value which is within the dataset of this ID. Replacing the static parts with variables like {{variable}} allows Postman to understand that it needs to fill dynamic data here.
Notice that the variable attached to the URL says that it is not defined in the environment - if you did not set it up in the environment, this is correct and will work with data files.
I used simple tests to confirm if the data of the file made it into my query:
tests["URL has ID"] = responseURL.has(data.id);
tests["Body contains SFID"] = responseBody.has(data.value);
If you reach this point - all there is left to do is to go to the runner page, select the query to run, add the data file (you should preview if everything looks okay) and run it.