API Request Builder & Tester Tool

Yes, the tool supports various authentication methods:

• Bearer Tokens: Add an Authorization header with "Bearer your_token"
• Basic Auth: Add an Authorization header with "Basic base64(username:password)"
• API Keys: Typically added as a header (X-API-Key) or query parameter
• OAuth: Add the access token to the Authorization header

Note: Be careful with sensitive credentials. The tool doesn't store them, but they may remain in your browser history.

CORS (Cross-Origin Resource Sharing) errors occur when:

1. The API doesn't include proper CORS headers in its response
2. You're making requests from a different origin than the API expects

Solutions:

• Contact the API provider to enable CORS
• Use a CORS proxy service
• Test from the same origin as your application
• For development, disable CORS checks in your browser (not recommended for production)

The tool automatically handles common content types:

• JSON: Set Content-Type to application/json
• XML: Set Content-Type to application/xml
• Form Data: Set Content-Type to application/x-www-form-urlencoded
• Plain Text: Set Content-Type to text/plain

For file uploads (multipart/form-data), you'll need to use a more advanced tool like Postman.

The current version stores your recent requests in browser localStorage. For more robust saving:

1. Copy the request details manually
2. Use the "Copy Response" button to save responses
3. Export requests as cURL commands for reuse

Future versions may include:

• Named request collections
• Export/import functionality
• Cloud synchronization

PUT replaces the entire resource with the new representation:

• Must include all fields (even unchanged ones)
• Idempotent - multiple identical PUTs have same effect as one
• Example: Updating a user's complete profile

PATCH applies partial modifications to a resource:

• Only includes fields that are changing
• Not necessarily idempotent
• Example: Changing just a user's email address

Follow this debugging checklist:

1. Check the status code: 4xx = client error, 5xx = server error
2. Verify the URL: Typos are common causes of 404 errors
3. Inspect headers: Missing required headers often cause 400/401 errors
4. Validate the body: Use JSON validators if getting 400 errors
5. Test with simpler requests: Start with a basic GET request
6. Check the API docs: Verify you're using the correct endpoints and parameters
7. Try a different tool: Confirm the issue isn't specific to this tool

Currently, the tool doesn't support direct cURL import, but you can:

1. Manually extract the URL, method, headers, and body from the cURL command
2. Enter them into the appropriate fields in the tool

Example cURL to tool conversion:

curl -X POST https://api.example.com/users \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer abc123" \
  -d '{"name":"John","email":"john@example.com"}'

Becomes:

• Method: POST
• URL: https://api.example.com/users
• Headers: Content-Type: application/json, Authorization: Bearer abc123
• Body: {"name":"John","email":"john@example.com"}

This tool currently doesn't support direct file uploads (multipart/form-data). For testing file uploads:

1. Use a dedicated API client like Postman or Insomnia
2. For development, mock the file content with a base64 string
3. Test with a simple JSON payload first to verify the endpoint works

Future versions may include file upload support.

Query Parameters:

• Appear in the URL after ? (e.g., ?page=2&limit=10)
• Used for filtering, sorting, pagination
• Visible in browser history and logs
• Limited in size (depends on browser/server)
• Only for GET requests (technically)

Body Parameters:

• Sent in the request body
• Used for sending larger data (e.g., JSON payloads)
• Not visible in URL
• No size limit (practically)
• Used with POST, PUT, PATCH

Yes! We welcome contributions in several areas:

• Code: Add new features or improve existing ones
• Documentation: Help improve explanations and examples
• Bug reports: Report any issues you encounter
• Feature requests: Suggest new functionality

The tool is developed on GitHub - visit our repository to get involved. All significant contributors will be acknowledged.