Using Postman how can I stop doing repetitive tasks like copy pasting a token or changing the hostname for several requests

This knowledge article may contain information that does not apply to version 21.05 or later which runs in a container environment. Please refer to Article Number 000385088 for more information about troubleshooting BMC products in containers.

Using Collections and Environments

In this postman screenshot we can see that Collections tab is seleted and "SampleCollection" has 5 requests


If we were not using "environments" Changing from "localhost" to a "domain name would require 5 manual changes

1. Create a Collection by clicking on the Folder+ Icon 
You'd be prompted for a Name and once you enter it you 'd see your collection on the left panel

2. Create Requests using variables
Instead of creating URLS like
https://localhost:8443/api/jwt/login 

create them like
{{protocol}}://{{host}}:{{port}}{{loginpath}}
In this way changes to https , host, port or login path would be centralized on your environment variables

You can use {{variable}} notation in URLs, Headers and Body at least

3. Access environments clicking this eye Icon
 

Click edit on the Environment Menu 

Then Cancel and Add (yes its weird)

You'd get to this screen

Enter a name and click "Bulk Edit"
Then paste the following text
---ignore this line / don't copy it
jwt:authtoken
host:localhost
port:443
protocol:https
prefix:AR-JWT
loginpath:/api/jwt/login
v1path:/api/arsys/v1
---ignore this line / don't copy it

and click "Update"

You'd have created an environment with these basic variables, please fine tune them for your environment

4. Login by executing a POST request to 
{{protocol}}://{{host}}:{{port}}{{loginpath}}
Having header
key: Content Type
value: application/x-www-form-urlencoded

With Body
key> username
value> any AR server username
and a second 
key> password
value> corresponding password

If all is correct you'd get a 200 HTTP response
and a token such as 

eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJCYWJK_TRIMMED_y2i-wik4

Select the token completely and right click on the highlighted section 
You'd get a menu to save the highlighted text as a variable



In this case , set it to JWT

5. Make a second Request to GET this URL
{{protocol}}://{{host}}:{{port}}{{v1path}}/entry/User
Set Authoritzation header to value {{prefix}} {{jwt}}
and Content-Type header to application/json
 
If everything is in place you'd get HTTP 200 status and JSON response

7. Then you can export your collections and environments or duplicate them to test on multiple servers / development stages

Attached is a Sample Collection and sample environment