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what is curl rest api

by Mr. Garrick Ernser Published 3 years ago Updated 2 years ago
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curl is a command-line tool for transferring data, and it supports about 22 protocols, including HTTP. This combination makes it a very good ad-hoc tool for testing our REST services.Mar 9, 2021

Full Answer

Is your REST API truly RESTful?

However, by the actual, original definition, none of them are truly RESTful. But that’s OK, because your API shouldn’t be either. Years ago Michael Bleigh wrote a brilliant article connected with REST API.

How to use REST API?

  • Ensure to first choose the RESTful web services C# web template of ASP.NET Web application. The project has to be of this type in order to create web services project. ...
  • Give a name for your project which in our case has been given as “Webservice.REST”.
  • Then ensure to give a location, where the project files will be stored.

How to use curl to send API requests?

curl is a command-line utility that can be used to send requests to an API. API requests are made up of four different parts: The endpoint. This is the URL which we send requests to. The HTTP method. The action we want to perform. The most common methods are GET POST PUT DELETE and PATCH; The headers. The headers which we want to send along with our request, e.g. authorization header. The body. The data we want to send to the api.

How to consume an external API REST?

  • Go to the action flow where you want to use the REST API Method.
  • In the Logic tab, open the Integrations folder and the REST element.
  • Expand the REST API element and drag the REST API Method into your action flow.
  • Use the method's output parameters as you do for any other action.

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Does cURL use REST API?

curl can send all common HTTP commands to a REST API including GET , POST , PUT , and DELETE . The curl utility is straightforward to use. It has a few main options for data transmission, user authentication, and making header changes.

What is cURL and why it is used?

curl (short for "Client URL") is a command line tool that enables data transfer over various network protocols. It communicates with a web or application server by specifying a relevant URL and the data that need to be sent or received. curl is powered by libcurl, a portable client-side URL transfer library.

Is cURL same as postman?

Postman is a platform for testing APIs. cURL is a command-line utility that allows you to transmit data over URLs. To do the same operations with REST APIs, we may use Postman as a GUI (graphical user interface) and cURL as a CLI (command-line interface). Check out how to use Postman and PDF.co Web API.

What does cURL mean JSON?

Client URLIt stands for Client URL. It is a command line tool for sending and getting files using URL syntax. cURL allows communicating with other servers using HTTP, FTP, Telnet, and more.

Can I use curl in Postman?

Postman even allows you to import curl commands, so you can copy any curl samples in ShipEngine's documentation (such as the one above) and paste them into Postman.

Why is it called curl?

cURL (pronounced like "curl", UK: /kəːl/, US: /kɝl/) is a computer software project providing a library (libcurl) and command-line tool (curl) for transferring data using various network protocols. The name stands for "Client URL".

Is curl a TCP or HTTP?

TCPMost of the protocols you use with curl speak TCP. With TCP, a client such as curl must first figure out the IP address(es) of the host you want to communicate with, then connect to it. "Connecting to it" means performing a TCP protocol handshake.

Does curl use JSON?

curl will not touch or parse the data that it sends, so you need to make sure it is valid JSON yourself. You can use multiple --json options on the same command line. This makes curl concatenate the contents from the options and send all data in one go to the server.

Is curl an API call?

curl is a command-line utility that can be used to send requests to an API. API requests are made up of four different parts: The endpoint.

Is curl an HTTP request?

cURL: It stands for “client URL” and is used in command line or scripts to transfer data. It is a great tool for dealing with HTTP requests like GET, POST, PUT, DELETE, etc.

What curl stands for?

client URLcURL, which stands for client URL, is a command line tool that developers use to transfer data to and from a server. At the most fundamental, cURL lets you talk to a server by specifying the location (in the form of a URL) and the data you want to send.

Is curl used for API testing?

You know, curl is a free and open source command line tool and library for transferring data with URLs. It is widely-used by developers for quickly testing REST APIs in command line.

Why is curl so important?

Make cURL work for you. It gives you flexibility and control of URLs on the terminal. Using cURL on the terminal is simple, but may not be intuitive to use by every user. By providing the URL and the options needed, you can request and download data from URLs, transfer data to URLs, and more.

What is called curl?

The curl is a form of differentiation for vector fields. The corresponding form of the fundamental theorem of calculus is Stokes' theorem, which relates the surface integral of the curl of a vector field to the line integral of the vector field around the boundary curve.

What is the benefit of curl?

Curling strengthens your legs—as you maintain your balance on the slippery curling sheet, you tone your calves, thighs and buttocks. Plus the player who throws the rock does so from an elongated lunge, which requires strong leg and glute muscles. Curling strengthens your upper body—sliding a 40-lb.

How do you define curls?

Tips for Defining Your CurlsShampoo your curls sparingly and always with a moisturizing shampoo and conditioner. ... Dry curls gently to avoid breakage and frizz. ... Never brush your curls! ... Use curl-defining styling products while your hair is still wet. ... Don't mess with dry curls. ... Protect your curls while you sleep.

What is a RESTful API?

RESTful API is an API that follows the REST architecture. Typically REST APIs use the HTTP protocol for sending and retrieving data and JSON formatted responses. You can use the standard HTTP methods to create, view, update, or delete resources through the API. To test and interact with the RESTful APIs, you can use any library or tool ...

What is curl in Linux?

curl is a command-line utility for transferring data from or to a remote server. It is installed by default on macOS and most Linux distributions.

How many parts are there in an API request?

API requests are made up of four different parts:

What is a curl?

What is cURL? cURL, which stands for client URL and can be written as curl (which I’ll do for the remainder of the blog because I’m lazy), is a command line tool for file transfer with a URL syntax. It supports a number of protocols including HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, and many more.

Why is Curl execution unauthorized?

The response is correct in that you are unauthorized because your API key probably doesn’t include a bracket on the front and the back.

Is curl a standard command?

No one is telling you what you can and cannot use, but as referenced above, curl is fairly standard in its functionality and available across tons of platforms . There is no UI to get lost in for basic commands with authentication and you can see exactly what’s going on.

Can you use curl on any platform?

curl can be used on just about any platform on any hardware that exists today. This means, regardless of what you are running and where, the most basic curl commands should just work. None of the usual “it doesn’t work on my machine”.

Do you leave the API key in?

Pay really close attention here, your API key is just a string value. DO NOT LEAVE THE BRACKETS IN. If you do, you’ll get an “unauthorized” and be very sad/confused.

Do you need curl to use Python?

To be honest, you don’t even have to use curl. It’s just there as an option. Just like the snippets in Go, Python, Java, etc. Once you are comfortable working with the API, you can start writing the actual code that consumes the API, which for all I know might be some other language entirely.

Is curl a programming language?

Some docs include snippets in a variety of programming languages, and this one is no different, but the first one is curl which is probably intimidating as its not a programming language and certainly doesn’t look like one. Auth using curl for Watson Speech to Text from API docs. This first set of curl commands you see is just an example ...

What is curl in REST?

curl is a command-line tool for transferring data, and it supports about 22 protocols, including HTTP. This combination makes it a very good ad-hoc tool for testing our REST services.

How many options does curl support?

curl supports over 200 command-line options. We can have zero or more of them to accompany the URL in the command.

What are the methods used in HTTP?

Every HTTP request contains a method. The most commonly used methods are GET, POST, PUT and DELETE.

Does curl use GET?

Without any mention of a request method type, curl defaults to using GET; therefore, we explicitly mention the method type in the case of PUT:

What does REST API tell you?

That tells you which HTTP request methods the REST API server allows. It also tells you that the server will allow you to authenticate and use credentials.

What is curl in web?

curl is a “command-line tool for transferring data specified with URL syntax”, which makes it very useful for interacting with REST APIs and other web resources. It has thousands of uses, but we are going to review just a few in this guide.

What is a post HTTP request?

The POST HTTP request method is very frequently used to create or update data on the server when interacting with a REST API. In order to do that, you will need to know a couple new options for the curl command:

How to use curl to refer to a file?

Now you can use that file as part of your curl command. Instead of putting the data in the command, you can refer to the file by using -d @ [FILENAME]. We can try it by typing curl -X POST -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -d @data.json https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts and pressing Enter:

Does curl work on Linux?

The curl utility installed on your computer. Most macOS and Linux computers have it preinstalled. If not, you’ll need to review the technical instructions on the curl installation website.

Setup

We will use a docker container that has REST API application pre-configured for this demo. Login to your Linux shell and execute below command to launch a new docker container.

REST API HTTP HEAD request using Linux curl

The HTTP HEAD method requests the headers that would be returned if the HEAD request’s URL was instead requested with the HTTP GET method. For example, if a URL might produce a large download, a HEAD request could read its Content-Length header to check the filesize without actually downloading the file.

REST API HTTP GET request using Linux curl

GET method is used to retrieve resource information or to get information from a REST API endpoint. If the request is success, the endpoint response with a status code of 200 along with the requested data and if failed, response will contain the respective status codes like 404 or 400 etc.

Print REST API HTTP GET request details using Linux curl

If you observe the previous two command, we have added –silent option with curl command to get only data from the response using curl command. But if you want to see the entire response details of HTTP GET request, you can include –include and –verbose options with curl command.

REST API HTTP POST request with data from a file using Linux curl

POST method is used to create a new resource. If the resource is created successfully the response will contain status code 201 and if failed, response will contain the respective status codes like 404 or 409 etc.

REST API HTTP POST request with data from command line using Linux curl

If you observe the last command, we have passed the employee data from a file in the GET request using –data “<some_path/some_file>”, but you can also directly pass the data with the curl command itself as shown below.

How to use environment variable in data option of Linux curl command?

So far, we have learned how to POST with data from file and from command line using Linux curl command. But sometimes you may want to pass the data dynamically using Linux environment variable in your curl command.

What is a client for URLs?

Client for URLs (or cURL) is a software project comprised of two development efforts - cURL and libcurl.

Does cURL use libcurl?

Since cURL uses libcurl, it supports the same range of common Internet protocols that libcurl does. This tutorial will walk through the format and syntax used when making Oracle Eloqua API requests with cURL. If you are not yet familiar with the structure of requests, see API requests.

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An Introduction to Using Curl with Restful Apis

  • What is cURL?
    cURL stands for “Client URL” and is a data transfer application. It consists of two components, the libcurl client-side library and the curlcommand-line tool. cURL was originally designed to allow Linux IRC users to automate common tasks. However, it is now available for most operating sys…
  • What is REST?
    REST is an architecture consisting of best practices and patterns for web development. It is a set of guidelines for developers rather than a true protocol. Websites and applications are considered RESTfulif they follow REST principles. REST is now the industry-standard model for client-server …
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Curl Methods

  • curl uses several HTTP commands to connect to remote REST APIs. These actions correspond to the different REST verbs. The syntax for RESTful requests is simple and straightforward and is similar to other curl requests. For thorough documentation on how to use curl, see the officialcurl documentation. To determine the URIs to use for each operation, consult the API documentatio…
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Viewing and Changing Headers with Curl

  • In normal usage, curl only displays the most relevant information, not the entire HTTP request and response. To view all information, including the HTTP headers, add the -voption to any curl command to activate verbose mode. Any outgoing HTTP header in curl can be modified using the -H option. Some of the previous examples already demonstrated how to use this flag when setti…
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Authorization and Passwords with Curl

  • Many REST APIs require the user to authenticate using a valid user name and password. The easiest way to provide this information is through the -u option of the curl command. Include the account name and password, separated by a :. The following example executes the GETRESTful verb using authentication.
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Conclusion

  • Although it is best known as a data transfer application, the cURL application can interact with REST APIs. It includes the curl command line utility and the fully-featured libcurllibrary. REST is a popular architecture for client-server applications. It decouples the two components and stresses modularity and efficiency. Information is exchanged through well-known URIs. Users can acces…
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More Information

  • You may wish to consult the following resources for additional informationon this topic. While these are provided in the hope that they will beuseful, please note that we cannot vouch for the accuracy or timeliness ofexternally hosted materials. 1. Wikipedia curl page 2. curl website 3. curl documentation 4. curl GitHub page 5. GitHub REST API
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Overview

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This tutorial gives a brief overview of testing a REST API using curl. curl is a command-line tool for transferring data, and it supports about 22 protocols, including HTTP.This combination makes it a very good ad-hoc tool for testing our REST services.
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Command-Line Options

  • curl supports over 200 command-line options. We can have zero or more of them to accompany the URL in the command. Before we use it for our purposes, let's take a look at two that would make our lives easier.
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Custom Headers

  • We can replace the default headers or add headers of our own. For instance, to change the Host header, we do this: To switch off the User-Agent header, we put in an empty value: The most common scenario while testing is changing the Content-Type and Accept header. We just have to prefix each header with the -H option:
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Authentication

  • A service that requires authenticationwould send back a 401 – Unauthorized HTTP response code, and an associated WWW-Authenticate header. For basic authentication, we can simply embed the username and password combination inside our request using the user option: However, if we want to use OAuth2 for authentication, we first need to get the access_tokenfro…
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Conclusion

  • In this article, we demonstrated using the bare minimum functionality ofcurlto test our REST services. Although it can do much more than what was discussed here, for our purposes, this much should suffice. Feel free to type curl -h on the command line to check out all of the available options. The REST service used for the demonstration is available here on GitHub.
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1.What is cURL and how does it relate to APIs? - IBM …

Url:https://developer.ibm.com/articles/what-is-curl-command/

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