[HN Gopher] Show HN: Open-source Postman alternative with type s...
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Show HN: Open-source Postman alternative with type safety
Hello! This is Jeane and Samuel and we're building RecipeUI.
RecipeUI is an open source Postman alternative that uses TypeScript
to statically type and autocomplete requests. We built this
because current API tools don't deal with the fact that some APIs
are just painful to work with. For us, it's usually error after
error as we try to figure out how to properly form the first
request. We recorded a demo to show you how TypeScript helps us
autocomplete a request correctly. https://youtu.be/O_Mly_p-g5s How
does our platform improve the developer experience? The analogy is
similar to using a statically typed language vs dynamically typed.
Most API tools are dynamically typed. You're guessing the params
and relying on the request to magically work at runtime, only for
you to go back to stack overflow or the docs when it doesn't. We
take the approach of defining parameters and the schema first. When
you add a new parameter, you need to mention upfront if it's
required and what type it is (integer, string, boolean). While this
can be painful in the beginning, it will save you and anyone you
share this with the hassle of understanding how this API works.
Our app is cross-platform on web and desktop. Our desktop app is
<20mb and built on top of Rust with Tauri, NextJS, and Supabase. We
open source our code because we want to be transparent about how
API requests and secrets are handled (all local IndexDB). I built
the first version of this at Robinhood when my colleagues were
sharing bash scripts and internal APIs on slack to test things. I
wanted to make it easier for anyone to use an API quickly and made
use of our OpenAPI specs to generate a nice autocomplete API tool.
Soon after, the Options team, then the Crypto team, and then the
whole eng org at Robinhood adopted this tool! Try it out at
recipeui.com! Please star us on GitHub if you like the product
https://github.com/RecipeUI/RecipeUI.
Author : Volbohel
Score : 75 points
Date : 2023-09-05 15:33 UTC (7 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (recipeui.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (recipeui.com)
| fyzix wrote:
| Looks promising, can it import/export typescript interfaces?
|
| Being able to share schemas with colleagues would be great.
| Volbohel wrote:
| We're thinking of a way to sync this with git or some link to a
| schema somewhere (e.g an OpenAPI yaml spec).
|
| For now, you'll have to manually write the TypeScript
| interfaces but we'll support sharing APIs soon!
| _boffin_ wrote:
| Look at app.QuickType and their abilities
| jcuenod wrote:
| Another alternative I've been meaning to try out:
| https://restfox.dev/
| Legion wrote:
| Every Postman alternative I've tried so far has choked on very
| large responses. Looking forward to giving this a try and seeing
| how it fares.
| [deleted]
| pseudotrash wrote:
| It seems postman has put collections behind a paywall so timing
| for this is great. Does ReceipeUI manage secrets or have some
| suggestions to deal with this to avoid things leaking into shared
| cloud storage?
| Volbohel wrote:
| Storing secrets in the cloud has been a top concern for me,
| which is why we don't do it and one of the main reasons why the
| code is open sourced.
|
| Currently secrets are just stored locally on desktop and web
| via IndexDB. I'd love to hear people's thoughts on this as
| well!
| fuddle wrote:
| Looks great!
| prabhatsharma wrote:
| Getting rid of electron was the best thing.
| Volbohel wrote:
| I was almost convinced to use electron because it uses the same
| language as the frontend (JS) and has "better" support for
| production apps.
|
| Ultimately went with Tauri because more people need to push the
| needle with alternatives and wanted to be there. Most ppl that
| build electron apps can definitely use Tauri because they're
| probably not writing much backend code.
| cco wrote:
| That import via curl was awesome! Something not hard to do by
| hand but such a time saver.
|
| I'm going to check this out!
| Canada wrote:
| Great work, looks awesome!
| digging wrote:
| Excited to try this out. A couple things I just noticed:
|
| - the buttons on the download page aren't readable in Orion
| browser (basically Safari) on desktop. The buttons appear empty
| as the contents are rendered several rems below, overlapping the
| text "See more options on Github". Disabling the style `.btn {
| flex-wrap: wrap; }` in the inspector fixes it for me, but I see
| animations and transitions attached to this class so I'd suspect
| those might be the root cause bc nothing else looks strange.
|
| - After I downloaded for Mac Apple Chip and started up the
| software, it says it's several versions out of date and asks if
| it can update itself. While I'm glad it was able to do so instead
| of sending me back to the website, it's a strange experience.
| Volbohel wrote:
| Really nice embarrassing catches, thank you for flagging and
| debugging!!! Patch fixed both of these :)
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(page generated 2023-09-05 23:00 UTC)