How To Use Publish Feature In Postman

Understanding the Power of Postman’s Publish Feature

The Postman Publish feature empowers you to seamlessly share your collections, environments, and documentation with your team, collaborators, and even the wider API community. This functionality streamlines collaborative API development and testing, fostering knowledge sharing and efficiency.

How to Publish Your Postman Collections: A Step-by-Step Guide

Open the Collection You Wish to Publish: Locate the collection you want to share in your Postman workspace.
Navigate to the “Share” Tab: Click on the “Share” tab, located in the top right corner of the collection window.
Select “Publish”: Choose the “Publish” option from the available sharing methods.
Define a Publish Name: Provide a descriptive name for your published collection (this name will be visible to others).
Choose Visibility: Decide on the visibility level for your collection:
- Private: Only accessible to you and team members you explicitly invite.
- Public: Visible to anyone with the link, contributing to knowledge exchange within the wider API community.
Select Options (Optional):
- “Enable Forking”: Allows others to create copies of your collection for modification and experimentation.
- “Enable Versioning”: Keeps track of changes made to the published collection, allowing you to revert to previous versions if necessary.
Click “Publish”: Confirm your choices and click “Publish” to make your collection accessible to others.

Let’s illustrate the publishing process with a simple API collection for a weather application:

1. Collection Creation: Create a new collection named “Weather API” in Postman and add two requests:

“Get Current Weather”: Fetches current weather data based on city name.
“Get Forecast”: Retrieves the weather forecast for a specified period.

2. Publish the Collection:

Navigate to the “Share” tab within your “Weather API” collection.
Click “Publish” and provide a friendly name (e.g., “Public Weather API Collection”).
Set “Visibility” to “Public” to share it with everyone.
Optionally, enable “Forking” and “Versioning.”
Click “Publish.”

3. Sharing Link: After successfully publishing, you’ll receive a unique link. This link can be shared with colleagues, teams, and the community to access the published “Weather API” collection.

Publishing Environments for Standardized Testing Environments

Environments in Postman store variables and settings that define the context for your API interactions. Publishing environments facilitates standardized testing environments across team members and projects, ensuring consistent results.

How to Publish Postman Environments: A Detailed Guide

Create or Select Your Environment: Open the environment you desire to publish within your Postman workspace.
Navigate to the “Share” Tab: Click on the “Share” tab located in the top right corner of the environment window.
Select “Publish”: Choose the “Publish” option from the available sharing methods.
Define an Environment Name: Enter a descriptive name for your published environment.
Choose Visibility: Decide on the visibility level for your environment:
- Private: Accessible only to you and team members with explicit access.
- Public: Visible to anyone with the link, promoting collaborative testing.
Click “Publish”: Confirm your choices and click “Publish” to make your environment accessible to others.

Let’s imagine a scenario where you have an environment named “Production Environment” that contains variables for your API’s production URL.

1. Environment Creation:

Create an environment named “Production Environment” and define two variables:
- “API_BASE_URL”: Store the production URL for your API (e.g., “https://api.example.com”).
- “API_KEY”: Store your production API key.

2. Publish the Environment:

Navigate to the “Share” tab in “Production Environment.”
Click “Publish” and provide a name like “Production Environment for Testing.”
Choose “Public” to make it easily discoverable.
Click “Publish.”

3. Sharing Link:

Share the generated link with team members so they can access and use the “Production Environment,” ensuring standardized testing.

Leveraging Postman’s Documentation Feature for Effective API Documentation

The Postman documentation feature allows you to create comprehensive API documentation directly within your Postman workspace. Publishing your documentation shares your API’s details with collaborators, developers, and consumers, promoting clarity and ease of use.

How to Publish Postman Documentation: A Step-by-Step Approach

Create or Access Your Documentation: Open the documentation you want to share within your Postman workspace, either using existing documentation or starting afresh.
Navigate to the “Share” Tab: Click on the “Share” tab in the top right corner of the documentation window.
Select “Publish”: Choose the “Publish” option to make your documentation accessible.
Define a Documentation Name: Provide a clear and descriptive name for your published documentation.
Choose Visibility: Decide on the visibility level for your documentation:
- Private: Access is restricted to you and designated team members.
- Public: Accessible to anyone with the link, making your documentation discoverable by the wider API community.
Click “Publish”: Confirm your choices and click “Publish” to make your documentation available to others.

Example: Publishing a Clean API Documentation

Imagine you have meticulously documented your “Weather API” collection, providing details on each endpoint, input parameters, responses, and error handling.

1. Documentation Creation:

Within your “Weather API” collection, click the “Documentation” tab.
Add clear sections for each endpoint describing its functionality, request methods, parameters, and expected responses.

2. Publish the Documentation:

Go to the “Share” tab within your “Weather API” documentation.
Click “Publish” and provide a descriptive name (e.g., “Weather API Documentation”).
Set “Visibility” to “Public” to make it accessible to the wider community.
Click “Publish.”