Postman Backend Plugin

The Postman Backend Plugin integrates with Postman's API to provide seamless access to API metadata, versions, monitors, collections, tags, users, and workspaces.

Features

This plugin exposes various endpoints, including:

• API Information:
  • GET /apis/:id
  • GET /apis/:id/versions
  • GET /apis/:id/versions/:versionId
• Monitor Management:
  • GET /monitors
  • GET /monitors/:id
• Collection Handling:
  • GET /collections/:id
  • GET /tags/:tag/entities
  • GET /collections/:id/tags
  • PUT /collections/:id/tags
• User and Workspace Details:
  • GET /users
  • GET /workspaces
  • GET /workspace/:workspaceId

Production Installation

For production use, please refer to the guidelines in Postman Plugin Installation Steps.

Local Installation & Contribution

After cloning the postman and postman-backend plugins, rename the package names in their respective package.json with @internal/PLUGIN_NAME and install the backend plugin. Run the following command from your project root:

yarn --cwd packages/backend add @internal/backstage-plugin-postman-backend

Then register the plugin in your backend (typically in packages/backend/src/index.ts):

const backend = createBackend();
// ...existing code...
backend.add(import('@internal/backstage-plugin-postman-backend'));

Entity Provider Integration (Optional)

Entity Providers in Backstage enable automatic integration of external data into the catalog. The Postman EntityProvider allows you to:

• Automatically fetch and synchronize collections or APIs tagged for inclusion.
• Benefit from built-in caching, which minimizes API requests.

To set up the Postman EntityProvider:

1. Ensure that your app-config.yaml includes the following configuration:

postman:
  baseUrl: https://api.postman.com # For EU data center, use: https://api.eu.postman.com
  apiKey: ${POSTMAN_API_KEY}
  entityProvider:
    synchEntitiesWithTag: backstage-plugin
    synchInterval: 2
  cache:
    ttl: 60000

2. In your backend module (usually packages/backend/src/index.ts), register the provider:

// ...existing imports...
import { createBackendModule } from '@backstage/backend-plugin-api';
import { catalogProcessingExtensionPoint } from '@backstage/plugin-catalog-node/alpha';
import { PostmanEntityProvider, NodeCacheService } from '@internal/backstage-plugin-postman-backend';

export const catalogModulePostmanProvider = createBackendModule({
  pluginId: 'catalog',
  moduleId: 'postman-provider',
  register(env) {
    env.registerInit({
      deps: {
        catalog: catalogProcessingExtensionPoint,
        reader: env.coreServices.urlReader,
        scheduler: env.coreServices.scheduler,
        config: env.coreServices.rootConfig,
        logger: env.coreServices.logger,
      },
      async init({ catalog, scheduler, config, logger }) {
        const cache = new NodeCacheService({
          defaultTtl: config.has('postman.cache.ttl')
            ? config.getNumber('postman.cache.ttl')
            : 600,
        });
        const provider = PostmanEntityProvider.fromConfig(config, { logger, cache });
        catalog.addEntityProvider(provider);
        const synchInterval = config.has('postman.entityProvider.synchInterval')
          ? config.getNumber('postman.entityProvider.synchInterval')
          : null;
        if (synchInterval) {
          await scheduler.scheduleTask({
            id: 'run_postman_entity_provider_refresh',
            fn: async () => await provider.run(),
            frequency: { minutes: synchInterval },
            timeout: { minutes: 10 },
          });
          logger.info('Postman EntityProvider registered with the catalog');
        } else {
          logger.info('Postman EntityProvider registered, but auto refresh is disabled');
        }
      },
    });
  },
});

3. Finally, integrate the module into your backend initialization:

// ...existing code...
import { catalogModulePostmanProvider } from '@internal/backstage-plugin-postman-backend';
// ...existing code...
backend.add(catalogModulePostmanProvider);
backend.start();

Caching

The plugin employs caching to reduce redundant HTTP requests and boost performance. The two main caching strategies are:

1. HTTP Request Caching:
   • Responses from the Postman API are cached based on a configurable TTL.
2. Entity Data Caching:
   • The PostmanEntityProvider caches entities between synchronization cycles to decrease processing overhead.

You can adjust the cache settings in your app-config.yaml:

postman:
  cache:
    ttl: 60000  # Cache TTL in seconds. Default 600 seconds

Development

To run the plugin backend in standalone mode, execute:

yarn start

For full-stack development (including the frontend), run:

yarn dev

Testing

To execute tests for the plugin, run:

yarn test

Note:

• Ensure that you have enabled the mock service by uncommenting the necessary sections in your test files (e.g., in plugin.test.ts and router.test.ts).
• This allows the tests to use the mocked authentication and other services.

Ensure your test configuration aligns with your backend setup.