Postman

Nearly all my latest projects have some sort of RESTful API. For testing purposes I use Postman, a HTTP client aimed at making it easier to test APIs by allowing custom messages to be formed.

The application can be run as a Chrome app or downloaded for Windows, MacOS and Linux distros as an application (executable).

Testing GET using the browser is straightforward, unless some specific header needs to be constructed. Testing POST, PUT, etc. is typically harder in a browser, since the browsers addressline is tied to GET (for obvious reasons).

Postman allows one to use many (if not all) of the HTTP methods. Postman allows one to specify the body of e.g. a POST. It allows also the ability to specific the exact headers for the request.

Frequently used requests can be saved into a history which is searchable, and one can also make collections of HTTP requests for specific applications.

Regarding the body content, postman supports TEXT, JSON, HTML, XML, etc. Binary is also supported by choosing a file on the disk to send.

Highly recommended for those who build or consume RESTful APIs.