Walkman

Write HTTP requests in Org mode and replay them at will using cURL

Features

• write HTTP requests as org mode "walkman entries"
• execute walkman entries via curl
• export walkman entries to a curl command
• import curl command to walkman entries (beta)
• support lisp variable or functions in a walkman entry
• execute a series of lisp callbacks, passing the status code, headers, and response body

Installation

Load up the walkman.el file.

Usage

By default, after calling M-x walkman-setup, these bindings will be added to org-mode:

C-c C-RETURN   to execute the entry at point
C-c C-'        for the walkman menu
C-c C-' c      to copy the entry at point as a curl command
C-c C-' i      to import a curl command and insert as walkman entry

How to write a walkman entry

See the sample.org file for example of walkman entries.

The general structure is

* Request Title
  GET/POST/PUT/... URL
  - Header1: value
  - Header2: value
  :FORM:
  - type: document
  - file: [[/home/user/document.jpg]]
  :END:
  #+begin_src
    {
      "body": "in any mode/format"
    }
  #+end_src
  1. First Callback
     #+begin_src emacs-lisp
       (lambda (status headers body)
         (message "status %s, headers %s, body %s" status headers body))
     #+end_src
  2. Second Callback
     #+begin_src emacs-lisp
       (lambda (status headers body)
         (message "Second callback"))
     #+end_src

Note that only the HTTP action and URL are required, everything else is up to you.

Simple GET request

* Simple GET request
  GET https://httpbin.org/get

Simple POST request with JSON body

* Simple POST request
  POST https://httpbin.org/post
  - Accept: application/json
  - Content-Type: application/json
  #+begin_src json
    {
      "data": {
        "title": "Hello",
        "hello": "world"
      }
    }
  #+end_src

Multipart upload

You can upload multipart document using the :FORM: Org drawer syntax:

* Multi part
  POST https://httpbin.org/post
  - Accept: application/json
  :FORM:
  - type: document
  - file: [[/home/username/sample_document.jpg]]
  :END:

will result in

curl --silent -i -X POST https://httpbin.org/post -F 'file=@/home/username/sample_document.jpg' -F 'type=document' -H 'Accept: application/json'

Things to know:

1. Headers inside the org drawer :FORM: will be set with the curl -F flag for form
2. org links to file will get their path prefixed with a @
3. :FORM: headers must be AFTER regular headers for the parser to work properly

This is an example that will not work:

* Wrong multi part
  POST https://httpbin.org/post
  :FORM:
  - file: [[/home/username/sample_document.jpg]]
  :END:
  - Accept: application/json

because the Accept header will not be parsed correctly.

Request with lisp variable

Define my-http-status with

(setq my-http-status "400")

OR specify a file variable and run

* Embedded lisp variable
  GET https://httpbin.org/status/`my-http-status`

Request with callbacks

* Request with callbacks
  POST https://httpbin.org/post
  #+begin_src json
    {
      "some": "body"
    }
  #+end_src
  1. First callback
     #+begin_src emacs-lisp
       (lambda (status headers body)
         (message "status %s, headers %s, body %s" status headers body))
     #+end_src
  2. Second callback
     #+begin_src emacs-lisp
       (lambda (status headers body)
         (pp (assoc 'url (json-read-from-string body))))
     #+end_src

Customization

Always keep the headers

If you don't want to bother with the -v flag to keep the headers in the response buffer, you can do

(setq walkman-keep-headers t)

Custom key bindings

By default, running walkman-setup will run

(define-key org-mode-map (kbd "C-c C-'") #'walkman-transient)
(define-key org-mode-map (kbd "C-c <C-return>") #'walkman-at-point)

If you want to setup your own binding, don't run walkman-setup and instead bind

• walkman-at-point for quick execution under the cursor
• walkman-transient for the transient-based interactive menu

TODO

• insert response in org doc?
• execute all requests sequentially
• unit tests
• option to run async
• multiple backends

Similar projects

• restclient
• verb