Use Postman with Cloud Observability

This section shows how to use Postman to make API calls to Cloud Observability.

Prerequisites

  • An active Cloud Observability organization and project
  • A Cloud Observability API key
  • The Postman client
  • Basic knowledge of APIs and JSON

Setup

Import the Cloud Observability Postman Collection

  1. Download the Cloud Observability Postman Collection (pre-configured API templates)
    A Postman Collection lets you group individual requests together for easy editing and re-use.
  2. Open Postman.
    Click on File > Import or click on the Import button in the upper left of Postman.
  3. Select the lightstep_postman_collection.json file downloaded in Step 1.

Import collection to Postman

The Cloud Observability API is now available as a collection in Postman. A full list of available Cloud Observability API calls is structured by folder in the left pane of Postman.

The following section is required for the API calls to work.

Setup API keys in Postman

The collection uses Postman Environment variables to set API keys and other values that might remain static most of the time, for example organization and project.

Follow these steps to setup your API keys for your collection.

  1. Click the Manage Environments gear icon in the upper right corner of Postman.
  2. Click Add and enter an Environment Name.
    For example, you can name your environment CloudObs or CloudObs-YourOrgName.
  3. In the table, add the variable lightstep_api_key.
    In the Current Value column, enter your Cloud Observability API Key.
  4. If you have access to multiple organizations and projects, you can also choose to add the organization or project variables and/or setup multiple environments.
  5. Once an Environment is set up, you can choose it from the dropdown in the upper right corner of Postman.

Postman environments

Use the Collection

After setup is complete, you are ready to begin making API calls. In the Cloud Observability Public API collection in the left sidebar, there are multiple subfolders for each type of API category listed in the Cloud Observability Public API Reference. You can test your API access by using the API calls under the Test folder.

Use the collection

Params

Some API calls include path, query, or body parameters. When you select an API call from the left sidebar, you can edit the parameters in the tab that opens on the right before sending the API call.

Path and query parameters

Body parameters

For more information on using Postman, refer to the guides here.

Updated Jan 6, 2023