TheLazy.Dev
Portfolio GitHub

Blog

rest |api |curl |beginners

Curl commands examples to make REST API calls

ama

Adrian Matei

Posted on March 8, 2020

Curl commands examples to make REST API calls

If you want to quickly test your REST api from the command line, you can use curl. In this post I will present how to execute GET, POST, PUT, HEAD, DELETE HTTP Requests against a REST API.

For the purpose of this blog post I will be using the REST api that supports www.bookmarks.dev. The API is documented with OpenAPI and available for testing in the browser at https://www.bookmarks.dev/api/docs/.

Introduction

In the first part of the blog post I will do a brief introduction to curl and what it can do (HTTP requests with options). In the second part I will show examples with different HTTP operations from bookmarks.dev-api.

What is curl?

Curl is a command line tool and library for transferring data with URL syntax, supporting DICT, FILE, FTP, FTPS, Gopher, HTTP, HTTPS, IMAP, IMAPS, LDAP, LDAPS, POP3, POP3S, RTMP, RTSP, SCP, SFTP, SMTP, SMTPS, Telnet and TFTP. curl supports SSL certificates, HTTP POST, HTTP PUT, FTP uploading, HTTP form based upload, proxies, HTTP/2, cookies,
user+password authentication (Basic, Digest, NTLM, Negotiate, Kerberos…), file transfer resume, proxy tunneling and more.

As mentioned, I will be using curl to simulate HEAD, GET, POST, PUT and DELETE request calls against a REST API.

HEAD requests

If you want to check if a resource is serviceable, what kind of headers it provides and other useful meta-information written in response headers, without having to transport the entire content, you can make a HEAD request.

Let's say I want to see what I would GET when requesting latest public bookmarks. I would issue the following HEAD request with curl:

Request

curl -I https://www.bookmarks.dev/api/public/bookmarks
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

OR

curl -i -X HEAD https://www.bookmarks.dev/api/public/bookmarks
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Curl options

  • -I or --head - fetch the headers only
  • -i, --include - include the HTTP response headers in the output
  • -X, --request - specify a custom request method to use when communicating with the HTTP server (GET, PUT, DELETE&)

Response

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Server: nginx/1.12.0
Date: Sun, 23 Feb 2020 21:31:40 GMT
Content-Type: application/json; charset=utf-8
Content-Length: 98452
Connection: keep-alive
X-Powered-By: Express
Access-Control-Allow-Origin: *
Access-Control-Allow-Methods: POST, GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, OPTIONS
Access-Control-Allow-Headers: Content-Type, Authorization, Location
Access-Control-Expose-Headers: Content-Type, Authorization, Location
ETag: W/"18094-R7MFvLpccDdVu3q8rR1UQBrAaX8"
Strict-Transport-Security: max-age=63072000; includeSubdomains
X-Content-Type-Options: nosniff
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Note the following headers

  • Access-Control-Allow-Headers: Content-Type, Authorization, Location
  • Access-Control-Allow-Methods: POST, GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, OPTIONS
  • Access-Control-Allow-Origin: *

in the response.

They've been added to support Cross-Origing Resource Sharing (CORS).

GET request

Executing curl with no parameters on a URL (resource) will execute a GET.

Request

curl https://www.bookmarks.dev/api/version
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

which is equivalent with

curl -X GET "https://www.bookmarks.dev/api/version" -H "accept: application/json"
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Response

{"version":"7.0.0","gitSha1":"71eb40fb6d224d5d9a90c89ae943390e15f001c3"}
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Note the use of accept: application/json

Curl options 

  • -H, --header - customer header to pass to the server

If you want to have it displayed prettier I suggest you use a tool like jq:

Request

curl https://www.bookmarks.dev/api/version | jq .
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Response

  % Total    % Received % Xferd  Average Speed   Time    Time     Time  Current
                                 Dload  Upload   Total   Spent    Left  Speed
100    72  100    72    0     0    611      0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:--   615
{
  "version": "7.0.0",
  "gitSha1": "71eb40fb6d224d5d9a90c89ae943390e15f001c3"
}
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

If you don't want the progress meter (first part) shown, you can silent curl:

Request

curl -s https://www.bookmarks.dev/api/version | jq .
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Response

{
  "version": "7.0.0",
  "gitSha1": "71eb40fb6d224d5d9a90c89ae943390e15f001c3"
}
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Curl options 

  • -s, --silent - silent or quiet mode. Don't show progress meter or error messages. Makes Curl mute. It will still output the data you ask for, potentially even to the terminal/stdout unless you redirect it.

An alternative to jq is to use Python if you have it on your machine:

curl -s https://www.bookmarks.dev/api/version | python -m json.tool
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Curl request with multiple headers

All the responses from the bookmarks.dev-api are gzipped.
We could ask for the gzipped variant by issuing the following request:

Request

curl -v -H "Accept:application/json" -H "Accept-encoding:gzip" http://localhost:8888/demo-rest-jersey-spring/podcasts/
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Curl options 

  • -v, --verbose - the opposite of --silent, make the operation more talkative

To achieve that you need to simply add another -H option with the corresponding value. In this case you would get some unreadable characters in the content, if you do not redirect the response to a file:

Response

> GET /api/version HTTP/1.1
> Host: www.bookmarks.dev
> User-Agent: curl/7.54.0
> Accept:application/json
> Accept-encoding:gzip
> 
< HTTP/1.1 200 OK
< Server: nginx/1.12.0
< Date: Fri, 06 Mar 2020 14:45:39 GMT
< Content-Type: application/json; charset=utf-8
< Transfer-Encoding: chunked
< Connection: keep-alive
< X-Powered-By: Express
< Access-Control-Allow-Origin: *
< Access-Control-Allow-Methods: POST, GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, OPTIONS
< Access-Control-Allow-Headers: Content-Type, Authorization, Location
< Access-Control-Expose-Headers: Content-Type, Authorization, Location
< ETag: W/"48-3r0bLwzjWi409jIuXDFQE7IoNtI"
< Strict-Transport-Security: max-age=63072000; includeSubdomains
< X-Content-Type-Options: nosniff
< Content-Encoding: gzip
< 
* Connection #0 to host www.bookmarks.dev left intact
�V*K-*���S�R2�3�3P�QJ�, �H4��&��%������X&Z$[X&�Z����&��
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

CRUD Operations on Bookmarks.dev API

Those were some basic curl HTTP calls with a few options. Now we will combine them and show examples against a production ready API. For the examples I will use the API running on localhost. It is really easy to setup with Docker-compose if you follow the instructions from the Readme file.

The API is protected with Keycloak and bearer token. A way to obtain a bearer token in Keycloak is to enable Direct Access Grants for the client - this corresponds to the Resource Owner Password Credentials
in the OAuth2 Specification. Thus the user's credentials are sent within form parameters. Of course we can do that with curl too:

Request

curl  \
  -d 'client_id=bookmarks' \
  -d 'username=ama' \
  -d "password=ama" \
  -d 'grant_type=password' \
  'http://localhost:8480/auth/realms/bookmarks/protocol/openid-connect/token' \
| jq .
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Replace the username and password with the ones you set up.

The response looks something like the following:

{
  "access_token": "eyJhbGciOiJSUzI1NiIsInR5cCIgOiAiSldUIiwia2lkIiA6ICJMNHV6eUFYbUlTSDJPRi00c2VZZ2Z3UWtJT204QTR3cnBDV0JHSVdOU2c4In0.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.cymI5LzrUFje4vZNYMzvS0yhdVx4V8u_XVDUxi4sUk4tKpI2xcFQqWEiN_hxCLHpCDjNCqjw2JQUxQTvbQe_Wf8TGWz1f3nXhKg5CEw29ArCV3lFZL7_QmUOod53KnQ-9umSe2EISv2EbD0__idaivyCIerfV4M0wfgG31iyLPJ6_Pl_nJiw5RgifdqNljpKL9znpt5l3PiU7x2ACGv9V_GPvwAnU-9VxIuEqfErgc6IfhQxg9vuI_kHprXu-ClATA_Zg_xNEw53TD3qHJV_5sCu58MORhPv8fddcAZeLHxsr9sVyhFlmKMz1ZGWH0q5QZwLzKlGaaVr72Y2KSEPyA",
  "expires_in": 3600,
  "refresh_expires_in": 36000,
  "refresh_token": "eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCIgOiAiSldUIiwia2lkIiA6ICJiNDEwODA3My0yNjZiLTQ4YzAtOGJmYi04ZGJjZmE2NjYxMmEifQ.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.MNxMEtq5zcVTjxCnws5EotnfuUH7uY_kbKDwRRzGcko",
  "token_type": "bearer",
  "not-before-policy": 0,
  "session_state": "a94ec4b7-3acf-4c39-b90e-039ee76cca0b",
  "scope": "email profile"
}
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

With jq is really easy to extract just the access_token:

Request

curl -s \
  -d 'client_id=bookmarks' \
  -d 'username=ama' \
  -d "password=ama" \
  -d 'grant_type=password' \
  'http://localhost:8480/auth/realms/bookmarks/protocol/openid-connect/token' \
| jq -r '.access_token'
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Response

eyJhbGciOiJSUzI1NiIsInR5cCIgOiAiSldUIiwia2lkIiA6ICJMNHV6eUFYbUlTSDJPRi00c2VZZ2Z3UWtJT204QTR3cnBDV0JHSVdOU2c4In0.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.EJzB7TkOrqY_enYHWgs_6NszI9PtQYfp5yco7OTF4LhcqkKXCoUvE2Jpc6gupX6uMtNPQZtWXSnwVPl8XGR4Z32sSMkxEvDj9B4zPuU2CBe8z9LZFwPjlu5ZMOnl1_hBjNmL8UHWTdCNhYf75PCDneCUM6ugbq5DaMhKkCHo8WD_x8A5I3hSM5pLSow3C82ZdMqkZbyxv28_rul9vsCsppN3CMXQjYDNn1UuVeNl8b5O-KTSumrVjVzw_wjoswva7h0Y3pnQptABDML5Q1mf__FFFHLGN6Y26Ezrjm086oRp-ntxFA9gI41toQ4xgoMyX-6obOhMGwa10RzdNbP4CA
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Curl options

  • -d, --data - (HTTP) Sends the specified data in a POST request to the HTTP server, in the same way that a browser does when a user has filled in an HTML form and presses the submit button. This will cause curl to pass the data to the server using the content-type application/x-www-form-urlencoded.

Create bookmark - POST

Request

curl -i -X POST "http://localhost:3000/api/personal/users/4c617f2b-2bad-498b-a9c6-4e9a8c303798/bookmarks" \
-H "accept: */*" -H "Authorization: Bearer eyJhbGciOiJ...."  \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" -d "{\"name\":\"How to test a REST api from command line with curl – CodepediaOrg\",\"location\":\"https://www.codepedia.org/ama/how-to-test-a-rest-api-from-command-line-with-curl/\",\"language\":\"en\",\"tags\":[\"rest\",\"curl\",\"api\",\"testing\"],\"publishedOn\":\"2020-03-05\",\"sourceCodeURL\":\"https://github.com/CodepediaOrg/bookmarks.dev-api\",\"description\":\" In this post I will present how to execute GET, POST, PUT, HEAD, DELETE HTTP Requests against a REST API. For the purpose of this blog post I will be using the REST api that supports [www.bookmarks.dev](https://www.bookmarks.dev)\",\"descriptionHtml\":\"<p>In this post I will present how to execute GET, POST, PUT, HEAD, DELETE HTTP Requests against a REST API. For the purpose of this blog post I will be using the REST api that supports <a href=\\\"https://www.bookmarks.dev\\\">www.bookmarks.dev</a></p>\",\"userId\":\"4c617f2b-2bad-498b-a9c6-4e9a8c303798\",\"public\":true,\"lastAccessedAt\":\"2020-03-06T20:14:28.101Z\",\"likeCount\":0}"
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Note the Bearer token is reduced here (Bearer eyJhbGciOiJ....) and in the following examples for brevity

Response

HTTP/1.1 201 Created
X-Powered-By: Express
Access-Control-Allow-Origin: *
Access-Control-Allow-Methods: POST, GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, OPTIONS
Access-Control-Allow-Headers: Content-Type, Authorization, Location
Access-Control-Expose-Headers: Content-Type, Authorization, Location
Location: http://localhost:3000/api/personal/users/4c617f2b-2bad-498b-a9c6-4e9a8c303798/bookmarks/5e62b18b59770b5487a4c741
Content-Type: application/json; charset=utf-8
Content-Length: 79
ETag: W/"4f-26GcBfsvgN8d+T+zqql3Y5R+Rl8"
Date: Fri, 06 Mar 2020 20:24:44 GMT
Connection: keep-alive

{"response":"Bookmark created for userId 4c617f2b-2bad-498b-a9c6-4e9a8c303798"}
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Note the location header - it contains the URL of the new created resource

Read created resource - GET

We will read the previously created bookmark by issuing an GET request on the url from the location header

curl -s -X GET "http://localhost:3000/api/personal/users/4c617f2b-2bad-498b-a9c6-4e9a8c303798/bookmarks/5e62b18b59770b5487a4c741" \
 -H "accept: application/json" \
 -H "Authorization: Bearer eyJhbGciOiJSUzI1NiIsInR5cCIgOi..." | jq .
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Response

{
  "tags": [
    "rest",
    "curl",
    "api",
    "testing"
  ],
  "_id": "5e62b18b59770b5487a4c741",
  "name": "How to test a REST api from command line with curl – CodepediaOrg",
  "location": "https://www.codepedia.org/ama/how-to-test-a-rest-api-from-command-line-with-curl/",
  "language": "en",
  "description": " In this post I will present how to execute GET, POST, PUT, HEAD, DELETE HTTP Requests against a REST API. For the purpose of this blog post I will be using the REST api that supports [www.bookmarks.dev](https://www.bookmarks.dev)",
  "descriptionHtml": "<p>In this post I will present how to execute GET, POST, PUT, HEAD, DELETE HTTP Requests against a REST API. For the purpose of this blog post I will be using the REST api that supports <a href=\"https://www.bookmarks.dev\">www.bookmarks.dev</a></p>",
  "publishedOn": "2020-03-05T00:00:00.000Z",
  "sourceCodeURL": "https://github.com/CodepediaOrg/bookmarks.dev-api",
  "userId": "4c617f2b-2bad-498b-a9c6-4e9a8c303798",
  "public": true,
  "likeCount": 0,
  "youtubeVideoId": null,
  "stackoverflowQuestionId": null,
  "createdAt": "2020-03-06T20:24:43.998Z",
  "updatedAt": "2020-03-06T20:24:43.998Z"
}
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Update created resource - PUT

Request

curl -s -X PUT "http://localhost:3000/api/personal/users/4c617f2b-2bad-498b-a9c6-4e9a8c303798/bookmarks/5e62b18b59770b5487a4c741" \
 -H "accept: application/json" -H "Authorization: Bearer eyJhbGciOiJSUzI1NiI..."  \
 -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d "{\"name\":\"How to test a REST api from command line with curl – CodepediaOrg\",\"location\":\"https://www.codepedia.org/ama/how-to-test-a-rest-api-from-command-line-with-curl/\",\"tags\":[\"rest\",\"curl\",\"api\",\"testing\"],\"publishedOn\":\"2020-03-05T00:00:00.000Z\",\"sourceCodeURL\":\"https://github.com/CodepediaOrg/bookmarks.dev-api\",\"description\":\"In this post I will present how to execute GET, POST, PUT, HEAD, DELETE HTTP requests against a REST API. For the purpose of this blog post I will be using the REST api that supports [www.bookmarks.dev](https://www.bookmarks.dev)\",\"public\":true,\"readLater\":false,\"language\":\"en\",\"youtubeVideoId\":null,\"stackoverflowQuestionId\":null,\"descriptionHtml\":\"<p>In this post I will present how to execute GET, POST, PUT, HEAD, DELETE HTTP requests against a REST API. For the purpose of this blog post I will be using the REST api that supports <a href=\\\"https://www.bookmarks.dev\\\">www.bookmarks.dev</a></p>\",\"updatedAt\":\"2020-03-06T20:42:53.706Z\",\"lastAccessedAt\":\"2020-03-06T20:42:53.706Z\",\"userId\":\"4c617f2b-2bad-498b-a9c6-4e9a8c303798\",\"_id\":\"5e62b18b59770b5487a4c741\"}" | jq .
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Response

{
  "tags": [
    "rest",
    "curl",
    "api",
    "testing"
  ],
  "_id": "5e62b18b59770b5487a4c741",
  "name": "How to test a REST api from command line with curl – CodepediaOrg",
  "location": "https://www.codepedia.org/ama/how-to-test-a-rest-api-from-command-line-with-curl/",
  "language": "en",
  "description": "In this post I will present how to execute GET, POST, PUT, HEAD, DELETE HTTP requests against a REST API. For the purpose of this blog post I will be using the REST api that supports [www.bookmarks.dev](https://www.bookmarks.dev)",
  "descriptionHtml": "<p>In this post I will present how to execute GET, POST, PUT, HEAD, DELETE HTTP requests against a REST API. For the purpose of this blog post I will be using the REST api that supports <a href=\"https://www.bookmarks.dev\">www.bookmarks.dev</a></p>",
  "publishedOn": "2020-03-05T00:00:00.000Z",
  "sourceCodeURL": "https://github.com/CodepediaOrg/bookmarks.dev-api",
  "userId": "4c617f2b-2bad-498b-a9c6-4e9a8c303798",
  "public": true,
  "likeCount": 0,
  "youtubeVideoId": null,
  "stackoverflowQuestionId": null,
  "createdAt": "2020-03-06T20:24:43.998Z",
  "updatedAt": "2020-03-06T20:43:53.582Z"
}
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Delete created resource - DELETE

Request

curl -i -X DELETE "http://localhost:3000/api/personal/users/4c617f2b-2bad-498b-a9c6-4e9a8c303798/bookmarks/5e62b18b59770b5487a4c741"
 -H "accept: */*" -H "Authorization: Bearer eyJhbGciOiJS...."
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Response

HTTP/1.1 204 No Content
X-Powered-By: Express
Access-Control-Allow-Origin: *
Access-Control-Allow-Methods: POST, GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, OPTIONS
Access-Control-Allow-Headers: Content-Type, Authorization, Location
Access-Control-Expose-Headers: Content-Type, Authorization, Location
Date: Fri, 06 Mar 2020 20:53:37 GMT
Connection: keep-alive
}
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Note the 204 OK Status showing that everything worked as expected.

Trying to execute the deletion again will result in an 404 resource NOT_FOUND status:

Response

HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found
X-Powered-By: Express
Access-Control-Allow-Origin: *
Access-Control-Allow-Methods: POST, GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, OPTIONS
Access-Control-Allow-Headers: Content-Type, Authorization, Location
Access-Control-Expose-Headers: Content-Type, Authorization, Location
Content-Type: application/json; charset=utf-8
Content-Length: 385
ETag: W/"181-i91X0uxhZ3uP0puyszvupTavBQA"
Date: Fri, 06 Mar 2020 20:55:27 GMT
Connection: keep-alive

{"httpStatus":404,"message":"Bookmark NOT_FOUND with id: 5e62b82a9206df5c2f274c3c","stack":"NotFoundError: Bookmark NOT_FOUND with id: 5e62b82a9206df5c2f274c3c\n    at Object.deleteBookmarkById (/Users/ama/projects/dev/personal/bookmarks/bookmarks-api/src/routes/users/bookmarks/personal-bookmarks.service.js:164:11)\n    at process._tickCallback (internal/process/next_tick.js:68:7)"}
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

The stacktrace is shown because we are in dev modus

Conclusion

I am just scratching the surface in this blog post. Check out the curl docs for further capabilities.

💖 💪 🙅 🚩
ama
Adrian Matei

Posted on March 8, 2020

Join Our Newsletter. No Spam, Only the good stuff.

Sign up to receive the latest update from our blog.

Related

Curl commands examples to make REST API calls
rest Curl commands examples to make REST API calls

March 8, 2020