API Testing In Bash

Pipe Operator

The pipe operator (|) connects the STDOUT (standard output) file descriptor of the first process to the STDIN (standard input) of the second. What happens then is that when the first process writes to its STDOUT, that output can be immediately read (from STDIN) by the second process.

jq

To access a key in a JSON object, use the following syntax:

jq '.key'

# Or with a json array
jq '.array[0]'

cURL

To make a request to an API, use the following syntax:

The -s flag is used to suppress the progress bar and other unnecessary

information.

curl -s https://statsapi.mlb.com/api/v1/teams

Adding params & piping to jq for pretty printing:

curl -s https://statsapi.mlb.com/api/v1/teams?sportId=1 | jq '.teams[0]'