insomnia-plugin-batch-requests

The Batch Requests plugin for Insomnia adds the ability to send a request repeatedly, changing parts of every request by variable data, taken from a CSV file. For every response, some data can be collected and added to the CSV file.

• Repeatedly send a request by reading data from a CSV file
• Extract data from JSON responses and write it back to the CSV file
• Works well if not using the plugin (when sending the request manually)
• Add a delay between each request
• Run multiple requests in parallel
• Supports non-JSON responses too (but can't extract response data in such cases)

For a short demonstration, watch this:

Installing

Go to the Application>Preferences menu in Insomnia, then go to the Plugins tab, search for insomnia-plugin-batch-requests and install it.

Usage

The plugin adds a template tag to mark the places that you want to replace. To add it, press Ctrl+Space, search for the Batch tag and press Enter. Then, double click the tag to configure it. The tag can be inserted anywhere in the request (e.g. in the URL, query parameters, headers, or body)

When configuring the tag, set the following two values:

• The name of the CSV column that will be replaced in this tag's location. Copy it from the first line of the CSV file, exactly (including capitalization)
• A sample value. This value will be used when sending the request manually. This is the value that you would have to edit manually if this plugin did not exist.

The live preview will always show the value of the Sample value field, and this same value will be replaced when sending the request manually (e.g. via Insomnia's main Send button) The value will only vary when sending the request via the Batch Request dropdown option (see below).

The plugin also adds a context menu option to all requests. To see it, click on the dropdown arrow to the right of a request on the sidebar, then select the Batch Requests option. This will open the plugin dialog.

On the plugin dialog, you should:

1. Select a CSV file using the button. The file should have one column for each different placeholder/template tag that you have selected, plus one column for each result that you want to extract from the responses. The response/output columns can be empty, since they will be filled by the plugin.
2. Review the loaded data in the table. It will show the first five rows of the CSV file. It is provided as a sanity check, so that you can verify that the CSV is being parsed correctly.
3. (Optional) Configure the data that you want to output by adding Outputs. For each one, use the dropdown on the left to specify a CSV column, and write a JSONPath expression in the text field on the right. In the image below, the $.total field will be written to the sales column in the CSV file. This plugin uses the jsonpath-plus syntax, which is also used by Insomnia
4. Click the Run! button at the bottom of the dialog. It will only become active when you have chosen a file and (if any outputs exist) completely filled all Outputs.
5. Click the Save button to write the extracted data back to the CSV file, if you need it. Wait until all requests have been performed (as indicated by the progress bar) before clicking this button.

Extra settings

There are two additional options that can be set when sending batch requests. They appear in the Run Config section, above the progress bar:

• Delay in seconds (available since v1.1.0): Inserts a delay before sending each request. It's useful if the remote API enforces a rate limit or it's otherwise desired to throttle requests. By default it's set to 0. Can also be altered for the entire Request Collection (see below)
• Parallel requests (available since v1.3.0): Controls the number of requests that can be in flight at the same time. If set to a value greater than 1, it'll send multiple requests in parallel. Once a request is done, another one will start. By default it's set to 1

Global configuration

Since v1.2.0, there is a Global Configuration dialog in which you can select a default request delay, in case you usually work with servers that require a delay between requests.

1. Click on the dropdown to the right of the workspace name.
2. Click the Batch Requests: Settings option.
3. A dialog will open, containing a number field called Default delay. Set its value to your preferred delay.
4. Click the Save button. It will only be enabled after you make a change to the field.
5. Dismiss the Global Configuration dialog.
6. From now on, whenever you open the main plugin dialog by right-clicking a request, the Delay field will be prefilled with your preferred delay. You can always adjust it.

Development

1. Identify your Insomnia plugin folder. On Ubuntu, it should be ~/.config/Insomnia/plugins. Alternatively, open Insomnia, select the Application>Preferences menu, go to the Plugins tab, then click the Reveal Plugins Folder button.
2. On that folder, run git clone https://github.com/jreyesr/insomnia-plugin-batch-requests.
3. Run npm i.
4. Run npm run dev. This will start a dev server that will generate the dist/main.js file and keep it updated whenever you change the source files.
5. Open the Insomnia Plugins dialog (see the first step). It should display the plugin, since it's in the correct folder. It's not necessary to manually install it.
6. Create and checkout a new branch.
7. Hackity hack on the source files.
8. Whenever you save a file, the dist/main.js file will be updated. To make Insomnia pick up the changes, select the Tools>Reload plugins option from the top menus. Alternatively, press Alt+T, then release both, then press R.
9. To run tests, run npm run test
10. Make commit.
11. GOTO 6
12. Update the package version in package.json.
13. When done, submit a PR and merge it. If releasing a new version, see the next section.

Releasing

1. Ensure that the package version in package.json has been bumped.
2. Make all required commits, ensure that master has the code.
3. Create a Github Release, tag it like the version in package.json.
4. The CD runner should create the release and publish it.