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Proxyman

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When

Proxyman is best suited when the API and client applications are being developed concurrently. It is particularly useful when the client applications can efficiently use the deployed API endpoints on the Staging or Production server but only need small and incremental response interceptions for in-development API endpoints. To accomplish this, it offers convenient features such as breakpoints or local file mapping.

Terms

  • Breakpoint: A handy tool to help developers to edit the content of the request and response on the fly.
  • Map Local (File): enables using the content of local files as a response to the requests, which are matched with the rules.
  • Matching Rules: defines which requests should trigger a specific tool e.g., Map Local, Breakpoints, etc.

Instructions

Coordinating between API development teams on the APIs availability

For efficient implementation of backend stories, it’s essential for the Mobile Team Leads to regularly check and notify developers regarding the endpoint readiness, either on a daily basis or whenever a new endpoint is published. This will allow the Mobile teams to prioritize backend stories and choose the appropriate tools during API development.

When the situation is mostly a few endpoints are being developed and have not yet been deployed to the server, use Proxyman for quick request/response interception. Once the endpoints are implemented and deployed, test them directly with the deployed server, typically the Staging server.

Intercepting and mapping API requests/responses with Proxyman

To intercept HTTP/HTTPS requests made in mobile applications, follow the instructions from Proxyman - Mobile Debugging. This tool allows setting breakpoints on requests and injecting custom response data to test specific scenarios without having working endpoints.

Proxyman has a very cool feature that allows mapping intercepted responses to local files, described in more detail in the official documentation. This feature is handy for developers who want to test new endpoints without deploying them on the server.

Note that the free version of Proxyman only allows the mapping of up to two local files, so developers might need to purchase the license for unlimited mapping.