Small, Sharp Software Tools

Working with Data and External APIs

If you develop web-based APIs, or just consume them, there are several tools that can make your life a little easier. The jq command is a command-line utility for parsing JSON responses. The HTTPie program makes reading results easier, and the Siege program lets you test how responsive your APIs are.

In ​Working with Web APIs​, you used json-server^[31] as a fake web API. You’ll use that in this section, too, along with the data.json file you created in that section. If you don’t have the file handy, create it again:

$ cat << 'EOF' > ~/data.json
> {
>   "notes": [
>     { "id": 1, "title": "Hello" }
>   ]
> }
> EOF

Then start ...