Skip to main content

Request Configurations

Inflight makes it easy to configure and send web (HTTP) API requests. This document describes the available request options in Inflight.

Request URL​

Every request has a URL (Uniform Resource Locator). This is the location of the API resource. Using the example https://api.github.com:443/users/octocat/repos, a request URL has the following components:

  1. Protocol: this is required and must be http or https.

  2. Hostname: this is the name of the server that hosts the API. This is the part after the protocol. The hostname in the example is api.github.com. This is required.

  3. Port: this is an optional port number after the hostname (443 in the example). If this is not specified, Inflight uses standard ports:

    • 80 for http protocol
    • 443 for https protocol.

    Most APIs on the web use standard ports, so the port number is usually not specified.

  4. Path: this is the path of the API resource. In the example, this is users/octocat/repos.

Request method​

In addition to the URL, every request has an HTTP request method, which is typically mapped to an API operation in REST APIs. Inflight supports standard HTTP methods: GET, POST, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, and OPTIONS.

All request options such as request headers and payload are available to all methods.

Authentication​

The Auth request tab allows the configuration of AWS authentication scheme. When AWS Signature V4 authentication type is selected, Inflight does the following when the request is sent:

  1. Generates request signature using AWS Signature V4 algorithm
  2. Adds the required request headers including the signature, such as x-amz-date, and authorization.

Request headers​

The "Headers" section of the request allows the configuration of HTTP request headers, which are key-value pairs (or metadata) defined by the API. For example, some APIs require the user-agent, or authorization header.

To add a new header, click the "Add header" button, then enter the "Key" and "Value" for that header. A header can be disabled by unchecking the header. Disabled headers stay in the request configuration but are omitted when the request is sent. A header can be enabled by checking the header again. A header can be deleted from the request configuration by clicking on the trashcan icon.

Note that Inflight may add additional headers based on the request configuration. For example, when a request has AWS Signature V4 configuration, Inflight adds (and overwrites) the authorization header.

Request body​

The "Body" section allows the configuration of the HTTP request body, also known as the API payload. Inflight allows request body for all HTTP methods; however some APIs follow HTTP conventions such that only PATCH, POST, PUT can have a body.