How to connect to Salesforce via REST API using Postman ?

How to connect to Salesforce via REST API using Postman or Insomnia ? I have a trial version. I can't find this in settings.

What authentication type should I use ?

What endpoint should I use ?

What parameters should I use ?

How should the headers look like ?

Hi,

You can use the following options to connect to Salesforce using REST API and Postman:

• Create a Connected App manually - is a bit complicated, because of the settings
• Import Salesforce platform API collection to Postman - contains many pre-defined profiles, requires some configuration, but is easier to use

Please note that API may not work / may not be fully supported in trial version. To work with Salesforce API for free, it is recommended to use a Developer version, which supports API connection and doesn't expire.


1. Create a Connected App manually

Sign into your Salesforce account, go to the settings and search for App Manager:



Click on New Connected App:



Fill the required fields, enable OAuth Settings and set Callback URL to https://login.salesforce.com/services/oauth2/success:



Choose the permissions (OAuth Scopes) and Save the app:



Go to Manage Connected Apps and click on the created application:



Click on Manage Consumer Details to get the Consumer Key and Secret:



Consumer Key is later used as Client ID and Consumer Secret is used as Client Secret:



Prepare your security token. If you don't have the security token, you have to reset it and receive it via email:



To connect to the Salesforce via API using a Postman, you have to first get the token. Check the Salesforce OAuth endpoints. When getting the token, you have to use the following params:

grant_type - "password"
client_id - use consumer key
client_secret - use consumer secret
username - your username
password - password+security token



The Headers should be set to:
Postman-Token: <calculated when request is sent>
Host: <calculated when request is sent>
content-type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded

You may also need to change some other settings to make a successful API call. If you are getting the error: {"error":"invalid_grant", "error_description":"authentication failure"}, you may need to set your API relaxation to Relax IP restrictions:



You also may need to allow OAuth username-password flows:




2. Import Salesforce platform API collection to Postman

Go to the Salesforce API collections on Postman website. Then make a fork, to get the Salesforce API definitions to your Postman.

After the collection is available in your Postman, click on Authorization. Scroll down and click on Get New Access Token:



You will be redirected to your Salesforce account. You may need to sign in. Then you have to allow access for Postman:



If your call is authenticated, you will get the success notification:



Then you will be redirected to Postman:



Click on Use Token:



Now, you should have an API access to your Salesforce account. To select the records, you have to click on REST folder in you Salesforce Platform API collection and choose Query:



You have to enter your SOQL query to get the records:



You may get an error "Invalid URI". In this case, you have to check if {{_endpoint}} variable contains the value. If not, you have to set it in variables.

The fastest way to connect to Salesforce via REST API using Postman, is to download and use Salesforce API collection. The collection is available on Postman website.

After a few configurations, you can comfortable connect to Salesforce using oAuth 2.0 authentication, based on Bearer token.