Table of Contents
Send POST requests
By default, web browsers use the GET method when you enter a URL in the address bar. This means you can't directly send a POST request using the address bar of a browser.
However, there are several ways to send POST requests from a web browser:
HTML Forms
You can create an HTML form with method=“post” which will send a POST request when the form is submitted.
For example:
- html-post.html
<form action="http://example.com/my-endpoint" method="post"> <input type="text" name="myField" value="Some data"> <input type="submit" value="Submit"> </form>
This form sends a POST request to http://example.com/my-endpoint with myField=Some%20data in the request body when the Submit button is clicked.
JavaScript and Fetch API / XMLHttpRequest
You can use JavaScript in the browser to send POST requests programmatically using the Fetch API or XMLHttpRequest.
For example:
- js-post.js
fetch('http://example.com/my-endpoint', { method: 'POST', headers: { 'Content-Type': 'application/json', }, body: JSON.stringify({myField: 'Some data'}) });
This code sends a POST request to http://example.com/my-endpoint with a JSON body { “myField”: “Some data” }.
Developer tools
You can use the browser's developer tools to send POST requests.
For instance, in Chrome, you can go to the Network tab of developer tools, right-click on a request and select “Copy as cURL”. Then you can modify this command in the console or in a terminal window.
Browser extensions
Simplest way is to install Postman from https://www.postman.com/downloads/
There are also browser extensions like RESTer, or HTTP Request Maker that provide a user interface for creating and sending POST requests.