Create a new collection in Postman

Preconditions (2)

Step 1: Click on the 'New' button in the top left corner

Step 2: Select 'Collection' from the options

Step 3: Enter 'My API Tests' as the collection name

Step 4: Add a description 'Collection for API testing exercises'

Step 5: Click the 'Create' button

✅ Expected Result: A new collection named 'My API Tests' is created and visible in the Collections sidebar with the correct description

Automation Requirements - Postman API with Newman

Assertions Needed:

Verify the collection is created with the correct name

Verify the collection description matches the input

Best Practices:

Use Postman API to create collections programmatically

Validate response status codes and response body

Use environment variables for authentication tokens

Clean up created collections after test to avoid clutter

Automated Solution

Postman

import requests
import json

# Set your Postman API key here
API_KEY = 'YOUR_POSTMAN_API_KEY'

# Postman API endpoint for collections
url = 'https://api.getpostman.com/collections'

# Headers with API key
headers = {
    'X-Api-Key': API_KEY,
    'Content-Type': 'application/json'
}

# Collection data to create
collection_data = {
    "collection": {
        "info": {
            "name": "My API Tests",
            "description": "Collection for API testing exercises",
            "schema": "https://schema.getpostman.com/json/collection/v2.1.0/collection.json"
        },
        "item": []
    }
}

# Send POST request to create collection
response = requests.post(url, headers=headers, data=json.dumps(collection_data))

# Assert response status code is 200 (success)
assert response.status_code == 200, f"Expected status 200 but got {response.status_code}"

# Parse response JSON
response_json = response.json()

# Assert collection name and description in response
created_collection = response_json.get('collection', {})
assert created_collection.get('info', {}).get('name') == 'My API Tests', "Collection name mismatch"
assert created_collection.get('info', {}).get('description') == 'Collection for API testing exercises', "Collection description mismatch"

print('Collection created successfully with correct name and description.')

This script uses the Postman API to create a new collection programmatically.

First, it sets the API key for authentication in the headers.

The collection data includes the name and description as required.

It sends a POST request to the Postman collections endpoint.

After receiving the response, it checks the status code to ensure the request succeeded.

Then it verifies the collection name and description in the response match what was sent.

This confirms the collection was created correctly.

Using the API avoids manual UI steps and allows automation.

Common Mistakes - 3 Pitfalls

Hardcoding API key directly in the script without using environment variables

Not checking the response status code before parsing the response body

Ignoring cleanup of created collections after tests

Bonus Challenge

Now add data-driven testing to create three different collections with different names and descriptions

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