Getting Started with the InfluxDB 2.0 API and Postman

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Whether you’re using InfluxDB Cloud or InfluxDB OSS, the InfluxDB API provides a simple way to interact with your InfluxDB instance. The InfluxDB v2.0 API offers a unified approach to querying, writing data to, and assessing the health of your InfluxDB instances. Today we want to share a Postman project to help you use the API easily. Postman is “an API platform for building and using APIs”.

Importing the Postman project and setting up

In order to use the Postman project, you’ll need to first create a Postman account. Next you’ll need to either create a new workspace or import the InfluxDB API v2.0 Postman project to your default workspace, “My Workspace”. Today, we’ll just import the project to “My Workspace”.

Importing the InfluxDB API v2.0 Postman project through the Postman UI

Importing the InfluxDB API v2.0 Postman project through the Postman UI

Make sure you’re in the appropriate workspace, by observing the workspace in the top  left corner. Next to your workspace name, click Import to import the InfluxDB API v2.0 Postman project. Copy and paste the URL for the InfluxDB  v2.0 API  Postman project and click Continue.

The InfluxDB API v2.0

The InfluxDB API v2.0

Now you can see a list of API calls from basic requests like writing and querying InfluxDB to assigning labels to individual tasks. In order to send a request, we first need to configure the variables for this project. Navigate to the Variables tab under the Collection name, “InfluxDB_API_2.0”.

List of API calls from basic requests

While you can manage InfluxDB entirely through the API, most likely you’ll want to start by using the InfluxDB UI or CLI to create some basic resources first. To get started you’ll need to have created the following resources and their associated IDs:

The Bucket ID can easily be found in the InfluxDB UI under the Buckets page. You can also use the CLI or API to gather that after you create a bucket.

The Bucket ID under the Buckets page

The Org and Org ID can easily be found in the About Me page in the InfluxDB UI.

Org and Org ID on the About Me page

Finally you’ll also need the URL associated with your Cloud or OSS account. You can find the URL by logging into the InfluxDB UI and looking at the URL or by taking a look at the complete list of InfluxDB Cloud regions. For an OSS account, your InfluxDB OSS URL should be http://localhost:8086/ by default.

Next you’ll want to replace the variables in the collection with your values. The initial value is shared when you share a collection with others. Current values will override initial values and are used to prevent sharing sensitive values with the rest of your team. Click Persist All to make your initial value match your current value. Click Reset All for the inverse.

InfluxDB_API_2.0 variables

Submit a request

Once you’ve added your variables, then you can hit submit to send a request. In the example below, we’re using the Write Example request that writes the following line protocol, found in the body of the request, to the bucket “mybucket”. You can verify that your variables are being correctly inherited by hovering over the variable. A 204 status code indicates that our write was successful.

Write Example request

Final thoughts on using the InfluxDB API v2 Postman collection to get started with the InfluxDB API v2

I hope this InfluxDB Tech Tips post inspires you to take advantage of the InfluxDB v2 API to manage and use your InfluxDB instance. If you are creating an IoT application or using the API for another reason, please ask us for help and share your story! Share your thoughts, concerns, or questions in the comments section, on our community site, or in our Slack channel. We’d love to get your feedback and help you with any problems you run into!