Support
If you have a question that isn't answered below, or if you'd just like to talk, please contact us via e-mail at support@n-ary.net.
Technical FAQ
- How does RESTOnIt compare to cURL?
- RESTOnIt is prettier than cURL and has friendly menus and buttons in place of tricky command-line flags. It can do a lot of the same things that cURL does, but within a pleasant Mac GUI. It cannot be used on the command line and is not (currently) scriptable. It also can't download large files like cURL can.
- How does RESTOnIt compare to an ordinary web browser?
- A web browser is an advanced HTTP multi-client capable of downloading dozens of distinct resources - like JavaScript files, CSS files, and images - and assembling them all into a working web page. Each one of these resources is available at a distinct URI (URL) and retrieved via an HTTP request, which the remote server fulfills by sending an HTTP response. RESTOnIt painstakingly models one of these request/response pairs at a time.
- Does RESTOnIT support HTTP/2.0?
- Not currently. As of this writing, HTTP/2.0 is an unfinished specification, and most of its new features relate to connection performance improvements, whereas RESTOnIt is geared towards testing HTTP client/server message exchanges, which would be the same in HTTP/2.0.
- Why can't I delete the Connection, Content-Type, or User-Agent request headers?
- They are added by default to keep the request sane. If you want, you can at least change them. RESTOnIt also adds a dynamically generated Host header which is required by the HTTP/1.1 specification.
- Why can't I add body content to GET requests?
- Although the HTTP specification does not explicitly forbid body content in GET requests, it is not supported in RESTOnIt because it is highly unconventional and, in practice, not supported by all HTTP client and server implementations. If you must send data in a GET request, you should use either the URI query string, or a header.
- Why does a new request appear in the history drawer when I click the back button?
- In a web browser, the concept of "back" and "forward" is obvious. RESTOnIt interprets these concepts differently. Since time flows only one way, you cannot "go back" to a request that has already been executed. You can, however, execute another, new request with all the same parameters as one you executed previously, which is what the "back" button does. So, think of the "back" button as the "execute the last request again" button. ;)
- Why doesn't WebKit View support JavaScript or other fancy stuff?
- WebKit View is intended as a convenience for quickly previewing response bodies as they might appear in a really lame web browser, to give you an idea of what "web content" they contain. To some extent, WebKit View violates the "one request/one response" principle of RESTOnIt by displaying things like inline images and CSS, which involve multiple HTTP requests. For general surfing, you will be much better off with a real web browser.
