# Postman & GraphQL Playground

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Tools of ScandiPWA
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If you don’t already have a preference of your own, check out the ScandiPWA tool recommendations for testing, debugging and database management.

Recommended tools:

* [GraphQL Playground](https://github.com/prisma-labs/graphql-playground)
* [Postman](https://www.postman.com/)
* [DBeaver](https://dbeaver.io/) for Linux
* [Sequel Pro](https://www.sequelpro.com/) for Mac

Topics covered:

* [GraphQL Playground features](https://docs.scandipwa.com/how-to-tutorials-intermediate/postman-and-graphql-playground#graphql-playground-features)
* [Postman features](https://docs.scandipwa.com/how-to-tutorials-intermediate/postman-and-graphql-playground#postman-features)
* [Database management tools](https://docs.scandipwa.com/how-to-tutorials-intermediate/postman-and-graphql-playground#database-management-tools)

## GraphQL Playground Features

GraphQL Playground is an IDE for learning and using GraphQL. You can download the latest release for your platform of choice - Mac, Linux or Windows.

**Features**:

* Ability to store schema, tabs and workspaces.
* ‘DOCS’ section lets you preview GraphQL queries, type details and specific fields of a schema.
* The ‘SCHEMA’ tab allows you to preview the GraphQL schema and download it as a file.
  * You can parse through ‘SCHEMA’ using regular expressions and search for ‘DOCS’ using the search field.
* Ability to add multiple URLs
* ‘PRETTIFY’ code feature
* Request history
* Support for HTTP headers and query variables
  * Send requests with HTTP headers by adding them as a JSON object in the ‘HTTP HEADERS’ section.

**Drawbacks**:

* No proper error handling
* If your GraphQL server responds with a non-json error you’ll see:

```javascript
"error": "Unexpected token < in JSON at position 0"
```

* In this case you can ‘Inspect Element’ with the Inspector and you’ll see how the request is sent in the ‘Response’ and ‘Preview’ tab. In this case it’s:

```
502 Bad Gateway
```

## Postman Features

Postman is a user-friendly tool for API testing. If you’re not sure whether or not this tool is for you, just `ctrl + F` your request [here](https://www.postman.com/postman-features/).

Some of the major features are:

* Test writing
  * See the full error logs right away, not only for POST requests, but also for GET requests.
* Executing multiple simultaneous requests
  * Useful for finding bugs that happen radomly, i.e. in a specific period of time.

## Database Management Tools

The team of ScandiPWA recommends [DBeaver](https://dbeaver.io/) for Linux. You can check out the user-guide [here](https://github.com/dbeaver/dbeaver/wiki).

MySQL database management application for Mac - [Sequel Pro](https://www.sequelpro.com/). Read how to get started [here](https://sequelpro.com/docs).


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