How to customize Request Data

Sometimes the automatically generated samples are not sufficient for your use case. @thymian/plugin-sampler lets you customize the generated samples by modifying the request data files directly or adding multiple test cases.

Step 1: Locate the Request Sample

Navigate to the endpoint you want to customize:

cd .thymian/samples/YourAPI/.../endpoint/requests/
ls
# Output: 0-request.json

Step 2: Edit Inline Values

Open 0-request.json and modify values directly:

Before:

{
  "body": {
    "email": "user@example.com",
    "age": 25
  }
}

After:

{
  "body": {
    "email": "alice@test.com",
    "age": 30
  }
}

Step 3: Add Multiple Samples

Create additional sample files for different test cases:

cp 0-request.json 1-request.json
cp 0-request.json 2-request.json

Edit each file with different data:

1-request.json (edge case - minimum values):

{
  "body": {
    "email": "min@test.com",
    "age": 18
  }
}

2-request.json (edge case - maximum values):

{
  "body": {
    "email": "max@test.com",
    "age": 120
  }
}

Step 4: Use File References for Large Data

For large payloads, use external files:

echo '{"large": "payload", ...}' > custom-payload.json

Reference it in your sample:

{
  "body": {
    "$file": "custom-payload.json"
  }
}

Not only JSON files are supported, but any file type. For example, you could have an XML file named user.xml:

<user>
  <email></email>
  <age>25</age>
</user>

you can load it as follows:

{
  "body": {
    "$file": "./user.xml"
  }
}

And also any other kind of files are supported, for example, a png file that you want to load as base64:

{
  "body": {
    "$file": "./my-picture.png",
    "$encoding": "base64"
  }
}