By default every request inside your HTTP file is independent from any other request. But what if you want to use the output of one request as the input of another request? This is exactly what you can achieve using request variables.
Creating resources with dependencies
As an example I created a new ProjectController that we will use to:
- Create a new project
- Use the returned project id to create and assign a new task to this project
I updated the http file with a new request to create the project. Notice that I included a createProject variable to name the request.
I can now use this createProject variable in other requests. In our example I extract the project id value from the response:
The following table describes the syntax in more details:
| Element | Description |
| requestVarName (login in this case) | Request Variable which is being referenced. |
| response|request | Whether the value will be extracted from the response or the request. |
| body|headers | Whether the value will be extracted from the headers or body of the request or response (as specified in response|request). |
| *|JSONPath|XPath|Header | The expression that will be evaluated to extract the result. For a request returning a JSON body, use a JSONPath expression. For a request returning an XML body, use XPath. * will return the entire result. |
More information
HTTP File updates for Request Variables and more - Visual Studio Blog