In this article, you will learn how you can test and debug API calls directly from within UI Builder.

Why Is Have an HTTP Modal and In-Built Web Request Testing?

Sometimes you need to integrate data or functionality from a third-party web service or API.

Integrating web services and APIs can feel challenging as you don’t know if the request you are constructing is valid or how it will behave at run-time.

One way is to test web service calls using a 3rd party application such as Postman and then import the successful request back into UI Builder. This involves breaking out of the chatbot development process in UI Builder and increasing the development feedback loop.

UI Builder ships with an in-built feature that lets you test web requests without having to leave the chatbot development experience in the form of a modal popup.

What is the HTTP Modal?

The HTTP Modal is a feature that can be accessed directly in UI Builder. It’s accessible via the properties window of a Send an HTTP Request action.

You can see this here:

Clicking on the pop-out icon shows the modal popup: