I started to work on a web application the other day. It's nothing special but if I ever finish it, it will be a pretty complete project. The backend will be a REST API and I'm planning on writing the frontend in Clojurescript.

The problem with developing a web application like this is that you can't really write the front end until you have enough of the backend to provide data. Also, writing the backend would be much easier if you already had a front end to test it with.

Pretty annoying.

What you basically have to do is use some system to make all the API calls with all the required data. The most fundamental way to do this is to use a command line tool like curl. For example, from a terminal I might write something like this to make a login call:

curl --data "email=myemail&password=mypassword" https://localhost:8080/login

It works but is clunky and you end up using the mouse a lot to cut and paste data.

Web browsers like Firefox and Chrome also have extensions (link, link) but I find them somewhat bulky with their mouse / form based interfaces.

Emacs to the rescue!!!!!!!!

I discovered restclient for Emacs a couple of years ago but only now am reaping the benefits. It's really amazing. I can easily set up REST querries, use all the editing power of Emacs, and even save the queries for later.

I didn't find this until after I made the video but you can even use restclient in org-mode.

It's all very cool.

Details in the video:

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/L7Jcoe3oHTs" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Enjoy.