Add HTTP as cell type
Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.
I love how simple the .dib file is internally and now I'm bothered by how complicated it is to keep postman collections in sync with a dotnet solution and by how complicated the postman collection export is in a git diff.
Describe the solution you'd like
Add .http file functionality as a cell type to .dib files (don't know how the language/kernel would be called, I guess it's just plain HTTP because that's what the .http file contains?).
The result could either be rendered below the cell, or maybe we can find a way of putting it into a variable that contains the response as machine readable data for following cells (maybe $return for the last return value like C#, or $0 like a browser console? This might be for another issue).
Variables of prior cells could be used in the {{usualSyntax}}, but in case of complex types it's complicated to choose what to do to convert it to a string that makes sense. Although I guess this could just be some [Object object] kind of broken as in this case a user can easily deconstruct the complex object to primitive objects in a prior cell.
Describe alternatives you've considered
Use C# in the .dib file to send requests but that is too much work compared to postman.
Use a dotnet test framework like MSTest to build E2E-Tests. This is quite complicated for quick iterations with the whole compilation and project structure and doesn't give me the same disconnect from the application where I can just call a webservice in the void and see what happens.
Of possible interest: #3122.
You can get this functionality by installing the HTTP kernel from this NuGet package. The linked PR and upcoming PRs in this area include a number of improvements to the experience. We're considering whether to make it one of the default kernels in the list out of the box.
Is it possible to get the HTTP response output in a variable too?
Yes, that feature is coming.
@jonsequitur Do you know of any issue to follow up on?
This is now supported but variable sharing isn't (yet).
@jonsequitur Are you able to fix https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=ms-dotnettools.dotnet-interactive-vscode and remove HTTP Variable sharing?
Variable sharing is intended to work for the HTTP kernel but there's a bug. (#3522)