---
title: "Chapter 2: Using an API like a developer"
date: 2026-10-13
description: "Download PDF In this chapter, you use a REST API like a developer would. You get API keys, make requests with Postman and curl, analyze JSON..."
canonical_url: https://idratherbewriting.com/learnapidoc/likeadeveloper
---

> For AI agents: a documentation index is available at https://idratherbewriting.com/llms.txt. Markdown versions of all pages are available by appending .md to any page URL.

# Chapter 2: Using an API like a developer

[Download PDF](https://www.buymeacoffee.com/learnapidoc/e/146076)

In this chapter, you use a REST API like a developer would. You get API keys, make requests with Postman and curl, analyze JSON responses, and dynamically display API responses on a web page. These hands-on activities give you context for understanding developer needs and workflow. After using the API in this way, you switch perspectives and prepare to start documenting an API as a technical writer.

- [Scenario for using a weather API](https://idratherbewriting.com/learnapidoc/docapis_scenario_for_using_weather_api.html)
- [Get authorization keys](https://idratherbewriting.com/learnapidoc/docapis_get_auth_keys.html)
- [Submit requests through Postman](https://idratherbewriting.com/learnapidoc/docapis_postman.html)
- [curl intro and installation](https://idratherbewriting.com/learnapidoc/docapis_install_curl.html)
- [Make a curl call](https://idratherbewriting.com/learnapidoc/docapis_make_curl_call.html)
- [Understand curl more](https://idratherbewriting.com/learnapidoc/docapis_understand_curl.html)
- [Activity: Use methods with curl](https://idratherbewriting.com/learnapidoc/docapis_curl_with_petstore.html)
- [Analyze the JSON response](https://idratherbewriting.com/learnapidoc/docapis_analyze_json.html)
- [Inspect the JSON from the response payload](https://idratherbewriting.com/learnapidoc/docapis_json_console.html)
- [Access and print a specific JSON value](https://idratherbewriting.com/learnapidoc/docapis_access_json_values.html)
- [Dive into dot notation](https://idratherbewriting.com/learnapidoc/docapis_diving_into_dot_notation.html)