I’m working with an API that generates Excel reports in .xls format. I have the API endpoint URL and the required authorization token to access this service.
The main issue I’m facing is how to properly download and view these Excel files when making requests through Postman. Is there a way to handle .xls file downloads directly in Postman’s interface?
If Postman doesn’t support this functionality, what other programmatic approaches would work better for downloading and processing Excel files from REST APIs? I’m open to using different tools or writing code if needed.
for sure! just set the response type to binary in postman. then when u make the request, hit ‘save response’ and choose .xls. it’s super easy, just keep an eye on those headers. should work like a charm!
Manual saves work, but they’re a pain when you’re handling multiple reports or doing this regularly.
I hit this same wall last year with quarterly Excel reports from our analytics API. Downloading and saving everything by hand was destroying our productivity.
Automated Excel processing changed everything. Now the API generates reports, they download automatically, get processed for key metrics, and push relevant data straight to our dashboard.
Best part? You can handle binary responses, parse Excel data, and trigger follow-up actions based on what’s inside. No more manual downloads or forgotten reports.
You could automate your whole flow from API call to data extraction. Run it on schedule or trigger it when new reports drop.
Latenode makes this really easy with built-in Excel handling and API integration. Build the entire pipeline without complex code.
Python with requests library is your best bet. I’ve done similar API Excel downloads at work and Postman gets clunky fast.
Here’s what I do:
import requests
response = requests.get(url, headers={'Authorization': 'Bearer your_token'})
with open('report.xls', 'wb') as f:
f.write(response.content)
Then use pandas to read and process:
import pandas as pd
df = pd.read_excel('report.xls')
You can automate everything this way. I’ve got scheduled scripts that pull reports, parse data, and push it wherever we need it. Way better than clicking through Postman every time.
If you’re stuck with Postman for testing, the binary response method works for one-off downloads. But anything regular? Code it.
I’ve hit this same issue tons of times with financial reporting APIs. Sure, Postman works for binary downloads, but if you need to actually process the Excel data, try Node.js with axios instead. You can stream large files without eating up all your memory - super helpful for bigger reports. I usually throw together a quick Express endpoint that grabs from your API, streams straight to a file, then uses xlsx or exceljs to parse if needed. Way better error handling and retry logic too, since these report APIs love to crap out randomly. Plus you can easily hook up webhook notifications for when downloads finish or bomb out. Really depends what you’re doing though. Just need to peek at files manually? Stick with Postman’s binary handling.