I am looking for the most efficient workflow to test and evaluate the Odoo External API (specifically JSON) before building a full integration. 

Does anyone have recommendations for using tools like Postman or specific Python scripts to quickly verify authentication and simple CRUD operations on models? 

I want to ensure I can successfully connect to my Odoo database and read/write records without setting up a complex environment. 

Any advice on API testing best practices or links to up-to-date documentation would be highly appreciated.

Ideally I would like sample code for json, javascript, python and/or cURL.