HTTP GET Request in Node.js Express
Request and Superagent are pretty good libraries to use.
note: request is deprecated, use at your risk!
Using request
:
var request=require('request');
request.get('https://someplace',options,function(err,res,body){
if(err) //TODO: handle err
if(res.statusCode === 200 ) //etc
//TODO Do something with response
});
Try using the simple http.get(options, callback)
function in node.js:
var http = require('http');
var options = {
host: 'www.google.com',
path: '/index.html'
};
var req = http.get(options, function(res) {
console.log('STATUS: ' + res.statusCode);
console.log('HEADERS: ' + JSON.stringify(res.headers));
// Buffer the body entirely for processing as a whole.
var bodyChunks = [];
res.on('data', function(chunk) {
// You can process streamed parts here...
bodyChunks.push(chunk);
}).on('end', function() {
var body = Buffer.concat(bodyChunks);
console.log('BODY: ' + body);
// ...and/or process the entire body here.
})
});
req.on('error', function(e) {
console.log('ERROR: ' + e.message);
});
There is also a general http.request(options, callback)
function which allows you to specify the request method and other request details.
You can also use Requestify, a really cool and very simple HTTP client I wrote for nodeJS + it supports caching.
Just do the following for GET method request:
var requestify = require('requestify');
requestify.get('http://example.com/api/resource')
.then(function(response) {
// Get the response body (JSON parsed or jQuery object for XMLs)
response.getBody();
}
);
Here is a snippet of some code from a sample of mine. It's asynchronous and returns a JSON object. It can do any form of GET request.
Note that there are more optimal ways (just a sample) - for example, instead of concatenating the chunks you put into an array and join it etc... Hopefully, it gets you started in the right direction:
const http = require('http');
const https = require('https');
/**
* getJSON: RESTful GET request returning JSON object(s)
* @param options: http options object
* @param callback: callback to pass the results JSON object(s) back
*/
module.exports.getJSON = (options, onResult) => {
console.log('rest::getJSON');
const port = options.port == 443 ? https : http;
let output = '';
const req = port.request(options, (res) => {
console.log(`${options.host} : ${res.statusCode}`);
res.setEncoding('utf8');
res.on('data', (chunk) => {
output += chunk;
});
res.on('end', () => {
let obj = JSON.parse(output);
onResult(res.statusCode, obj);
});
});
req.on('error', (err) => {
// res.send('error: ' + err.message);
});
req.end();
};
It's called by creating an options object like:
const options = {
host: 'somesite.com',
port: 443,
path: '/some/path',
method: 'GET',
headers: {
'Content-Type': 'application/json'
}
};
And providing a callback function.
For example, in a service, I require the REST module above and then do this:
rest.getJSON(options, (statusCode, result) => {
// I could work with the resulting HTML/JSON here. I could also just return it
console.log(`onResult: (${statusCode})\n\n${JSON.stringify(result)}`);
res.statusCode = statusCode;
res.send(result);
});
UPDATE
If you're looking for async
/await
(linear, no callback), promises, compile time support and intellisense, we created a lightweight HTTP and REST client that fits that bill:
Microsoft typed-rest-client