/node-httpreq

a node.js library to do HTTP(S) requests the easy way

Primary LanguageJavaScript

node-httpreq

node-httpreq is a node.js library to do HTTP(S) requests the easy way

Do GET, POST, PUT, DELETE, upload files, use cookies, change headers, ...

Install

You can install httpreq using the Node Package Manager (npm):

npm install httpreq

Simple example

var httpreq = require('httpreq');

httpreq.get('http://www.google.com', function (err, res){
    if (err) return console.log(err);

    console.log(res.statusCode);
    console.log(res.headers);
    console.log(res.body);
    console.log(res.cookies);
});

How to use

### httpreq.get(url, [options], callback)

Arguments

  • url: The url to connect to. Can be http or https.
  • options: (all are optional) The following options can be passed:
    • parameters: an object of query parameters
    • headers: an object of headers
    • cookies: an array of cookies
    • auth: a string for basic authentication. For example username:password
    • binary: true/false (default: false), if true, res.body will a buffer containing the binary data
    • allowRedirects: (default: true , only with httpreq.get() ), if true, redirects will be followed
    • maxRedirects: (default: 10 ). For example 1 redirect will allow for one normal request and 1 extra redirected request.
    • timeout: (default: none ). Adds a timeout to the http(s) request. Should be in milliseconds.
    • proxy, if you want to pass your request through a http(s) proxy server:
      • host: eg: "192.168.0.1"
      • port: eg: 8888
      • protocol: (default: 'http' ) can be 'http' or 'https'
    • rejectUnauthorized: validate certificate for request with HTTPS. More here
  • callback(err, res): A callback function which is called when the request is complete. res contains the headers ( res.headers ), the http status code ( res.statusCode ) and the body ( res.body )

Example without options

var httpreq = require('httpreq');

httpreq.get('http://www.google.com', function (err, res){
	if (err) return console.log(err);

    console.log(res.statusCode);
    console.log(res.headers);
	console.log(res.body);
});

Example with options

var httpreq = require('httpreq');

httpreq.get('http://posttestserver.com/post.php', {
	parameters: {
		name: 'John',
		lastname: 'Doe'
	},
	headers:{
		'User-Agent': 'Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.7; rv:18.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/18.0'
	},
	cookies: [
		'token=DGcGUmplWQSjfqEvmu%2BZA%2Fc',
		'id=2'
	]
}, function (err, res){
	if (err){
		console.log(err);
	}else{
		console.log(res.body);
	}
});
### httpreq.post(url, [options], callback)

Arguments

  • url: The url to connect to. Can be http or https.
  • options: (all are optional) The following options can be passed:
    • parameters: an object of post parameters (content-type is set to application/x-www-form-urlencoded; charset=UTF-8)
    • json: if you want to send json directly (content-type is set to application/json)
    • files: an object of files to upload (content-type is set to multipart/form-data; boundary=xxx)
    • body: custom body content you want to send. If used, previous options will be ignored and your custom body will be sent. (content-type will not be set)
    • headers: an object of headers
    • cookies: an array of cookies
    • auth: a string for basic authentication. For example username:password
    • binary: true/false (default: false ), if true, res.body will be a buffer containing the binary data
    • allowRedirects: (default: false ), if true, redirects will be followed
    • maxRedirects: (default: 10 ). For example 1 redirect will allow for one normal request and 1 extra redirected request.
    • timeout: (default: none). Adds a timeout to the http(s) request. Should be in milliseconds.
    • proxy, if you want to pass your request through a http(s) proxy server:
      • host: eg: "192.168.0.1"
      • port: eg: 8888
      • protocol: (default: 'http' ) can be 'http' or 'https'
    • rejectUnauthorized: validate certificate for request with HTTPS. More here
  • callback(err, res): A callback function which is called when the request is complete. res contains the headers ( res.headers ), the http status code ( res.statusCode ) and the body ( res.body )

Example without extra options

var httpreq = require('httpreq');

httpreq.post('http://posttestserver.com/post.php', {
	parameters: {
		name: 'John',
		lastname: 'Doe'
	}
}, function (err, res){
	if (err){
		console.log(err);
	}else{
		console.log(res.body);
	}
});

Example with options

var httpreq = require('httpreq');

httpreq.post('http://posttestserver.com/post.php', {
	parameters: {
		name: 'John',
		lastname: 'Doe'
	},
	headers:{
		'User-Agent': 'Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.7; rv:18.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/18.0'
	},
	cookies: [
		'token=DGcGUmplWQSjfqEvmu%2BZA%2Fc',
		'id=2'
	]
}, function (err, res){
	if (err){
		console.log(err);
	}else{
		console.log(res.body);
	}
});
### httpreq.put(url, [options], callback)

Same options as httpreq.post(url, [options], callback)

### httpreq.delete(url, [options], callback)

Same options as httpreq.post(url, [options], callback)

### Uploading files

You can still use httpreq.uploadFiles({url: 'url', files: {}}, callback), but it's easier to just use POST (or PUT):

Example

var httpreq = require('httpreq');

httpreq.post('http://posttestserver.com/upload.php', {
    parameters: {
        name: 'John',
        lastname: 'Doe'
    },
    files:{
        myfile: __dirname + "/testupload.jpg",
        myotherfile: __dirname + "/testupload.jpg"
    }
}, function (err, res){
    if (err) throw err;
});
 ### Downloading a binary file To download a binary file, just add __binary: true__ to the options when doing a get or a post.

Example

var httpreq = require('httpreq');

httpreq.get('https://ssl.gstatic.com/gb/images/k1_a31af7ac.png', {binary: true}, function (err, res){
    if (err){
        console.log(err);
    }else{
        fs.writeFile(__dirname + '/test.png', res.body, function (err) {
            if(err)
                console.log("error writing file");
        });
    }
});
 ### Downloading a file directly to disk To download a file directly to disk, use the download method provided.

Downloading is done using a stream, so the data is not stored in memory and directly saved to file.

Example

var httpreq = require('httpreq');

httpreq.download(
    'https://ssl.gstatic.com/gb/images/k1_a31af7ac.png',
    __dirname + '/test.png'
, function (err, progress){
    if (err) return console.log(err);
    console.log(progress);
}, function (err, res){
    if (err) return console.log(err);
    console.log(res);
});
 ### Sending a custom body Use the body option to send a custom body (eg. an xml post)

Example

var httpreq = require('httpreq');

httpreq.post('http://posttestserver.com/post.php',{
    body: '<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>',
    headers:{
        'Content-Type': 'text/xml',
    }},
    function (err, res) {
        if (err){
            console.log(err);
        }else{
            console.log(res.body);
        }
    }
);
 ### Using a http(s) proxy

Example

var httpreq = require('httpreq');

httpreq.post('http://posttestserver.com/post.php', {
    proxy: {
        host: '10.100.0.126',
        port: 8888
    }
}, function (err, res){
    if (err){
        console.log(err);
    }else{
        console.log(res.body);
    }
});
 ### httpreq.doRequest(options, callback)

httpreq.doRequest is internally used by httpreq.get() and httpreq.post(). You can use this directly. Everything is stays the same as httpreq.get() or httpreq.post() except that the following options MUST be passed:

  • url: the url to post the files to
  • method: 'GET', 'POST', 'PUT' or 'DELETE'