gaxios

What is gaxios?

The gaxios npm package is a lightweight HTTP client based on Axios but with a smaller footprint. It is designed to work in both browser and node environments, providing a simple way to make HTTP requests. It supports all HTTP request methods, automatic JSON data transformation, and custom configuration for requests.

What are gaxios's main functionalities?

GET Request

This feature allows you to make GET requests to retrieve data from a specified resource.

const { request } = require('gaxios');

async function getUser() {
  try {
    const response = await request({ url: 'https://api.example.com/user', method: 'GET' });
    console.log(response.data);
  } catch (error) {
    console.error(error);
  }
}

getUser();

POST Request

This feature allows you to make POST requests to send data to a server to create/update a resource.

const { request } = require('gaxios');

async function createUser(userData) {
  try {
    const response = await request({
      url: 'https://api.example.com/user',
      method: 'POST',
      data: userData
    });
    console.log(response.data);
  } catch (error) {
    console.error(error);
  }
}

createUser({ name: 'New User', email: '[e-mail]' });

Interceptors

Interceptors allow you to run your code or modify the request and/or response before the request is sent or after the response is received.

const { Gaxios } = require('gaxios');

const instance = new Gaxios({
  baseURL: 'https://api.example.com'
});

// Add a request interceptor
instance.interceptors.request.use(config => {
  // Do something before request is sent
  config.headers['Authorization'] = 'Bearer token';
  return config;
});

// Add a response interceptor
instance.interceptors.response.use(response => {
  // Do something with response data
  return response;
}, error => {
  // Handle error
  return Promise.reject(error);
});

Custom Configuration

Custom configuration allows you to specify various options for the HTTP request, such as headers, query parameters, timeout, and more.

const { request } = require('gaxios');

async function getCustomData() {
  try {
    const response = await request({
      url: 'https://api.example.com/data',
      method: 'GET',
      timeout: 5000,
      headers: { 'X-Custom-Header': 'foobar' }
    });
    console.log(response.data);
  } catch (error) {
    console.error(error);
  }
}

getCustomData();

Other packages similar to gaxios

axios

Axios is a popular HTTP client for the browser and node.js. It is similar to gaxios but has a larger footprint and more features, such as interceptors, automatic transforms for JSON data, and client-side support for protecting against XSRF.

node-fetch

node-fetch is a light-weight module that brings the Fetch API to Node.js. It is similar to gaxios in terms of being promise-based and lightweight but does not have built-in support for interceptors or automatic JSON data transformation.

got

Got is a human-friendly and powerful HTTP request library for Node.js. It offers stream support, promises, and advanced features like retries and timeouts. It is more feature-rich compared to gaxios but also has a larger footprint.

superagent

Superagent is a small progressive client-side HTTP request library, and Node.js module with the same API, sporting many high-level HTTP client features. It is similar to gaxios but includes more built-in features like form data handling and file uploads.

README

gaxios

An HTTP request client that provides an axios like interface over top of node-fetch.

Install

$ npm install gaxios

Example

const {request} = require('gaxios');
const res = await request({
  url: 'https://www.googleapis.com/discovery/v1/apis/',
});

Setting Defaults

Gaxios supports setting default properties both on the default instance, and on additional instances. This is often useful when making many requests to the same domain with the same base settings. For example:

const gaxios = require('gaxios');
gaxios.instance.defaults = {
  baseURL: 'https://example.com'
  headers: {
    Authorization: 'SOME_TOKEN'
  }
}
gaxios.request({url: '/data'}).then(...);

Note that setting default values will take precedence over other authentication methods, i.e., application default credentials.

Request Options

{
  // The url to which the request should be sent.  Required.
  url: string,

  // The HTTP method to use for the request.  Defaults to `GET`.
  method: 'GET',

  // The base Url to use for the request. Prepended to the `url` property above.
  baseURL: 'https://example.com';

  // The HTTP methods to be sent with the request.
  headers: { 'some': 'header' },

  // The data to send in the body of the request. Data objects will be
  // serialized as JSON.
  //
  // Note: if you would like to provide a Content-Type header other than
  // application/json you you must provide a string or readable stream, rather
  // than an object:
  // data: JSON.stringify({some: 'data'})
  // data: fs.readFile('./some-data.jpeg')
  data: {
    some: 'data'
  },

  // The max size of the http response content in bytes allowed.
  // Defaults to `0`, which is the same as unset.
  maxContentLength: 2000,

  // The max number of HTTP redirects to follow.
  // Defaults to 100.
  maxRedirects: 100,

  // The querystring parameters that will be encoded using `qs` and
  // appended to the url
  params: {
    querystring: 'parameters'
  },

  // By default, we use the `querystring` package in node core to serialize
  // querystring parameters.  You can override that and provide your
  // own implementation.
  paramsSerializer: (params) => {
    return qs.stringify(params);
  },

  // The timeout for the HTTP request in milliseconds. Defaults to 0.
  timeout: 1000,

  // Optional method to override making the actual HTTP request. Useful
  // for writing tests and instrumentation
  adapter?: async (options, defaultAdapter) => {
    const res = await defaultAdapter(options);
    res.data = {
      ...res.data,
      extraProperty: 'your extra property',
    };
    return res;
  };

  // The expected return type of the request.  Options are:
  // json | stream | blob | arraybuffer | text | unknown
  // Defaults to `unknown`.
  responseType: 'unknown',

  // The node.js http agent to use for the request.
  agent: someHttpsAgent,

  // Custom function to determine if the response is valid based on the
  // status code.  Defaults to (>= 200 && < 300)
  validateStatus: (status: number) => true,

  // Implementation of `fetch` to use when making the API call. By default,
  // will use the browser context if available, and fall back to `node-fetch`
  // in node.js otherwise.
  fetchImplementation?: typeof fetch;

  // Configuration for retrying of requests.
  retryConfig: {
    // The number of times to retry the request.  Defaults to 3.
    retry?: number;

    // The number of retries already attempted.
    currentRetryAttempt?: number;

    // The HTTP Methods that will be automatically retried.
    // Defaults to ['GET','PUT','HEAD','OPTIONS','DELETE']
    httpMethodsToRetry?: string[];

    // The HTTP response status codes that will automatically be retried.
    // Defaults to: [[100, 199], [429, 429], [500, 599]]
    statusCodesToRetry?: number[][];

    // Function to invoke when a retry attempt is made.
    onRetryAttempt?: (err: GaxiosError) => Promise<void> | void;

    // Function to invoke which determines if you should retry
    shouldRetry?: (err: GaxiosError) => Promise<boolean> | boolean;

    // When there is no response, the number of retries to attempt. Defaults to 2.
    noResponseRetries?: number;

    // The amount of time to initially delay the retry, in ms.  Defaults to 100ms.
    retryDelay?: number;
  },

  // Enables default configuration for retries.
  retry: boolean,

  // Cancelling a request requires the `abort-controller` library.
  // See https://github.com/bitinn/node-fetch#request-cancellation-with-abortsignal
  signal?: AbortSignal

  /**
   * An experimental, customizable error redactor.
   *
   * Set `false` to disable.
   *
   * @experimental
   */
  errorRedactor?: typeof defaultErrorRedactor | false;
}

License

Apache-2.0

Changelog

6.1.1 (2023-09-07)

Bug Fixes

• Don't throw an error within a GaxiosError (#569) (035d9dd)