google-gax

What is google-gax?

The google-gax (Google API Extensions) package is a set of libraries for making Google API client libraries. It provides functionality such as automatic retries, page iteration, and request bundling. It is mainly used internally by Google's auto-generated client libraries for Node.js.

What are google-gax's main functionalities?

Automatic Retries

This feature allows developers to specify retry logic for failed requests. The RetryOptions class can be used to define backoff settings for retries.

const {RetryOptions} = require('google-gax');
const retryOptions = new RetryOptions(
  [100, 200, 400, 800, 1600],
  RetryOptions.createRetryPolicy()
);

Page Iteration

This feature simplifies the process of iterating over multiple pages of API response data. The createApiCall function can be configured to handle pagination automatically.

const {createApiCall} = require('google-gax');
const apiCall = createApiCall(
  promiseFunc,
  {autoPaginate: true}
);
const resources = [];
apiCall({},
  (err, response, nextPageRequest, rawResponse) => {
    resources.push(...response);
    if (nextPageRequest) {
      // More results to fetch
    }
  }
);

Request Bundling

Request bundling allows developers to combine multiple API calls into a single request to reduce network overhead. The BundleDescriptor and BundleExecutor classes are used to define and execute bundled requests.

const {BundleDescriptor, BundleExecutor} = require('google-gax');
const descriptor = new BundleDescriptor(
  'bundled_field',
  ['field1', 'field2'],
  'bundled_field',
  1024
);
const executor = new BundleExecutor({descriptor});

Other packages similar to google-gax

grpc

The grpc package provides a framework for implementing RPC (Remote Procedure Call) systems, which can be used to create client and server applications. It is similar to google-gax in that it is often used for communication with Google APIs, but it is a more general-purpose library that is not specific to Google.

axios

Axios is a promise-based HTTP client for the browser and Node.js. It offers features like intercepting requests and responses, automatic transforms for JSON data, and client-side support for protecting against XSRF. While it does not provide the same API-specific extensions as google-gax, it is a popular choice for making HTTP requests in general.

aws-sdk

The AWS SDK for JavaScript allows developers to interact with AWS services from Node.js. Similar to google-gax, it provides a set of tools for working with a specific cloud provider's APIs, but it is focused on Amazon Web Services rather than Google Cloud.