httpie

A Node.js HTTP client as easy as pie!

Features

• Promise- based HTTP requestor
• Works with HTTP and HTTPS protocols
• Automatically handles JSON requests and responses
• Extremely lightweight with no dependencies 678 bytes!
• Includes aliases for common HTTP verbs: get, post, put, patch, and del

Additionally, this module is delivered as:

• ES Module: dist/httpie.mjs
• CommonJS: dist/httpie.js

Install

$ npm install --save httpie

Usage

Note: The async syntax is for demo purposes – you may use Promises in a Node 6.x environment too!

import { get, post } from 'httpie';

try {
  const { data } = await get('https://pokeapi.co/api/v2/pokemon/1');

  // Demo: Endpoint will echo what we've sent
  const res = await post('https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts', {
    body: {
      id: data.id,
      name: data.name,
      number: data.order,
      moves: data.moves.slice(0, 6)
    }
  });

  console.log(res.statusCode); //=> 201
  console.log(res.data); //=> { id: 1, name: 'bulbasaur', number: 1, moves: [{...}, {...}] }
} catch (err) {
  console.error('Error!', err.statusCode, err.message);
  console.error('~> headers:', err.headers);
  console.error('~> data:', err.data);
}

API

send(method, url, opts={})

Returns: Promise

Any httpie.send request (and its aliases) will always return a Promise.

If the response's statusCode is 400 or above, this Promise will reject with a formatted error – see Error Handling. Otherwise, the Promise will resolve with the full ClientRequest stream.

The resolved response will receive a new data key, which will contain the response's full payload. Should the response return JSON content, then httpie will parse it and the res.data value will be the resulting JSON object!

method

Type: String

The HTTP method name – it must be uppercase!

url

Type: String or URL

If url is a string, it is automatically parsed with url.parse() into an object.

opts.body

Type: Mixed
Default: undefined

The request's body, can be of any type!

Any non-Buffer objects will be converted into a JSON string and the appropriate Content-Type header will be attached.

Additionally, httpie will always set a value for the Content-Length header!

opts.headers

Type: Object
Default: {}

The custom headers to send with your request.

opts.redirect

Type: Boolean
Default: true

Whether or not redirect responses should be followed automatically.

Note: This may only happen with a 3xx status and if the response had a Location header.

opts.reviver

Type: Function
Default: undefined

An optional function that's passed directly to JSON.parse, allowing you transform aspects of the response data before the httpie request resolves.

Note: This will only run if httpie detects that JSON is contained in the response!

opts.timeout

Type: Integer
Default: undefined

The time, in milliseconds, before automatically terminating the request.

When the request exceeds this limit, httpie rejects with an err<Error>, adding a truthy err.timeout value.

Important: There is a slight behavioral difference between the Node & browser versions!
In the server, the timeout value does not propagate to any redirects.
In the browser, the timeout value will not reset during redirects.

opts.withCredentials

Type: Boolean
Default: false

Whether or not cross-site requests should include credentials (such as cookies).
This value is passed directly to XMLHttpRequest.withCredentials.

Important: This is for the browser version only!

get(url, opts={})

Alias for send('GET', url, opts).

post(url, opts={})

Alias for send('POST', url, opts).

put(url, opts={})

Alias for send('PUT', url, opts).

patch(url, opts={})

Alias for send('PATCH', url, opts).

del(url, opts={})

Alias for send('DELETE', url, opts).

Error Handling

All responses with statusCode >= 400 will result in a rejected httpie request. When this occurs, an Error instance is formatted with complete information:

• err.message – String – Identical to err.statusMessage;
• err.statusMessage – String – The response's statusMessage value;
• err.statusCode – Number – The response's statusCode value;
• err.headers – Object – The response's headers object;
• err.data – Mixed – The response's payload;

Additionally, errors that are a result of a timeout expiration will have a truthy err.timeout value.

Important: The error's data property may also be parsed to a JSON object, according to the response's headers.

import { get } from 'httpie';

get('https://example.com/404').catch(err => {
  console.error(`(${err.statusCode}) ${err.message}`)
  console.error(err.headers['content-type']);
  console.error(`~> ${err.data}`);
});
//=> "(404) Not Found"
//=> "text/html; charset=UTF-8"
//=> ~> <?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?>\n<!DOCTYPE html ...</body>\n</html>

License

MIT © Luke Edwards