request

What is request?

The 'request' npm package is a simple, yet powerful HTTP client that supports multiple features such as making HTTP calls, handling responses, streaming data, and more. It is designed to be the simplest way possible to make http calls and supports HTTPS and follows redirects by default.

What are request's main functionalities?

Simple HTTP GET requests

This code performs a simple HTTP GET request to Google's homepage and logs the error, response status code, and the response body.

const request = require('request');
request('http://www.google.com', function (error, response, body) {
  console.log('error:', error);
  console.log('statusCode:', response && response.statusCode);
  console.log('body:', body);
});

Streaming data

This code demonstrates how to stream data from an HTTP request directly to a file, which can be useful for downloading files or handling large amounts of data.

const request = require('request');
const fs = require('fs');
const stream = fs.createWriteStream('file.txt');
request('http://www.google.com').pipe(stream);

Custom HTTP headers

This code shows how to send a custom HTTP header (in this case, the User-Agent header) with a request. This is often required when using certain APIs, like GitHub's.

const request = require('request');
const options = {
  url: 'https://api.github.com/repos/request/request',
  headers: {
    'User-Agent': 'request'
  }
};
function callback(error, response, body) {
  if (!error && response.statusCode == 200) {
    const info = JSON.parse(body);
    console.log(info);
  }
}
request(options, callback);

Handling POST requests

This code snippet demonstrates how to send a POST request with form data, including how to upload a file as part of that form data.

const request = require('request');
const options = {
  method: 'POST',
  url: 'http://service.com/upload',
  headers: {
    'Content-Type': 'multipart/form-data'
  },
  formData: {
    key: 'value',
    file: fs.createReadStream('file.txt')
  }
};
request(options, function (error, response, body) {
  if (error) throw new Error(error);
  console.log(body);
});

Other packages similar to request

axios

Axios is a promise-based HTTP client for the browser and Node.js. It provides a simple API for making HTTP requests and is often used as an alternative to 'request' due to its promise support and interceptors for request/response manipulation.

got

Got is a human-friendly and powerful HTTP request library. It is designed to be a simpler and more performant alternative to 'request', with features like streams support, promise API, and better error handling.

node-fetch

Node-fetch is a light-weight module that brings the Fetch API to Node.js. It is an alternative to 'request' that provides a simpler, promise-based API for making HTTP requests, similar to what is available in modern web browsers.

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 compares to 'request' by offering a fluent API and being lightweight.