urllib

What is urllib?

The urllib npm package is a utility library for making HTTP requests and handling URLs. It provides a simple and flexible API for performing various types of HTTP requests, handling query parameters, and working with URLs.

What are urllib's main functionalities?

HTTP GET Request

This feature allows you to make a simple HTTP GET request to a specified URL. The callback function handles the response data or any errors that occur.

const urllib = require('urllib');

urllib.request('https://api.example.com/data', function (err, data, res) {
  if (err) {
    console.error(err);
    return;
  }
  console.log(data.toString());
});

HTTP POST Request

This feature allows you to make an HTTP POST request with a payload. The data object contains the key-value pairs to be sent in the request body.

const urllib = require('urllib');

urllib.request('https://api.example.com/data', {
  method: 'POST',
  data: {
    key1: 'value1',
    key2: 'value2'
  }
}, function (err, data, res) {
  if (err) {
    console.error(err);
    return;
  }
  console.log(data.toString());
});

Handling Query Parameters

This feature allows you to include query parameters in your HTTP request. The data object is automatically serialized into a query string and appended to the URL.

const urllib = require('urllib');

const params = {
  key1: 'value1',
  key2: 'value2'
};

urllib.request('https://api.example.com/data', {
  data: params
}, function (err, data, res) {
  if (err) {
    console.error(err);
    return;
  }
  console.log(data.toString());
});

Custom Headers

This feature allows you to set custom headers for your HTTP request. The headers object contains key-value pairs representing the header names and values.

const urllib = require('urllib');

urllib.request('https://api.example.com/data', {
  headers: {
    'Authorization': 'Bearer token',
    'Content-Type': 'application/json'
  }
}, function (err, data, res) {
  if (err) {
    console.error(err);
    return;
  }
  console.log(data.toString());
});

Other packages similar to urllib

axios

Axios is a promise-based HTTP client for the browser and Node.js. It provides a more modern and flexible API compared to urllib, with support for interceptors, request cancellation, and automatic JSON data transformation.

node-fetch

Node-fetch is a lightweight module that brings the Fetch API to Node.js. It is a minimalistic alternative to urllib, focusing on simplicity and compliance with the Fetch standard.

request

Request is a simplified HTTP client for Node.js with a rich set of features. It is more feature-rich than urllib, offering support for OAuth, cookies, and multipart form data. However, it has been deprecated in favor of more modern alternatives like axios.

README

urllib

Help in opening URLs (mostly HTTP) in a complex world — basic and digest authentication, redirections, cookies and more.

• jscoverage: 98%

Install

$ npm install urllib

Usage

var urllib = require('urllib');

urllib.request('http://cnodejs.org/', { wd: 'nodejs' }, function (err, data, res) {
  console.log(res.statusCode);
  console.log(res.headers);
  console.log(data.toString());
});

Upload file with formstream

var urllib = require('urllib');
var formstream = require('formstream');
var should = require('should');

var form = formstream();
form.file('file', __filename);
form.field('hello', '你好urllib');
var args = {
  type: 'POST',
  headers: form.headers(),
  stream: form
};
var req = urllib.request(host + '/stream', args, function (err, data, res) {
  should.not.exist(err);
  data = data.toString();
  data.should.include('你好urllib\r\n----------------------------');
  data.should.include('Content-Disposition: form-data; name="file"; filename="urllib.test.js"');
});

// you can abort the request after 5 seconds
setTimout(function () {
  req.abort();
}, 5000);

TODO

• Upload file like form upload.
• Auto redirect handle.

Authors

Below is the output from git-summary.

$ git summary 

 project  : urllib
 repo age : 1 year, 6 months
 active   : 18 days
 commits  : 38
 files    : 16
 authors  : 
    33  fengmk2                 86.8%
     4  Jackson Tian            10.5%
     1  aleafs                  2.6%

Contributors

Ordered by date of first contribution. Auto-generated on Tue Aug 14 2012 03:17:14 GMT+0800 (CST).

• fengmk2
• aleafs
• Jackson Tian aka JacksonTian

License

(The MIT License)

Copyright (c) 2011-2012 fengmk2 <[e-mail]>

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the 'Software'), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED 'AS IS', WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.