Steps to send a https request to a rest service in Node js

Question

What are the steps to send a https request in node js to a rest service? I have an api exposed like (Original link not working...)

How to pass the request and what are the options I need to give for this API like host, port, path and method?

Answer 1

just use the core https module with the https.request function. Example for a POST request (GET would be similar):

var https = require('https');

var options = {
  host: 'www.google.com',
  port: 443,
  path: '/upload',
  method: 'POST'
};

var req = https.request(options, function(res) {
  console.log('STATUS: ' + res.statusCode);
  console.log('HEADERS: ' + JSON.stringify(res.headers));
  res.setEncoding('utf8');
  res.on('data', function (chunk) {
    console.log('BODY: ' + chunk);
  });
});

req.on('error', function(e) {
  console.log('problem with request: ' + e.message);
});

// write data to request body
req.write('data\n');
req.write('data\n');
req.end();

Answer 2

The builtin http and https modules are perfectly good if a bit low-level. You'll probably want to use a module that handles the details for you and provides a nice higher-level API.

In node v18, node itself exposes a global fetch(url) method, although as of 2023 it is still considered experimental and subject to change. Also, perhaps surprisingly, node's builtin fetch() global does not use the HTTP stack provided by the traditional builtin http/https modules. Instead, it uses a parallel, from-scratch HTTP stack rewrite called undici.

The builtin fetch() is convenient, but given the instability and that it's still missing a few features, I'd avoid it in production use until the feature is more stable.

There are several popular modules available on npm.

• request used to be the very popular standard from the very early days of the node ecosystem, but it is no longer maintained, so you shouldn't use it in new work.
• axios is a very popular and actively maintained HTTP library.
• node-fetch is another popular option that implements the fetch API.
• There are hundreds of other options of varying popularity and quality; you might want to compare the available options to see what will meet your particular needs.

Answer 3

Note if you are using https.request do not directly use the body from res.on('data',... This will fail if you have a large data coming in chunks. So you need to concatenate all the data and then process the response in res.on('end'. Example -

  var options = {
    hostname: "www.google.com",
    port: 443,
    path: "/upload",
    method: 'POST',
    headers: {
      'Content-Type': 'application/json',
      'Content-Length': Buffer.byteLength(post_data)
    }
  };

  //change to http for local testing
  var req = https.request(options, function (res) {
    res.setEncoding('utf8');

    var body = '';

    res.on('data', function (chunk) {
      body = body + chunk;
    });

    res.on('end',function(){
      console.log("Body :" + body);
      if (res.statusCode !== 200) {
        callback("Api call failed with response code " + res.statusCode);
      } else {
        callback(null);
      }
    });

  });

  req.on('error', function (e) {
    console.log("Error : " + e.message);
    callback(e);
  });

  // write data to request body
  req.write(post_data);
  req.end();

Answer 4

Using the request module solved the issue.

// Include the request library for Node.js   
var request = require('request');
//  Basic Authentication credentials   
var username = "vinod"; 
var password = "12345";
var authenticationHeader = "Basic " + new Buffer(username + ":" + password).toString("base64");
request(   
{
url : "https://133-70-97-54-43.sample.com/feedSample/Query_Status_View/Query_Status/Output1?STATUS=Joined%20school",
headers : { "Authorization" : authenticationHeader }  
},
 function (error, response, body) {
 console.log(body); }  );         

Answer 5

Since there isn't any example with a ´GET´ method here is one. The catch is that the path in the options Object should be set to '/' in order to send the request correctly

const https = require('https')
const options = {
  hostname: 'www.google.com',
  port: 443,
  path: '/',
  method: 'GET',
  headers: {
    'Accept': 'plain/html',
    'Accept-Encoding': '*',
  }
}

const req = https.request(options, res => {
  console.log(`statusCode: ${res.statusCode}`);
  console.log('headers:', res.headers);

  res.on('data', d => {
    process.stdout.write(d)
  })
})

req.on('error', error => {
  console.error(`Error on Get Request --> ${error}`)
})

req.end()

Answer 6

The example using 'GET' method is good but it can also be used with constant variables in TypeScript/Node.js setup. If that's the case, the functions on('error') and end() have to be defined outside of the https.request function.

const https = require('https')
const options = {
  hostname: 'www.google.com',
  port: 443,
  path: '/',
  method: 'GET',
  headers: {
    'Accept': 'plain/html',
    'Accept-Encoding': '*',
  }
}

const request = https.request(options, res => {
  const callback = (data: string) => {
    process.stdout.write(`response data: ${data}`);
  }
  res.on('data', callback)
})

request.on('error', error => {
  console.error(`Error on Get Request --> ${error}`)
})
request.end()