Node.js request GET a VAST tag

Question

I am trying to make a GET request to a certain url that returns a VAST tag. When I curl the url, curl -v 'http://a.host.for.vasttag.com/foo/ad.jsp?fooid=someidhere' I receive normal html like this:

<script type="text/javascript" src="foobar.js"></script><script type="text/javascript">var FOO_customization = {"account":"foo1","playerid":"foo1232","inapp":"true","domain":"foodomain.com"}</script><script type="text/javascript" id="exampleBanner" src="http://this.is.net/banner/LATEST/inbanner.min.js"></script>

I would like to receive the same response in my node.app, but I only receive this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <VAST version="3.0"></VAST>

What did I do wrong? Here is my code:

var http = require('http')

var options = {
  method : 'GET',
  host: 'a.host.for.vasttag.com',
  port: 80,
  path: '/foo/ad.jsp?fooid=someidhere',
  headers: {'Content-Type': 'text/html'},
}

http.get(options, function(res) {
  console.log("Got response: " + res.statusCode)
  res.on("data", function(chunk) {
    console.log(chunk)
  })
}).on('error', function(e) {
  console.log("Got error: " + e.message)
})

Can you update the question with your cURL command? – Stewart Sep 15 '16 at 10:15 — Stewart, Sep 15 '16 at 10:15
added curl command @Stewart – ikenator Sep 15 '16 at 10:19 — ikenator, Sep 15 '16 at 10:19
What happens if you don't send the header via node? – Stewart Sep 15 '16 at 10:21 — Stewart, Sep 15 '16 at 10:21

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 15 '16 at 10:17

It may seem a bit weird, but some VAST engines won't give a response unless you specify a User-Agent

This is what my VAST server guys told me.

And User-Agent is a mandatory header for protocol in order to obtain a VAST response (it’s used in ad targeting). That is why without User-Agent you got an empty response.

Try adding

var options = {
    method: 'GET',
    host: 'a.host.for.vasttag.com',
    port: 80,
    path: '/foo/ad.jsp?fooid=someidhere',
    headers: {
      'Content-Type': 'text/html',
      'User-Agent': 'Fiddler' //here
    }
};

P.S: I used Fiddler cos it was the shortest and it worked.

Node.js request GET a VAST tag

1 Answers1