http-service

A wrapper around the node http or https request method.

Version 1.1.1

1. Installation

$ npm install --save @be/http-service

2. Usage

const HttpService = require('@be/http-service');

const service = new HttpService('http://httpbin.org', options);

service.get('get', (err, response) => {
    console.log(body, response);
}

3. API

The package exports the HttpService class. This class provides the request method and various convenience methods that call the request method. The request method can be overridden in a subclass. One reason, for example, is adding header values. Be sure to call super.request(...) when overriding this method.

3.1 constructor

HttpService(uri [, options])

Creates a new HttpService instance for the specified uri. The uri is parsed and the protocol, hostname, port, and pathname are extracted. The protocol is required and must be either http or https. If the port is not specified, it will default to port 80 for http requests and port 443 for https requests. The pathname is prepended to all requests and will be a / if not specified. Therefore, do not prefix any request path with an additional / if the URI does not have a path.

The options argument provides for additional options that are passed to the http.request or https.request methods.

Examples:

const service = new HttpService('http://example.com');

const service = new HttpService('https://example.com:9000');

3.2 request

service.request(method, path, headers, data, callback)

Sends an HTTP or an HTTPS request to the host specified in the constructor.

• The method should be one of GET, HEAD, OPTIONS, TRACE, POST, PUT, PATCH or DELETE. The method is converted to upper case.
• The path identifies the resource with respect to the URI specified in the constructor. Do not prefix this path with a / if the URI does not have a path component (the Node.js url.parse method automatically adds the slash for empty paths).
• The headers must be an object or null.
• The data specifies the message body and can be a Buffer, a string, or an object. If the data parameter is an object, then it is processed as follows:
  • If the Content-Type header is application/json, then the data is serialized by calling JSON.stringify.
  • If the Content-Type header is application/x-www-form-urlencoded, then the data is serialized by calling querystring.stringify.
  • If the Content-Type header is not set, then the data is serialized by calling JSON.stringify and the Content-Type header is set to application/json.
• The callback is called upon completion of the request. On error, it is called as callback(err, response). On success, it is called as callback(null, response). The response is an object having the following properties: status, headers, type, and body.
  • The status is an instance of the HttpStatus class.
  • The headers are the HTTP response headers.
  • The type is the value of the Content-Type header with all parameters removed. For example, if the Content-Type is text/html; charset=utf-8, then the type will simply be text/html.
  • The body is the response message body. It will be a string if the type begins with text or ends with +xml. It will be an object if the type is application/json. Otherwise, the body will be a Buffer.

3.3 get, head

service.get(path, [query,] callback)
service.head(path, [query,] callback)

Convenience methods for GET and HEAD requests. If the optional query object is specified, it is serialized and appended to the path preceded by a ?. If the path already contains a query, then it is appended with a &.

3.4 post, put, patch

service.post(path, data, callback)
service.put(path, data, callback)
service.patch(path, data, callback)

Convenience methods for the POST, PUT, and PATCH requests.

3.5 delete

service.delete(path, callback)

Convenience method for the DELETE request.

3.6 Media Types

There are two static media type constants on the HttpService class:

HttpService.JSON_MEDIA_TYPE = 'application/json';
HttpService.FORM_MEDIA_TYPE = 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded';

4. License

MIT License

Copyright (c) 2017 Buchanan & Edwards

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.