backend-http-client 🧬

Opinionated HTTP client for the Node.js backend

Overview

The library provides methods to implement the client side of HTTP protocols. Public methods available are:

• buildClient(), which returns a Client instance and should be called before any of the following methods with parameters:
  • baseUrl;
  • clientOptions – set of ClientOptions (optional). If none are provided, the following default options will be used to instantiate the client:

    keepAliveMaxTimeout: 300_000,
    keepAliveTimeout: 4000,

• sendGet();
• sendPost();
• sendPut();
• sendPutBinary();
• sendDelete();
• sendPatch().

All send methods accept a type parameter and the following arguments:

• client, the return value of buildClient();

• path;

• options – (optional). Possible values are:

  • headers;
  • query, query string params to be embedded in the request URL;
  • timeout, the timeout after which a request will time out, in milliseconds. Default is 30 seconds. Pass undefined if you prefer to have no timeout;
  • throwOnError;`
  • reqContext;
  • safeParseJson, used when the response content-type is application/json. If true, the response body will be parsed as JSON and a ResponseError will be thrown in case of syntax errors. If false, errors are not handled;
  • blobResponseBody, used when the response body should be returned as Blob;
  • requestLabel, this string will be returned together with any thrown or returned Error to provide additional context about what request was being executed when the error has happened;
  • disableKeepAlive;`
  • retryConfig, defined by:
    • maxAttempts, the maximum number of times a request should be retried;
    • delayBetweenAttemptsInMsecs;
    • statusCodesToRetry, the status codes that trigger a retry;
    • retryOnTimeout;
  • clientOptions;
  • responseSchema, used both for inferring the response type of the call, and also (if validateResponse is true) for validating the response structure;
  • validateResponse;
  • isEmptyResponseExpected, used to specify if a 204 response should be treated as an error or not. when true the response body type is adjusted to include potential null

  The following options are applied by default:

  validateResponse: true,
  throwOnError: true,
  timeout: 30000,
  retryConfig: {
      maxAttemps: 1,
      delayBetweenAttemptsInMsecs: 0,
      statusCodesToRetry: [],
      retryOnTimeout: false,
  }

  For sendDelete() isEmptyResponseExpected by default is set to true, for all other methods it is false.

Additionally, sendPost(), sendPut(), sendPutBinary(), and sendPatch() also accept a body parameter.

The response of any send method will be resolved to always have result set, but only have error set in case something went wrong. See Either for more information.

Either

The library provides the type Either for error handling in the functional paradigm. The two possible values are:

• result is defined, error is undefined;
• error is defined, result is undefined.

It's up to the caller of the function to handle the received error or throw an error.

Read this article for more information on how Either works and its benefits.

Additionally, DefiniteEither is also provided. It is a variation of the aforementioned Either, which may or may not have error set, but always has result.