io

A minimal, yet flexible I/O for browser and Node with promises. A thin wrapper on top of XMLHttpRequest, and fetch(), with numerous callbacks to simplify and automate all aspects of I/O especially using JSON as an envelope, including to add more transports, and I/O orchestration plugin services.

It can run on Node using a specialized transport: heya-io-node. It greatly simplifies I/O on Node by leveraging enhanced features of heya-io in the server environment.

The following services are included:

• io.cache — a transparent application-level cache (supports sessionStorage and localStorage out of the box).
• io.bundle — a transparent service to bundle requests into one package passing it to a server, and unbundling a result. It requires a simple server counterpart. heya-bundler is a reference implementation for node.js/express.js.
• io.track — a simple plugin to track I/O requests to eliminate duplicates, register an interest without initiating I/O requests, and much more.
• io.mock — a way to mock I/O requests without writing a special server courtesy of Mike Wilcox. Very useful for rapid prototyping and writing tests.
• io.bust — a simple plugin to generate a randomized query value to bust browser's cache.
• io.retry — a plugin to retry unreliable services or watch changes over time.

The following additional transports are provided:

• io.fetch() — replaces XHR with fetch()-based transport.
• io.jsonp() — JSON-P requests.
• io.load() — generates <script> tags to include JavaScript files.

Utilities:

• url() — uses ES6 tagged literals to form properly sanitized URLs.

As is heya-io uses the standard Promise. Given that not all browsers provide it, heya-io can be used with any then-able, but it was especially tested with implementations provided by heya-async: FastDeferred and Deferred. With those modules an extended API is supported: I/O progress reports, and cancellation of I/O requests.

Examples

Plain vanilla GET:

heya.io.get('http://example.com/hello').then(function (value) {
  console.log(value);
});

heya.io.get('/hello', {to: 'world', times: 5}).then(function (value) {
  // GET /hello?to=world&times=5
  console.log(value);
});

POST a form (can include files or any other form elements):

var formElement = document.querySelector('form');
heya.io.post('/form', new FormData(formElement));

Some other verbs (REST example):

function done() { console.log('done'); }

heya.io.post('/things', {name: 'Bob', age: 42}).then(done);
heya.io.put('/things/5', {name: 'Alice', age: 33}).then(done);
heya.io.patch('/things/7', {age: 14}).then(done);
heya.io.remove('/things/3').then(done);

Modern browsers:

const doIO = async query => {
  const result = await heya.io.get('/hello', {q: query});
  await heya.io.post('/things', {name: 'Bob', age: 42, friendly: result});
}

Other transports:

// let's make a JSON-P call:
heya.io.jsonp('/planets', {query: 'name'}).then(function (values) {
  // GET /planets?query=name
  console.log('We have ' + values.length + ' planets:', values);
});

Mock:

// set up a mock handler
heya.io.mock('/a*', function (options, prep) {
  console.log('Got call: ' + options.method + ' ' + prep.url);
  return 42;
});

// let's make a call
heya.io.get('/a/x').then(function (value) {
  console.log(value); // 42
});

// set up a redirect /b => /a/b
heya.io.mock('/b', function (options) {
  return heya.io.get('/a/b', options.query || options.data || null);
});

// let's make another call
heya.io.get('/b', {q: 1}).then(function (value) {
  console.log(value); // 42
});

Using url template to sanitize URLs (ES6):

const client = 'Bob & Jordan & Co';
heya.io.get(url`/api/${client}/details`).then(function (value) {
  // GET /api/Bob%20%26%20Jordan%20%26%20Co/details
  console.log(value);
});

See more examples in the cookbooks:

• Cookbook: main
• Services:
  • Cookbook: bundle
  • Cookbook: cache
  • Cookbook: mock
  • Cookbook: track
• Transports:
  • Cookbook: jsonp
  • Cookbook: load
  • Cookbook: fetch

How to install

With npm:

npm install --save heya-io

With bower:

bower install --save heya-io

How to use

heya-io can be installed with npm or bower with files available from node_modules/ or bower_components/. By default, it uses AMD:

define(['heya-io'], function (io) {
  io.get('/hello').then(function (value) {
    console.log(value);
  });
});

But it can be loaded with <script> tag from dist/:

<script src='node_modules/heya-io/dist/io.js'></script>

And used with globals like in examples above:

heya.io.get('/hello').then(function (value) {
  console.log(value);
});

To support browsers without the standard Promise, you may want to use heya-async.

AMD:

define(['heya-io', 'heya-async/FastDeferred'], function (io, Deferred) {
  // instrument
  io.Deferred = Deferred;
  // now we are ready for all browsers
  io.get('/hello').then(function (value) {
    console.log(value);
  });
});

Globals:

<script src='node_modules/heya-io/dist/io.js'></script>
<script src='node_modules/heya-async/dist/Micro.js'></script>
<script src='node_modules/heya-async/dist/FastDeferred.js'></script>

// instrument
heya.io.Deferred = heya.async.FastDeferred;
// now we are ready for all browsers
heya.io.get('/hello').then(function (value) {
  console.log(value);
});

See How to include for more details.

Documentation

All documentation can be found in project's wiki.

Working on this project

In order to run tests in a browser of your choice, so you can debug interactively, start the test server:

npm start

Then open this URL in a browser: http://localhost:3000/tests/tests.html It will show a blank screen, but the output will appear in the console of your developer tools.

The server runs indefinitely, and can be stopped by Ctrl+C.

Versions

• 1.9.3 Refreshed dev dependencies.
• 1.9.2 Switched retry to the UMD loader so it can be used in Node directly.
• 1.9.1 Minor improvements of the retry service.
• 1.9.0 Bugfixes and refactoring in the retry service.
• 1.8.0 Added retry service. Thx Jason Vanderslice!
• 1.7.1 Refreshed dev dependencies.
• 1.7.0 Added AbortRequest.
• 1.6.2 Added separate options.onDownloadProgress() and options.onUploadProgress().
• 1.6.1 Added extra properties to progress data.
• 1.6.0 Added options.onProgress() and tests on Firefox Puppeteer.
• 1.5.0 Added cache removal by a function.
• 1.4.2 Added ignoreBadStatus flag when returnXHR.
• 1.4.1 Technical release. No changes.
• 1.4.0 Added mocks by regular expressions and matcher functions.
• 1.3.0 Added cache removal by regular expressions and wildcards.
• 1.2.6 Bugfixes: getHeaders() behaves like on Node, empty object queries are supported.
• 1.2.5 Exposed io.getData(xhr) and io.getHeaders(xhr).
• 1.2.4 Relaxed cache's detection of Result().
• 1.2.3 Regenerated dist.
• 1.2.2 Moved tests to Puppeteer, bugfixes, improved docs.
• 1.2.1 Added Ignore type for data processors, bugfixes.
• 1.2.0 Clarified DELETE, added more well-known types.
• 1.1.7 Refreshed dependencies.
• 1.1.6 Bugfix: processFailure could be skipped.
• 1.1.5 Bugfix: MIME processors. Thx Bryan Pease!
• 1.1.4 Added custom data and MIME processors.
• 1.1.3 Formalized requests and responses with no bodies.
• 1.1.2 Minor fixes for non-browser environments. New alias and verb.
• 1.1.1 Added url tagged literals (an ES6 feature).
• 1.1.0 Added fetch() as an alternative default transport.
• 1.0.9 Correcting typos in README. New version of a test server.
• 1.0.8 Add a helper for busting browser cache.
• 1.0.7 Regenerated dist.
• 1.0.6 Added a helper to extract data from XHR in case of errors.
• 1.0.5 XHR can be reinstated from a JSON object, not just a string.
• 1.0.4 Regenerated dist.
• 1.0.3 Bugfix: cache XHR object directly.
• 1.0.2 Fixed formatting errors in README.
• 1.0.1 Improved documentation.
• 1.0.0 The initial public release as heya-io. Sunset of heya-request. Move from bitbucket.

License

BSD or AFL — your choice.