reqex

Promise based http client with built in retry and JSON validator for response.

Installation

npm install reqex

Description

reqex - is a simple http(s) client which allows to perform GET, POST, PUT and DELETE requests.

Also response will contain parsed json and could return it with a type if validate method is used.

Implemented for convenience with types, and ability to chain request methods. Also supports pipe method for streaming response to writable/duplex stream.

Usage

Import reqex to the TS/JS projects:

// ESM or TypeScript projects:
import reqex from 'reqex';

// CommonJS projects:
const { reqex } = require('reqex');

Note

All responses for any Content-Type will have body field of string type. The json field will have a parsed JSON object value for all responses which have Content-Type: application/json header, and undefined value for all other types.

GET

const response = await reqex.get('http://localhost:3000/user');

console.log(response);

Expected output:

{
  status: 200,
  ok: true,
  contentLength: 23,
  headers: {
    'x-powered-by': 'Express',
    'content-type': 'application/json; charset=utf-8',
    'content-length': '23',
    etag: 'W/"17-notW5/nnoifrwkOLKeW655Vz8Xg"',
    date: 'Fri, 15 Sep 2023 10:38:05 GMT',
    connection: 'close'
  },
  json: { user: { name: 'some user', id: 'some id' } },
  body: '{"user":{"name":"some user","id":"some id"}}'
}

POST

const response = await reqex
  .post('http://localhost:3000/user')
  .body({ name: 'some new user' });

console.log(response);

Expected output:

{
  status: 201,
  ok: true,
  contentLength: 52,
  headers: {
    'x-powered-by': 'Express',
    'content-type': 'application/json; charset=utf-8',
    'content-length': '52',
    etag: 'W/"34-vZ5QItgbUr7K7/mmx0UbwgRbD+w"',
    date: 'Fri, 15 Sep 2023 10:45:34 GMT',
    connection: 'close'
  },
  json: { user: { name: 'some new user', id: 'some new id' } },
  body: '{"user":{"name":"some new user","id":"some new id"}}'
}

PUT

const response = await reqex
  .put('http://localhost:3000/user')
  .body({ name: 'some updated user' });

console.log(response);

Expected output:

{
  status: 200,
  ok: true,
  contentLength: 60,
  headers: {
    'x-powered-by': 'Express',
    'content-type': 'application/json; charset=utf-8',
    'content-length': '60',
    etag: 'W/"3c-EIJ+q9sLuMYRrdJsituIMyqNoJw"',
    date: 'Fri, 15 Sep 2023 10:47:09 GMT',
    connection: 'close'
  },
  json: { user: { name: 'some updated user', id: 'some updated id' } },
  body: '{"user":{"name":"some updated user","id":"some updated id"}}'
}

DELETE

const response = await reqex
  .delete('http://localhost:3000/user')
  .body({ name: 'some user' });

console.log(response);

Expected output:

{
  status: 204,
  ok: true,
  contentLength: 0,
  headers: {
    'x-powered-by': 'Express',
    date: 'Fri, 15 Sep 2023 10:48:00 GMT',
    connection: 'close'
  },
  json: undefined,
  body: ''
}

Retry

Note

If retry method was called - pipe method will be disregarded.

Does not mean to be used for 400+ status codes, but for connection errors and etc. If troubles with API for performing requests to are possible - retry method can handle such requests and automatically perform new one.

By default retries to do request in 10 seconds. Max interval time can be 60 seconds, and max amount of attempts - 15 times. If bigger value is passed - max value will be set.

Following example will perform up to 3 additional requests, if main request has failed:

const response = await reqex
  .get('http://localhost:3000/possible-unavailable')
  .retry({ attempts: 3 });

Also, next request time can be specified (example - 25 seconds), and log can be added:

const response = await reqex
  .get('http://localhost:3000/possible-unavailable')
  .retry({ attempts: 3, interval: 25, logOnRetry: true });

Pipe

Note

If retry method was called - pipe method will be disregarded.

Allows to pipe response to any writable/duplex stream. Also returns response as reqex.get() request:

const stream = fs.createWriteStream('out.json');

const response = await reqex.get('http://localhost:3000/users').pipe(stream);

VALIDATE RESPONSE DATA

The vator library is used for validation.

.validate() method is designed to assert data is matches provided schema. In case of wrong type - error will be thrown.

import { v } from 'reqex'

const { json } = await reqex
  .get('http://localhost:3000/user')
  .validate({
    name: v.string;
    id: v.number;
  });

const { name, id } = json;

console.log(`The "name" field has type "${typeof name}" and value "${name}"`);
console.log(`The "id" field has type "${typeof id}" and value "${id}"`);

Expected output:

The "name" field has type "string" and value "some user"
The "id" field has type "number" and value "123"

NOT JSON CONTENT-TYPE

const response = await reqex
  .get('http://localhost:3000/')
  .headers({ 'content-type': 'text/html' });

console.log(response);

Expected output:

{
  status: 200,
  ok: true,
  contentLength: 20,
  headers: {
    'x-powered-by': 'Express',
    'content-type': 'text/html; charset=utf-8',
    'content-length': '20',
    etag: 'W/"14-XVEfTf8cEMbur8HQBK5MH4vJQ7U"',
    date: 'Fri, 15 Sep 2023 10:52:59 GMT',
    connection: 'close'
  },
  json: undefined,
  body: '<h1>Hello reqex!</h1>'
}

400+ status code responses

Lets pretend your server responds with json content-type for 404 Not Found cases:

const response = await reqex.get('http://localhost:3000/not-found');

console.log(response);

Expected output:

{
  status: 404,
  ok: false,
  contentLength: 23,
  headers: {
    'x-powered-by': 'Express',
    'content-type': 'application/json; charset=utf-8',
    'content-length': '23',
    etag: 'W/"17-SuRA/yvUWUo8rK6x7dKURLeBo+0"',
    date: 'Fri, 15 Sep 2023 11:04:07 GMT',
    connection: 'close'
  },
  json: { message: 'Not Found' },
  body: '{"message":"Not Found"}'
}