This module is the lightest possible wrapper on top of node.js http, but supporting these essential features:
- follows redirects
- automatically handles gzip/deflate responses
- supports HTTPS
- supports specifying a timeout
- supports convenience
urlkey so there's no need to useurl.parseon the url when specifying options - composes well with npm packages for features like cookies, proxies, form data, & OAuth
All this in < 100 lines of code.
npm install simple-get
Note, all these examples also work in the browser with browserify.
Doesn't get easier than this:
const get = require('simple-get')
get('http://example.com', function (err, res) {
if (err) throw err
console.log(res.statusCode) // 200
res.pipe(process.stdout) // `res` is a stream
})If you just want the data, and don't want to deal with streams:
const get = require('simple-get')
get.concat('http://example.com', function (err, res, data) {
if (err) throw err
console.log(res.statusCode) // 200
console.log(data) // Buffer('this is the server response')
})For POST, call get.post or use option { method: 'POST' }.
const get = require('simple-get')
const opts = {
url: 'http://example.com',
body: 'this is the POST body'
}
get.post(opts, function (err, res) {
if (err) throw err
res.pipe(process.stdout) // `res` is a stream
})const get = require('simple-get')
get({
url: 'http://example.com',
method: 'POST',
body: 'this is the POST body',
// simple-get accepts all options that node.js `http` accepts
// See: http://nodejs.org/api/http.html#http_http_request_options_callback
headers: {
'user-agent': 'my cool app'
}
}, function (err, res) {
if (err) throw err
// All properties/methods from http.IncomingResponse are available,
// even if a gunzip/inflate transform stream was returned.
// See: http://nodejs.org/api/http.html#http_http_incomingmessage
res.setTimeout(10000)
console.log(res.headers)
res.on('data', function (chunk) {
// `chunk` is the decoded response, after it's been gunzipped or inflated
// (if applicable)
console.log('got a chunk of the response: ' + chunk)
}))
})You can serialize/deserialize request and response with JSON:
const get = require('simple-get')
const opts = {
method: 'POST',
url: 'http://example.com',
body: {
key: 'value'
},
json: true
}
get.concat(opts, function (err, res, data) {
if (err) throw err
console.log(data.key) // `data` is an object
})You can set a timeout (in milliseconds) on the request with the timeout option.
If the request takes longer than timeout to complete, then the entire request
will fail with an Error.
const get = require('simple-get')
const opts = {
url: 'http://example.com',
timeout: 2000 // 2 second timeout
}
get(opts, function (err, res) {})It's a good idea to set the 'user-agent' header so the provider can more easily
see how their resource is used.
const get = require('simple-get')
const pkg = require('./package.json')
get('http://example.com', {
headers: {
'user-agent': `my-module/${pkg.version} (https://github.com/username/my-module)`
}
})You can use the tunnel module with the
agent option to work with proxies:
const get = require('simple-get')
const tunnel = require('tunnel')
const opts = {
url: 'http://example.com',
agent: tunnel.httpOverHttp({
proxy: {
host: 'localhost'
}
})
}
get(opts, function (err, res) {})You can use the cookie module to include
cookies in a request:
const get = require('simple-get')
const cookie = require('cookie')
const opts = {
url: 'http://example.com',
headers: {
cookie: cookie.serialize('foo', 'bar')
}
}
get(opts, function (err, res) {})You can use the form-data module to
create POST request with form data:
const fs = require('fs')
const get = require('simple-get')
const FormData = require('form-data')
const form = new FormData()
form.append('my_file', fs.createReadStream('/foo/bar.jpg'))
const opts = {
url: 'http://example.com',
body: form
}
get.post(opts, function (err, res) {})const get = require('simple-get')
const opts = {
url: 'http://example.com',
form: {
key: 'value'
}
}
get.post(opts, function (err, res) {})const get = require('simple-get')
const opts = {
url: 'http://example.com/will-redirect-elsewhere',
followRedirects: false
}
// res.statusCode will be 301, no error thrown
get(opts, function (err, res) {})const user = 'someuser'
const pass = 'pa$$word'
const encodedAuth = Buffer.from(`${user}:${pass}`).toString('base64')
get('http://example.com', {
headers: {
authorization: `Basic ${encodedAuth}`
}
})You can use the oauth-1.0a module to create
a signed OAuth request:
const get = require('simple-get')
const crypto = require('crypto')
const OAuth = require('oauth-1.0a')
const oauth = OAuth({
consumer: {
key: process.env.CONSUMER_KEY,
secret: process.env.CONSUMER_SECRET
},
signature_method: 'HMAC-SHA1',
hash_function: (baseString, key) => crypto.createHmac('sha1', key).update(baseString).digest('base64')
})
const token = {
key: process.env.ACCESS_TOKEN,
secret: process.env.ACCESS_TOKEN_SECRET
}
const url = 'https://api.twitter.com/1.1/statuses/home_timeline.json'
const opts = {
url: url,
headers: oauth.toHeader(oauth.authorize({url, method: 'GET'}, token)),
json: true
}
get(opts, function (err, res) {})You can use limiter to throttle requests. This is useful when calling an API that is rate limited.
const simpleGet = require('simple-get')
const RateLimiter = require('limiter').RateLimiter
const limiter = new RateLimiter(1, 'second')
const get = (opts, cb) => limiter.removeTokens(1, () => simpleGet(opts, cb))
get.concat = (opts, cb) => limiter.removeTokens(1, () => simpleGet.concat(opts, cb))
var opts = {
url: 'http://example.com'
}
get.concat(opts, processResult)
get.concat(opts, processResult)
function processResult (err, res, data) {
if (err) throw err
console.log(data.toString())
}MIT. Copyright (c) Feross Aboukhadijeh.