1 # Request -- Simplified HTTP request method
12 git clone git://github.com/mikeal/request.git
17 ## Super simple to use
19 Request is designed to be the simplest way possible to make http calls. It supports HTTPS and follows redirects by default.
22 var request = require('request');
23 request('http://www.google.com', function (error, response, body) {
24 if (!error && response.statusCode == 200) {
25 console.log(body) // Print the google web page.
32 You can stream any response to a file stream.
35 request('http://google.com/doodle.png').pipe(fs.createWriteStream('doodle.png'))
38 You can also stream a file to a PUT or POST request. This method will also check the file extension against a mapping of file extensions to content-types, in this case `application/json`, and use the proper content-type in the PUT request if one is not already provided in the headers.
41 fs.createReadStream('file.json').pipe(request.put('http://mysite.com/obj.json'))
44 Request can also pipe to itself. When doing so the content-type and content-length will be preserved in the PUT headers.
47 request.get('http://google.com/img.png').pipe(request.put('http://mysite.com/img.png'))
53 http.createServer(function (req, resp) {
54 if (req.url === '/doodle.png') {
55 if (req.method === 'PUT') {
56 req.pipe(request.put('http://mysite.com/doodle.png'))
57 } else if (req.method === 'GET' || req.method === 'HEAD') {
58 request.get('http://mysite.com/doodle.png').pipe(resp)
64 You can also pipe() from a http.ServerRequest instance and to a http.ServerResponse instance. The HTTP method and headers will be sent as well as the entity-body data. Which means that, if you don't really care about security, you can do:
67 http.createServer(function (req, resp) {
68 if (req.url === '/doodle.png') {
69 var x = request('http://mysite.com/doodle.png')
76 And since pipe() returns the destination stream in node 0.5.x you can do one line proxying :)
79 req.pipe(request('http://mysite.com/doodle.png')).pipe(resp)
82 Also, none of this new functionality conflicts with requests previous features, it just expands them.
85 var r = request.defaults({'proxy':'http://localproxy.com'})
87 http.createServer(function (req, resp) {
88 if (req.url === '/doodle.png') {
89 r.get('http://google.com/doodle.png').pipe(resp)
94 You can still use intermediate proxies, the requests will still follow HTTP forwards, etc.
100 var qs = require('querystring')
102 { callback: 'http://mysite.com/callback/'
103 , consumer_key: CONSUMER_KEY
104 , consumer_secret: CONSUMER_SECRET
106 , url = 'https://api.twitter.com/oauth/request_token'
108 request.post({url:url, oauth:oauth}, function (e, r, body) {
109 // Assume by some stretch of magic you aquired the verifier
110 var access_token = qs.parse(body)
112 { consumer_key: CONSUMER_KEY
113 , consumer_secret: CONSUMER_SECRET
114 , token: access_token.oauth_token
116 , token_secret: access_token.oauth_token_secret
118 , url = 'https://api.twitter.com/oauth/access_token'
120 request.post({url:url, oauth:oauth}, function (e, r, body) {
121 var perm_token = qs.parse(body)
123 { consumer_key: CONSUMER_KEY
124 , consumer_secret: CONSUMER_SECRET
125 , token: perm_token.oauth_token
126 , token_secret: perm_token.oauth_token_secret
128 , url = 'https://api.twitter.com/1/users/show.json?'
130 { screen_name: perm_token.screen_name
131 , user_id: perm_token.user_id
134 url += qs.stringify(params)
135 request.get({url:url, oauth:oauth, json:true}, function (e, r, user) {
144 ### request(options, callback)
146 The first argument can be either a url or an options object. The only required option is uri, all others are optional.
148 * `uri` || `url` - fully qualified uri or a parsed url object from url.parse()
149 * `qs` - object containing querystring values to be appended to the uri
150 * `method` - http method, defaults to GET
151 * `headers` - http headers, defaults to {}
152 * `body` - entity body for POST and PUT requests. Must be buffer or string.
153 * `form` - sets `body` but to querystring representation of value and adds `Content-type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded; charset=utf-8` header.
154 * `json` - sets `body` but to JSON representation of value and adds `Content-type: application/json` header.
155 * `multipart` - (experimental) array of objects which contains their own headers and `body` attribute. Sends `multipart/related` request. See example below.
156 * `followRedirect` - follow HTTP 3xx responses as redirects. defaults to true.
157 * `followAllRedirects` - follow non-GET HTTP 3xx responses as redirects. defaults to false.
158 * `maxRedirects` - the maximum number of redirects to follow, defaults to 10.
159 * `encoding` - Encoding to be used on `setEncoding` of response data. If set to `null`, the body is returned as a Buffer.
160 * `pool` - A hash object containing the agents for these requests. If omitted this request will use the global pool which is set to node's default maxSockets.
161 * `pool.maxSockets` - Integer containing the maximum amount of sockets in the pool.
162 * `timeout` - Integer containing the number of milliseconds to wait for a request to respond before aborting the request
163 * `proxy` - An HTTP proxy to be used. Support proxy Auth with Basic Auth the same way it's supported with the `url` parameter by embedding the auth info in the uri.
164 * `oauth` - Options for OAuth HMAC-SHA1 signing, see documentation above.
165 * `strictSSL` - Set to `true` to require that SSL certificates be valid. Note: to use your own certificate authority, you need to specify an agent that was created with that ca as an option.
166 * `jar` - Set to `false` if you don't want cookies to be remembered for future use or define your custom cookie jar (see examples section)
169 The callback argument gets 3 arguments. The first is an error when applicable (usually from the http.Client option not the http.ClientRequest object). The second in an http.ClientResponse object. The third is the response body String or Buffer.
171 ## Convenience methods
173 There are also shorthand methods for different HTTP METHODs and some other conveniences.
175 ### request.defaults(options)
177 This method returns a wrapper around the normal request API that defaults to whatever options you pass in to it.
181 Same as request() but defaults to `method: "PUT"`.
189 Same as request() but defaults to `method: "POST"`.
197 Same as request() but defaults to `method: "HEAD"`.
205 Same as request() but defaults to `method: "DELETE"`.
213 Alias to normal request method for uniformity.
220 Function that creates a new cookie.
223 request.cookie('cookie_string_here')
227 Function that creates a new cookie jar.
237 var request = require('request')
238 , rand = Math.floor(Math.random()*100000000).toString()
242 , uri: 'http://mikeal.iriscouch.com/testjs/' + rand
244 [ { 'content-type': 'application/json'
245 , body: JSON.stringify({foo: 'bar', _attachments: {'message.txt': {follows: true, length: 18, 'content_type': 'text/plain' }}})
247 , { body: 'I am an attachment' }
250 , function (error, response, body) {
251 if(response.statusCode == 201){
252 console.log('document saved as: http://mikeal.iriscouch.com/testjs/'+ rand)
254 console.log('error: '+ response.statusCode)
260 Cookies are enabled by default (so they can be used in subsequent requests). To disable cookies set jar to false (either in defaults or in the options sent).
263 var request = request.defaults({jar: false})
264 request('http://www.google.com', function () {
265 request('http://images.google.com')
269 If you to use a custom cookie jar (instead of letting request use its own global cookie jar) you do so by setting the jar default or by specifying it as an option:
272 var j = request.jar()
273 var request = request.defaults({jar:j})
274 request('http://www.google.com', function () {
275 request('http://images.google.com')
281 var j = request.jar()
282 var cookie = request.cookie('your_cookie_here')
284 request({url: 'http://www.google.com', jar: j}, function () {
285 request('http://images.google.com')