Easily make HTTPS requests that return promises w/ nodejs

Readme.md

Javascript request yak shave

I wanted to easily make HTTP requests (both GET & POST) with a simple interface that returns promises.

The popular request & request-promises package are good, but I wanted to figure out how to do it w/out using external dependencies.

The key features are:

• the ability to set a timeout
• non-200 responses are considered errors that reject the promise.
• any errors at the TCP socker/DNS level reject the promise.

Hat tip to webivore and the Node HTTP docs, whose learning curve I climbed.

It's great for AWS Lambda.

Examples

const url = require('url');
const req = require('httpPromise');
// Simple get request
req("https://httpbin.org/get")
  .then((res) => { console.log(res)})
  .catch((err) => { console.log("oh no: " + err)});

// Get req w/ timeout and extra headers:
req(Object.assign({}, url.parse("https://httpbin.org/get"), {timeout: 2000, headers: {'X-MyHeader': 'MyValue'}}))

// POST data:
req(Object.assign({}, url.parse("https://httpbin.org/post"), { method: 'POST', headers: {'Content-Type': 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded'}}), "foo=bar")
  .then((res) => { console.log(res)})
  .catch((err) => { console.log("oh no: " + err)});

httpPromise.js

import https from 'https'

export default (urlOptions, data = '') => new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
  // Inspired from https://gist.github.com/ktheory/df3440b01d4b9d3197180d5254d7fb65
  const req = https.request(urlOptions, res => {
    // I believe chunks can simply be joined into a string
    const chunks = []

    res.on('data', chunk => chunks.push(chunk))
    res.on('error', reject)
    res.on('end', () => {
      const { statusCode, headers } = res
      const validResponse = statusCode >= 200 && statusCode <= 299
      const body = chunks.join('')

      if (validResponse) resolve({ statusCode, headers, body })
      else reject(new Error(`Request failed. status: ${statusCode}, body: ${body}`))
    })
  })

  req.on('error', reject)
  req.write(data, 'binary')
  req.end()
})

@santanaG Thank you! I updated the gist w/ the code in your comment.

for people who just want to deal with buffers and nothing more (also with listener cleanup)

import https from "https";

export const request = (urlOptions, body) =>
  new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
    const handleRequestResponse = (res) => {
      removeRequestListeners();

      const chunks = [];
      const handleResponseData = (chunk) => {
        chunks.push(chunk);
      };

      const handleResponseError = (err) => {
        removeResponseListeners();
        reject(err);
      };

      const handleResponseEnd = () => {
        removeResponseListeners();
        resolve({ req, res, body: Buffer.concat(chunks) });
      };

      const removeResponseListeners = () => {
        res.removeListener("data", handleResponseData);
        res.removeListener("error", handleResponseError);
        res.removeListener("end", handleResponseEnd);
      };

      res.on("data", handleResponseData);
      res.once("error", handleResponseError);
      res.once("end", handleResponseEnd);
    };

    const handleRequestError = (err) => {
      removeRequestListeners();
      reject(err);
    };

    const removeRequestListeners = () => {
      req.removeListener("response", handleRequestResponse);
      req.removeListener("error", handleRequestError);
    };

    const req = https.request(urlOptions);
    req.once("response", handleRequestResponse);
    req.once("error", handleRequestError);

    if (body) {
      req.end(body);
    } else {
      req.end();
    }
  });

@santanaG Thank you! I updated the gist w/ the code in your comment.

That was unexpected but I am honored! Thanks!

@hertzg Why do you removeRequestListeners if you only add once ?

Using once might not be needed because:

The optional callback parameter will be added as a one-time listener for the 'response' event.

From documentation 'abort' event can be emitted

'abort' ('aborted' on the res object)