How is an HTTP POST request made in node.js?

Question

How can I make an outbound HTTP POST request, with data, in node.js?

Answer 1

let request = require('request');
let jsonObj = {};
request({
    url: "https://myapii.com/sendJsonData",
    method: "POST",
    json: true,
    body: jsonObj
    }, function (error, resp, body){
       console.log(resp);
});

Or you could use this library:

let axios = require("axios");
let jsonObj = {};

const myJsonAPI = axios.create({
   baseURL: 'https://myapii.com',
   timeout: 120*1000
});

let response = await myJsonAPI.post("sendJsonData",jsonobj).catch(e=>{
    res.json(e);
});
console.log(response);

Answer 2

There are dozens of open-source libraries available that you can use to making an HTTP POST request in Node.

1. Axios (Recommended)

const axios = require('axios');

const data = {
    name: 'John Doe',
    job: 'Content Writer'
};

axios.post('https://reqres.in/api/users', data)
    .then((res) => {
        console.log(`Status: ${res.status}`);
        console.log('Body: ', res.data);
    }).catch((err) => {
        console.error(err);
    });

2. Needle

const needle = require('needle');

const data = {
    name: 'John Doe',
    job: 'Content Writer'
};

needle('post', 'https://reqres.in/api/users', data, {json: true})
    .then((res) => {
        console.log(`Status: ${res.statusCode}`);
        console.log('Body: ', res.body);
    }).catch((err) => {
        console.error(err);
    });

3. Request

const request = require('request');

const options = {
    url: 'https://reqres.in/api/users',
    json: true,
    body: {
        name: 'John Doe',
        job: 'Content Writer'
    }
};

request.post(options, (err, res, body) => {
    if (err) {
        return console.log(err);
    }
    console.log(`Status: ${res.statusCode}`);
    console.log(body);
});

4. Native HTTPS Module

const https = require('https');

const data = JSON.stringify({
    name: 'John Doe',
    job: 'Content Writer'
});

const options = {
    hostname: 'reqres.in',
    path: '/api/users',
    method: 'POST',
    headers: {
        'Content-Type': 'application/json',
        'Content-Length': data.length
    }
};


const req = https.request(options, (res) => {
    let data = '';

    console.log('Status Code:', res.statusCode);

    res.on('data', (chunk) => {
        data += chunk;
    });

    res.on('end', () => {
        console.log('Body: ', JSON.parse(data));
    });

}).on("error", (err) => {
    console.log("Error: ", err.message);
});

req.write(data);
req.end();

For details, check out this article.

Answer 3

This my solution for POST and GET.

About the Post method:

If the body is a JSON object, so it's important to deserialize it with JSON.stringify and possibly set the Content-Lenght header accordingly:

      var bodyString=JSON.stringify(body)
      var _headers = {
        'Content-Length': Buffer.byteLength(bodyString)
      };

before writing it to the request:

request.write( bodyString );

About both Get and Post methods:

The timeout can occur as a socket disconnect, so you must register its handler like:

request.on('socket', function (socket) {
        socket.setTimeout( self.timeout );
        socket.on('timeout', function() {
            request.abort();
            if(timeout) return timeout( new Error('request timed out') );
        });
    });

while the request handler is

       request.on('timeout', function () {
          // Timeout happend. Server received request, but not handled it
          // (i.e. doesn't send any response or it took to long).
          // You don't know what happend.
          // It will emit 'error' message as well (with ECONNRESET code).
          req.abort();
          if(timeout) return timeout( new Error('request timed out') );
        });

I strongly suggest to register both the handlers.

The response body is chunked, so you must concat chunks at the data handler:

      var body = '';
      response.on('data', function(d) {
          body += d;
      });

At the end the body will contain the whole response body:

      response.on('end', function() {
        try {
            var jsonResponse=JSON.parse(body);
            if(success) return success( jsonResponse );
        } catch(ex) { // bad json
          if(error) return error(ex.toString());
        }
      });

It is safe to wrap with a try...catchtheJSON.parse` since you cannot be sure that it is a well-formatted json actually and there is no way to be sure of it at the time you do the request.

Module: SimpleAPI

/**
 * Simple POST and GET
 * @author Loreto Parisi (loretoparisi at gmail dot com)
*/
(function() {

  var SimpleAPI;

  SimpleAPI = (function() {

    var qs = require('querystring');

    /**
     * API Object model
     * @author Loreto Parisi (loretoparisi at gmail dot com)
     */
    function SimpleAPI(host,port,timeout,ssl,debug,json) {

      this.host=host;
      this.port=port;
      this.timeout=timeout;
      /** true to use ssl - defaults to true */
      this.ssl=ssl || true;
      /** true to console log */
      this.debug=debug;
      /** true to parse response as json - defaults to true */
      this.json= (typeof(json)!='undefined')?json:true;
      this.requestUrl='';
      if(ssl) { // use ssl
          this.http = require('https');
      } else { // go unsafe, debug only please
          this.http = require('http');
      }
    }

    /**
     * HTTP GET
     * @author Loreto Parisi (loretoparisi at gmail dot com)
     */
    SimpleAPI.prototype.Get = function(path, headers, params, success, error, timeout) {

      var self=this;
      if(params) {
        var queryString=qs.stringify(params);
        if( queryString ) {
          path+="?"+queryString;
        }
      }
      var options = {
        headers : headers,
        hostname: this.host,
        path: path,
        method: 'GET'
      };
      if(this.port && this.port!='80') { // port only if ! 80
        options['port']=this.port;
      }
      if(self.debug) {
        console.log( "SimpleAPI.Get", headers, params, options );
      }
      var request=this.http.get(options, function(response) {

          if(self.debug) { // debug
            console.log( JSON.stringify(response.headers) );
          }

          // Continuously update stream with data
          var body = '';
          response.on('data', function(d) {
              body += d;
          });
          response.on('end', function() {
            try {
              if(self.json) {
                var jsonResponse=JSON.parse(body);
                if(success) return success( jsonResponse );
              }
              else {
                if(success) return success( body );
              }
            } catch(ex) { // bad json
              if(error) return error( ex.toString() );
            }
          });
        });
        request.on('socket', function (socket) {
            socket.setTimeout( self.timeout );
            socket.on('timeout', function() {
                request.abort();
                if(timeout) return timeout( new Error('request timed out') );
            });
        });
        request.on('error', function (e) {
          // General error, i.e.
          //  - ECONNRESET - server closed the socket unexpectedly
          //  - ECONNREFUSED - server did not listen
          //  - HPE_INVALID_VERSION
          //  - HPE_INVALID_STATUS
          //  - ... (other HPE_* codes) - server returned garbage
          console.log(e);
          if(error) return error(e);
        });
        request.on('timeout', function () {
          // Timeout happend. Server received request, but not handled it
          // (i.e. doesn't send any response or it took to long).
          // You don't know what happend.
          // It will emit 'error' message as well (with ECONNRESET code).
          req.abort();
          if(timeout) return timeout( new Error('request timed out') );
        });

        self.requestUrl = (this.ssl?'https':'http') + '://' + request._headers['host'] + request.path;
        if(self.debug) {
          console.log("SimpleAPI.Post",self.requestUrl);
        }
        request.end();
    } //RequestGet

    /**
     * HTTP POST
     * @author Loreto Parisi (loretoparisi at gmail dot com)
     */
    SimpleAPI.prototype.Post = function(path, headers, params, body, success, error, timeout) {
      var self=this;

      if(params) {
        var queryString=qs.stringify(params);
        if( queryString ) {
          path+="?"+queryString;
        }
      }
      var bodyString=JSON.stringify(body)
      var _headers = {
        'Content-Length': Buffer.byteLength(bodyString)
      };
      for (var attrname in headers) { _headers[attrname] = headers[attrname]; }

      var options = {
        headers : _headers,
        hostname: this.host,
        path: path,
        method: 'POST',
        qs : qs.stringify(params)
      };
      if(this.port && this.port!='80') { // port only if ! 80
        options['port']=this.port;
      }
      if(self.debug) {
        console.log( "SimpleAPI.Post\n%s\n%s", JSON.stringify(_headers,null,2), JSON.stringify(options,null,2) );
      }
      if(self.debug) {
        console.log("SimpleAPI.Post body\n%s", JSON.stringify(body,null,2) );
      }
      var request=this.http.request(options, function(response) {

          if(self.debug) { // debug
            console.log( JSON.stringify(response.headers) );
          }

          // Continuously update stream with data
          var body = '';
          response.on('data', function(d) {
              body += d;
          });
          response.on('end', function() {
            try {
                console.log("END", body);
                var jsonResponse=JSON.parse(body);
                if(success) return success( jsonResponse );
            } catch(ex) { // bad json
              if(error) return error(ex.toString());
            }
          });

        });

        request.on('socket', function (socket) {
            socket.setTimeout( self.timeout );
            socket.on('timeout', function() {
                request.abort();
                if(timeout) return timeout( new Error('request timed out') );
            });
        });
        request.on('error', function (e) {
          // General error, i.e.
          //  - ECONNRESET - server closed the socket unexpectedly
          //  - ECONNREFUSED - server did not listen
          //  - HPE_INVALID_VERSION
          //  - HPE_INVALID_STATUS
          //  - ... (other HPE_* codes) - server returned garbage
          console.log(e);
          if(error) return error(e);
        });
        request.on('timeout', function () {
          // Timeout happend. Server received request, but not handled it
          // (i.e. doesn't send any response or it took to long).
          // You don't know what happend.
          // It will emit 'error' message as well (with ECONNRESET code).
          req.abort();
          if(timeout) return timeout( new Error('request timed out') );
        });

        self.requestUrl = (this.ssl?'https':'http') + '://' + request._headers['host'] + request.path;
        if(self.debug) {
          console.log("SimpleAPI.Post",self.requestUrl);
        }

        request.write( bodyString );
        request.end();

    } //RequestPost

    return SimpleAPI;

  })();

  module.exports = SimpleAPI

}).call(this);

Usage:

// Parameters
// domain: example.com
// ssl:true, port:80
// timeout: 30 secs
// debug: true
// json response:true
var api = new SimpleAPI('posttestserver.com', 80, 1000 * 10, true, true, true); 

var headers = {
    'Content-Type' : 'application/json',
    'Accept' : 'application/json' 
};
var params = {
  "dir" : "post-test"
};
var method = 'post.php';

api.Post(method, headers, params, body
    , function(response) { // success
       console.log( response );
    }
    , function(error) { // error
      console.log( error.toString() );
    }
    , function(error) { // timeout
       console.log( new Error('timeout error') );
    });

Answer 4

request is now deprecated. It is recommended you use an alternative

In no particular order and dreadfully incomplete:

• native HTTP/S, const https = require('https');
• node-fetch
• axios
• got
• superagent
• bent
• make-fetch-happen
• unfetch
• tiny-json-http
• needle
• urllib

Stats comparision Some code examples

Original answer:

This gets a lot easier if you use the request library.

var request = require('request');

request.post(
    'http://www.yoursite.com/formpage',
    { json: { key: 'value' } },
    function (error, response, body) {
        if (!error && response.statusCode == 200) {
            console.log(body);
        }
    }
);

Aside from providing a nice syntax it makes json requests easy, handles oauth signing (for twitter, etc.), can do multi-part forms (e.g. for uploading files) and streaming.

To install request use command npm install request

Answer 5

Simple and dependency-free. Uses a Promise so that you can await the result. It returns the response body and does not check the response status code.

const https = require('https');

function httpsPost({body, ...options}) {
    return new Promise((resolve,reject) => {
        const req = https.request({
            method: 'POST',
            ...options,
        }, res => {
            const chunks = [];
            res.on('data', data => chunks.push(data))
            res.on('end', () => {
                let body = Buffer.concat(chunks);
                switch(res.headers['content-type']) {
                    case 'application/json':
                        body = JSON.parse(body);
                        break;
                }
                resolve(body)
            })
        })
        req.on('error',reject);
        if(body) {
            req.write(body);
        }
        req.end();
    })
}

Usage:

async function main() {
    const res = await httpsPost({
        hostname: 'sentry.io',
        path: `/api/0/organizations/org/releases/${changesetId}/deploys/`,
        headers: {
            'Authorization': `Bearer ${process.env.SENTRY_AUTH_TOKEN}`,
            'Content-Type': 'application/json',
        },
        body: JSON.stringify({
            environment: isLive ? 'production' : 'demo',
        })
    })
}

main().catch(err => {
    console.log(err)
})

Answer 6

I use Restler and Needle for production purposes. They are both much more powerful than native httprequest. It is possible to request with basic authentication, special header entry or even upload/download files.

As for post/get operation, they also are much simpler to use than raw ajax calls using httprequest.

needle.post('https://my.app.com/endpoint', {foo:'bar'}, 
    function(err, resp, body){
        console.log(body);
});