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40.7 kBMarkdownView Raw
1
2# Request - Simplified HTTP client
3
4[![npm package](https://nodei.co/npm/request.png?downloads=true&downloadRank=true&stars=true)](https://nodei.co/npm/request/)
5
6[![Build status](https://img.shields.io/travis/request/request.svg?style=flat-square)](https://travis-ci.org/request/request)
7[![Coverage](https://img.shields.io/codecov/c/github/request/request.svg?style=flat-square)](https://codecov.io/github/request/request?branch=master)
8[![Coverage](https://img.shields.io/coveralls/request/request.svg?style=flat-square)](https://coveralls.io/r/request/request)
9[![Dependency Status](https://img.shields.io/david/request/request.svg?style=flat-square)](https://david-dm.org/request/request)
10[![Gitter](https://img.shields.io/badge/gitter-join_chat-blue.svg?style=flat-square)](https://gitter.im/request/request?utm_source=badge)
11
12
13## Super simple to use
14
15Request is designed to be the simplest way possible to make http calls. It supports HTTPS and follows redirects by default.
16
17```js
18var request = require('request');
19request('http://www.google.com', function (error, response, body) {
20 if (!error && response.statusCode == 200) {
21 console.log(body) // Show the HTML for the Google homepage.
22 }
23})
24```
25
26
27## Table of contents
28
29- [Streaming](#streaming)
30- [Forms](#forms)
31- [HTTP Authentication](#http-authentication)
32- [Custom HTTP Headers](#custom-http-headers)
33- [OAuth Signing](#oauth-signing)
34- [Proxies](#proxies)
35- [Unix Domain Sockets](#unix-domain-sockets)
36- [TLS/SSL Protocol](#tlsssl-protocol)
37- [Support for HAR 1.2](#support-for-har-12)
38- [**All Available Options**](#requestoptions-callback)
39
40Request also offers [convenience methods](#convenience-methods) like
41`request.defaults` and `request.post`, and there are
42lots of [usage examples](#examples) and several
43[debugging techniques](#debugging).
44
45
46---
47
48
49## Streaming
50
51You can stream any response to a file stream.
52
53```js
54request('http://google.com/doodle.png').pipe(fs.createWriteStream('doodle.png'))
55```
56
57You 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 the headers don’t already provide one).
58
59```js
60fs.createReadStream('file.json').pipe(request.put('http://mysite.com/obj.json'))
61```
62
63Request can also `pipe` to itself. When doing so, `content-type` and `content-length` are preserved in the PUT headers.
64
65```js
66request.get('http://google.com/img.png').pipe(request.put('http://mysite.com/img.png'))
67```
68
69Request emits a "response" event when a response is received. The `response` argument will be an instance of [http.IncomingMessage](http://nodejs.org/api/http.html#http_http_incomingmessage).
70
71```js
72request
73 .get('http://google.com/img.png')
74 .on('response', function(response) {
75 console.log(response.statusCode) // 200
76 console.log(response.headers['content-type']) // 'image/png'
77 })
78 .pipe(request.put('http://mysite.com/img.png'))
79```
80
81To easily handle errors when streaming requests, listen to the `error` event before piping:
82
83```js
84request
85 .get('http://mysite.com/doodle.png')
86 .on('error', function(err) {
87 console.log(err)
88 })
89 .pipe(fs.createWriteStream('doodle.png'))
90```
91
92Now let’s get fancy.
93
94```js
95http.createServer(function (req, resp) {
96 if (req.url === '/doodle.png') {
97 if (req.method === 'PUT') {
98 req.pipe(request.put('http://mysite.com/doodle.png'))
99 } else if (req.method === 'GET' || req.method === 'HEAD') {
100 request.get('http://mysite.com/doodle.png').pipe(resp)
101 }
102 }
103})
104```
105
106You can also `pipe()` from `http.ServerRequest` instances, as well as to `http.ServerResponse` instances. The HTTP method, headers, and entity-body data will be sent. Which means that, if you don't really care about security, you can do:
107
108```js
109http.createServer(function (req, resp) {
110 if (req.url === '/doodle.png') {
111 var x = request('http://mysite.com/doodle.png')
112 req.pipe(x)
113 x.pipe(resp)
114 }
115})
116```
117
118And since `pipe()` returns the destination stream in ≥ Node 0.5.x you can do one line proxying. :)
119
120```js
121req.pipe(request('http://mysite.com/doodle.png')).pipe(resp)
122```
123
124Also, none of this new functionality conflicts with requests previous features, it just expands them.
125
126```js
127var r = request.defaults({'proxy':'http://localproxy.com'})
128
129http.createServer(function (req, resp) {
130 if (req.url === '/doodle.png') {
131 r.get('http://google.com/doodle.png').pipe(resp)
132 }
133})
134```
135
136You can still use intermediate proxies, the requests will still follow HTTP forwards, etc.
137
138[back to top](#table-of-contents)
139
140
141---
142
143
144## Forms
145
146`request` supports `application/x-www-form-urlencoded` and `multipart/form-data` form uploads. For `multipart/related` refer to the `multipart` API.
147
148
149#### application/x-www-form-urlencoded (URL-Encoded Forms)
150
151URL-encoded forms are simple.
152
153```js
154request.post('http://service.com/upload', {form:{key:'value'}})
155// or
156request.post('http://service.com/upload').form({key:'value'})
157// or
158request.post({url:'http://service.com/upload', form: {key:'value'}}, function(err,httpResponse,body){ /* ... */ })
159```
160
161
162#### multipart/form-data (Multipart Form Uploads)
163
164For `multipart/form-data` we use the [form-data](https://github.com/felixge/node-form-data) library by [@felixge](https://github.com/felixge). For the most cases, you can pass your upload form data via the `formData` option.
165
166
167```js
168var formData = {
169 // Pass a simple key-value pair
170 my_field: 'my_value',
171 // Pass data via Buffers
172 my_buffer: new Buffer([1, 2, 3]),
173 // Pass data via Streams
174 my_file: fs.createReadStream(__dirname + '/unicycle.jpg'),
175 // Pass multiple values /w an Array
176 attachments: [
177 fs.createReadStream(__dirname + '/attachment1.jpg'),
178 fs.createReadStream(__dirname + '/attachment2.jpg')
179 ],
180 // Pass optional meta-data with an 'options' object with style: {value: DATA, options: OPTIONS}
181 // Use case: for some types of streams, you'll need to provide "file"-related information manually.
182 // See the `form-data` README for more information about options: https://github.com/felixge/node-form-data
183 custom_file: {
184 value: fs.createReadStream('/dev/urandom'),
185 options: {
186 filename: 'topsecret.jpg',
187 contentType: 'image/jpg'
188 }
189 }
190};
191request.post({url:'http://service.com/upload', formData: formData}, function optionalCallback(err, httpResponse, body) {
192 if (err) {
193 return console.error('upload failed:', err);
194 }
195 console.log('Upload successful! Server responded with:', body);
196});
197```
198
199For advanced cases, you can access the form-data object itself via `r.form()`. This can be modified until the request is fired on the next cycle of the event-loop. (Note that this calling `form()` will clear the currently set form data for that request.)
200
201```js
202// NOTE: Advanced use-case, for normal use see 'formData' usage above
203var r = request.post('http://service.com/upload', function optionalCallback(err, httpResponse, body) {...})
204var form = r.form();
205form.append('my_field', 'my_value');
206form.append('my_buffer', new Buffer([1, 2, 3]));
207form.append('custom_file', fs.createReadStream(__dirname + '/unicycle.jpg'), {filename: 'unicycle.jpg'});
208```
209See the [form-data README](https://github.com/felixge/node-form-data) for more information & examples.
210
211
212#### multipart/related
213
214Some variations in different HTTP implementations require a newline/CRLF before, after, or both before and after the boundary of a `multipart/related` request (using the multipart option). This has been observed in the .NET WebAPI version 4.0. You can turn on a boundary preambleCRLF or postamble by passing them as `true` to your request options.
215
216```js
217 request({
218 method: 'PUT',
219 preambleCRLF: true,
220 postambleCRLF: true,
221 uri: 'http://service.com/upload',
222 multipart: [
223 {
224 'content-type': 'application/json',
225 body: JSON.stringify({foo: 'bar', _attachments: {'message.txt': {follows: true, length: 18, 'content_type': 'text/plain' }}})
226 },
227 { body: 'I am an attachment' },
228 { body: fs.createReadStream('image.png') }
229 ],
230 // alternatively pass an object containing additional options
231 multipart: {
232 chunked: false,
233 data: [
234 {
235 'content-type': 'application/json',
236 body: JSON.stringify({foo: 'bar', _attachments: {'message.txt': {follows: true, length: 18, 'content_type': 'text/plain' }}})
237 },
238 { body: 'I am an attachment' }
239 ]
240 }
241 },
242 function (error, response, body) {
243 if (error) {
244 return console.error('upload failed:', error);
245 }
246 console.log('Upload successful! Server responded with:', body);
247 })
248```
249
250[back to top](#table-of-contents)
251
252
253---
254
255
256## HTTP Authentication
257
258```js
259request.get('http://some.server.com/').auth('username', 'password', false);
260// or
261request.get('http://some.server.com/', {
262 'auth': {
263 'user': 'username',
264 'pass': 'password',
265 'sendImmediately': false
266 }
267});
268// or
269request.get('http://some.server.com/').auth(null, null, true, 'bearerToken');
270// or
271request.get('http://some.server.com/', {
272 'auth': {
273 'bearer': 'bearerToken'
274 }
275});
276```
277
278If passed as an option, `auth` should be a hash containing values:
279
280- `user` || `username`
281- `pass` || `password`
282- `sendImmediately` (optional)
283- `bearer` (optional)
284
285The method form takes parameters
286`auth(username, password, sendImmediately, bearer)`.
287
288`sendImmediately` defaults to `true`, which causes a basic or bearer
289authentication header to be sent. If `sendImmediately` is `false`, then
290`request` will retry with a proper authentication header after receiving a
291`401` response from the server (which must contain a `WWW-Authenticate` header
292indicating the required authentication method).
293
294Note that you can also specify basic authentication using the URL itself, as
295detailed in [RFC 1738](http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1738.txt). Simply pass the
296`user:password` before the host with an `@` sign:
297
298```js
299var username = 'username',
300 password = 'password',
301 url = 'http://' + username + ':' + password + '@some.server.com';
302
303request({url: url}, function (error, response, body) {
304 // Do more stuff with 'body' here
305});
306```
307
308Digest authentication is supported, but it only works with `sendImmediately`
309set to `false`; otherwise `request` will send basic authentication on the
310initial request, which will probably cause the request to fail.
311
312Bearer authentication is supported, and is activated when the `bearer` value is
313available. The value may be either a `String` or a `Function` returning a
314`String`. Using a function to supply the bearer token is particularly useful if
315used in conjuction with `defaults` to allow a single function to supply the
316last known token at the time of sending a request, or to compute one on the fly.
317
318[back to top](#table-of-contents)
319
320
321---
322
323
324## Custom HTTP Headers
325
326HTTP Headers, such as `User-Agent`, can be set in the `options` object.
327In the example below, we call the github API to find out the number
328of stars and forks for the request repository. This requires a
329custom `User-Agent` header as well as https.
330
331```js
332var request = require('request');
333
334var options = {
335 url: 'https://api.github.com/repos/request/request',
336 headers: {
337 'User-Agent': 'request'
338 }
339};
340
341function callback(error, response, body) {
342 if (!error && response.statusCode == 200) {
343 var info = JSON.parse(body);
344 console.log(info.stargazers_count + " Stars");
345 console.log(info.forks_count + " Forks");
346 }
347}
348
349request(options, callback);
350```
351
352[back to top](#table-of-contents)
353
354
355---
356
357
358## OAuth Signing
359
360[OAuth version 1.0](https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc5849) is supported. The
361default signing algorithm is
362[HMAC-SHA1](https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc5849#section-3.4.2):
363
364```js
365// OAuth1.0 - 3-legged server side flow (Twitter example)
366// step 1
367var qs = require('querystring')
368 , oauth =
369 { callback: 'http://mysite.com/callback/'
370 , consumer_key: CONSUMER_KEY
371 , consumer_secret: CONSUMER_SECRET
372 }
373 , url = 'https://api.twitter.com/oauth/request_token'
374 ;
375request.post({url:url, oauth:oauth}, function (e, r, body) {
376 // Ideally, you would take the body in the response
377 // and construct a URL that a user clicks on (like a sign in button).
378 // The verifier is only available in the response after a user has
379 // verified with twitter that they are authorizing your app.
380
381 // step 2
382 var req_data = qs.parse(body)
383 var uri = 'https://api.twitter.com/oauth/authenticate'
384 + '?' + qs.stringify({oauth_token: req_data.oauth_token})
385 // redirect the user to the authorize uri
386
387 // step 3
388 // after the user is redirected back to your server
389 var auth_data = qs.parse(body)
390 , oauth =
391 { consumer_key: CONSUMER_KEY
392 , consumer_secret: CONSUMER_SECRET
393 , token: auth_data.oauth_token
394 , token_secret: req_data.oauth_token_secret
395 , verifier: auth_data.oauth_verifier
396 }
397 , url = 'https://api.twitter.com/oauth/access_token'
398 ;
399 request.post({url:url, oauth:oauth}, function (e, r, body) {
400 // ready to make signed requests on behalf of the user
401 var perm_data = qs.parse(body)
402 , oauth =
403 { consumer_key: CONSUMER_KEY
404 , consumer_secret: CONSUMER_SECRET
405 , token: perm_data.oauth_token
406 , token_secret: perm_data.oauth_token_secret
407 }
408 , url = 'https://api.twitter.com/1.1/users/show.json'
409 , qs =
410 { screen_name: perm_data.screen_name
411 , user_id: perm_data.user_id
412 }
413 ;
414 request.get({url:url, oauth:oauth, qs:qs, json:true}, function (e, r, user) {
415 console.log(user)
416 })
417 })
418})
419```
420
421For [RSA-SHA1 signing](https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc5849#section-3.4.3), make
422the following changes to the OAuth options object:
423* Pass `signature_method : 'RSA-SHA1'`
424* Instead of `consumer_secret`, specify a `private_key` string in
425 [PEM format](http://how2ssl.com/articles/working_with_pem_files/)
426
427For [PLAINTEXT signing](http://oauth.net/core/1.0/#anchor22), make
428the following changes to the OAuth options object:
429* Pass `signature_method : 'PLAINTEXT'`
430
431To send OAuth parameters via query params or in a post body as described in The
432[Consumer Request Parameters](http://oauth.net/core/1.0/#consumer_req_param)
433section of the oauth1 spec:
434* Pass `transport_method : 'query'` or `transport_method : 'body'` in the OAuth
435 options object.
436* `transport_method` defaults to `'header'`
437
438To use [Request Body Hash](https://oauth.googlecode.com/svn/spec/ext/body_hash/1.0/oauth-bodyhash.html) you can either
439* Manually generate the body hash and pass it as a string `body_hash: '...'`
440* Automatically generate the body hash by passing `body_hash: true`
441
442[back to top](#table-of-contents)
443
444
445---
446
447
448## Proxies
449
450If you specify a `proxy` option, then the request (and any subsequent
451redirects) will be sent via a connection to the proxy server.
452
453If your endpoint is an `https` url, and you are using a proxy, then
454request will send a `CONNECT` request to the proxy server *first*, and
455then use the supplied connection to connect to the endpoint.
456
457That is, first it will make a request like:
458
459```
460HTTP/1.1 CONNECT endpoint-server.com:80
461Host: proxy-server.com
462User-Agent: whatever user agent you specify
463```
464
465and then the proxy server make a TCP connection to `endpoint-server`
466on port `80`, and return a response that looks like:
467
468```
469HTTP/1.1 200 OK
470```
471
472At this point, the connection is left open, and the client is
473communicating directly with the `endpoint-server.com` machine.
474
475See [the wikipedia page on HTTP Tunneling](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTTP_tunnel)
476for more information.
477
478By default, when proxying `http` traffic, request will simply make a
479standard proxied `http` request. This is done by making the `url`
480section of the initial line of the request a fully qualified url to
481the endpoint.
482
483For example, it will make a single request that looks like:
484
485```
486HTTP/1.1 GET http://endpoint-server.com/some-url
487Host: proxy-server.com
488Other-Headers: all go here
489
490request body or whatever
491```
492
493Because a pure "http over http" tunnel offers no additional security
494or other features, it is generally simpler to go with a
495straightforward HTTP proxy in this case. However, if you would like
496to force a tunneling proxy, you may set the `tunnel` option to `true`.
497
498You can also make a standard proxied `http` request by explicitly setting
499`tunnel : false`, but **note that this will allow the proxy to see the traffic
500to/from the destination server**.
501
502If you are using a tunneling proxy, you may set the
503`proxyHeaderWhiteList` to share certain headers with the proxy.
504
505You can also set the `proxyHeaderExclusiveList` to share certain
506headers only with the proxy and not with destination host.
507
508By default, this set is:
509
510```
511accept
512accept-charset
513accept-encoding
514accept-language
515accept-ranges
516cache-control
517content-encoding
518content-language
519content-length
520content-location
521content-md5
522content-range
523content-type
524connection
525date
526expect
527max-forwards
528pragma
529proxy-authorization
530referer
531te
532transfer-encoding
533user-agent
534via
535```
536
537Note that, when using a tunneling proxy, the `proxy-authorization`
538header and any headers from custom `proxyHeaderExclusiveList` are
539*never* sent to the endpoint server, but only to the proxy server.
540
541
542### Controlling proxy behaviour using environment variables
543
544The following environment variables are respected by `request`:
545
546 * `HTTP_PROXY` / `http_proxy`
547 * `HTTPS_PROXY` / `https_proxy`
548 * `NO_PROXY` / `no_proxy`
549
550When `HTTP_PROXY` / `http_proxy` are set, they will be used to proxy non-SSL requests that do not have an explicit `proxy` configuration option present. Similarly, `HTTPS_PROXY` / `https_proxy` will be respected for SSL requests that do not have an explicit `proxy` configuration option. It is valid to define a proxy in one of the environment variables, but then override it for a specific request, using the `proxy` configuration option. Furthermore, the `proxy` configuration option can be explicitly set to false / null to opt out of proxying altogether for that request.
551
552`request` is also aware of the `NO_PROXY`/`no_proxy` environment variables. These variables provide a granular way to opt out of proxying, on a per-host basis. It should contain a comma separated list of hosts to opt out of proxying. It is also possible to opt of proxying when a particular destination port is used. Finally, the variable may be set to `*` to opt out of the implicit proxy configuration of the other environment variables.
553
554Here's some examples of valid `no_proxy` values:
555
556 * `google.com` - don't proxy HTTP/HTTPS requests to Google.
557 * `google.com:443` - don't proxy HTTPS requests to Google, but *do* proxy HTTP requests to Google.
558 * `google.com:443, yahoo.com:80` - don't proxy HTTPS requests to Google, and don't proxy HTTP requests to Yahoo!
559 * `*` - ignore `https_proxy`/`http_proxy` environment variables altogether.
560
561[back to top](#table-of-contents)
562
563
564---
565
566
567## UNIX Domain Sockets
568
569`request` supports making requests to [UNIX Domain Sockets](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix_domain_socket). To make one, use the following URL scheme:
570
571```js
572/* Pattern */ 'http://unix:SOCKET:PATH'
573/* Example */ request.get('http://unix:/absolute/path/to/unix.socket:/request/path')
574```
575
576Note: The `SOCKET` path is assumed to be absolute to the root of the host file system.
577
578[back to top](#table-of-contents)
579
580
581---
582
583
584## TLS/SSL Protocol
585
586TLS/SSL Protocol options, such as `cert`, `key` and `passphrase`, can be
587set directly in `options` object, in the `agentOptions` property of the `options` object, or even in `https.globalAgent.options`. Keep in mind that, although `agentOptions` allows for a slightly wider range of configurations, the recommendend way is via `options` object directly, as using `agentOptions` or `https.globalAgent.options` would not be applied in the same way in proxied environments (as data travels through a TLS connection instead of an http/https agent).
588
589```js
590var fs = require('fs')
591 , path = require('path')
592 , certFile = path.resolve(__dirname, 'ssl/client.crt')
593 , keyFile = path.resolve(__dirname, 'ssl/client.key')
594 , caFile = path.resolve(__dirname, 'ssl/ca.cert.pem')
595 , request = require('request');
596
597var options = {
598 url: 'https://api.some-server.com/',
599 cert: fs.readFileSync(certFile),
600 key: fs.readFileSync(keyFile),
601 passphrase: 'password',
602 ca: fs.readFileSync(caFile)
603 }
604};
605
606request.get(options);
607```
608
609### Using `options.agentOptions`
610
611In the example below, we call an API requires client side SSL certificate
612(in PEM format) with passphrase protected private key (in PEM format) and disable the SSLv3 protocol:
613
614```js
615var fs = require('fs')
616 , path = require('path')
617 , certFile = path.resolve(__dirname, 'ssl/client.crt')
618 , keyFile = path.resolve(__dirname, 'ssl/client.key')
619 , request = require('request');
620
621var options = {
622 url: 'https://api.some-server.com/',
623 agentOptions: {
624 cert: fs.readFileSync(certFile),
625 key: fs.readFileSync(keyFile),
626 // Or use `pfx` property replacing `cert` and `key` when using private key, certificate and CA certs in PFX or PKCS12 format:
627 // pfx: fs.readFileSync(pfxFilePath),
628 passphrase: 'password',
629 securityOptions: 'SSL_OP_NO_SSLv3'
630 }
631};
632
633request.get(options);
634```
635
636It is able to force using SSLv3 only by specifying `secureProtocol`:
637
638```js
639request.get({
640 url: 'https://api.some-server.com/',
641 agentOptions: {
642 secureProtocol: 'SSLv3_method'
643 }
644});
645```
646
647It is possible to accept other certificates than those signed by generally allowed Certificate Authorities (CAs).
648This can be useful, for example, when using self-signed certificates.
649To require a different root certificate, you can specify the signing CA by adding the contents of the CA's certificate file to the `agentOptions`.
650The certificate the domain presents must be signed by the root certificate specified:
651
652```js
653request.get({
654 url: 'https://api.some-server.com/',
655 agentOptions: {
656 ca: fs.readFileSync('ca.cert.pem')
657 }
658});
659```
660
661[back to top](#table-of-contents)
662
663
664---
665
666## Support for HAR 1.2
667
668The `options.har` property will override the values: `url`, `method`, `qs`, `headers`, `form`, `formData`, `body`, `json`, as well as construct multipart data and read files from disk when `request.postData.params[].fileName` is present without a matching `value`.
669
670a validation step will check if the HAR Request format matches the latest spec (v1.2) and will skip parsing if not matching.
671
672```js
673 var request = require('request')
674 request({
675 // will be ignored
676 method: 'GET',
677 uri: 'http://www.google.com',
678
679 // HTTP Archive Request Object
680 har: {
681 url: 'http://www.mockbin.com/har',
682 method: 'POST',
683 headers: [
684 {
685 name: 'content-type',
686 value: 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded'
687 }
688 ],
689 postData: {
690 mimeType: 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded',
691 params: [
692 {
693 name: 'foo',
694 value: 'bar'
695 },
696 {
697 name: 'hello',
698 value: 'world'
699 }
700 ]
701 }
702 }
703 })
704
705 // a POST request will be sent to http://www.mockbin.com
706 // with body an application/x-www-form-urlencoded body:
707 // foo=bar&hello=world
708```
709
710[back to top](#table-of-contents)
711
712
713---
714
715## request(options, callback)
716
717The first argument can be either a `url` or an `options` object. The only required option is `uri`; all others are optional.
718
719- `uri` || `url` - fully qualified uri or a parsed url object from `url.parse()`
720- `baseUrl` - fully qualified uri string used as the base url. Most useful with `request.defaults`, for example when you want to do many requests to the same domain. If `baseUrl` is `https://example.com/api/`, then requesting `/end/point?test=true` will fetch `https://example.com/api/end/point?test=true`. When `baseUrl` is given, `uri` must also be a string.
721- `method` - http method (default: `"GET"`)
722- `headers` - http headers (default: `{}`)
723
724---
725
726- `qs` - object containing querystring values to be appended to the `uri`
727- `qsParseOptions` - object containing options to pass to the [qs.parse](https://github.com/hapijs/qs#parsing-objects) method. Alternatively pass options to the [querystring.parse](https://nodejs.org/docs/v0.12.0/api/querystring.html#querystring_querystring_parse_str_sep_eq_options) method using this format `{sep:';', eq:':', options:{}}`
728- `qsStringifyOptions` - object containing options to pass to the [qs.stringify](https://github.com/hapijs/qs#stringifying) method. Alternatively pass options to the [querystring.stringify](https://nodejs.org/docs/v0.12.0/api/querystring.html#querystring_querystring_stringify_obj_sep_eq_options) method using this format `{sep:';', eq:':', options:{}}`. For example, to change the way arrays are converted to query strings using the `qs` module pass the `arrayFormat` option with one of `indices|brackets|repeat`
729- `useQuerystring` - If true, use `querystring` to stringify and parse
730 querystrings, otherwise use `qs` (default: `false`). Set this option to
731 `true` if you need arrays to be serialized as `foo=bar&foo=baz` instead of the
732 default `foo[0]=bar&foo[1]=baz`.
733
734---
735
736- `body` - entity body for PATCH, POST and PUT requests. Must be a `Buffer` or `String`, unless `json` is `true`. If `json` is `true`, then `body` must be a JSON-serializable object.
737- `form` - when passed an object or a querystring, this sets `body` to a querystring representation of value, and adds `Content-type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded` header. When passed no options, a `FormData` instance is returned (and is piped to request). See "Forms" section above.
738- `formData` - Data to pass for a `multipart/form-data` request. See
739 [Forms](#forms) section above.
740- `multipart` - array of objects which contain their own headers and `body`
741 attributes. Sends a `multipart/related` request. See [Forms](#forms) section
742 above.
743 - Alternatively you can pass in an object `{chunked: false, data: []}` where
744 `chunked` is used to specify whether the request is sent in
745 [chunked transfer encoding](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chunked_transfer_encoding)
746 In non-chunked requests, data items with body streams are not allowed.
747- `preambleCRLF` - append a newline/CRLF before the boundary of your `multipart/form-data` request.
748- `postambleCRLF` - append a newline/CRLF at the end of the boundary of your `multipart/form-data` request.
749- `json` - sets `body` but to JSON representation of value and adds `Content-type: application/json` header. Additionally, parses the response body as JSON.
750- `jsonReviver` - a [reviver function](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/JSON/parse) that will be passed to `JSON.parse()` when parsing a JSON response body.
751
752---
753
754- `auth` - A hash containing values `user` || `username`, `pass` || `password`, and `sendImmediately` (optional). See documentation above.
755- `oauth` - Options for OAuth HMAC-SHA1 signing. See documentation above.
756- `hawk` - Options for [Hawk signing](https://github.com/hueniverse/hawk). The `credentials` key must contain the necessary signing info, [see hawk docs for details](https://github.com/hueniverse/hawk#usage-example).
757- `aws` - `object` containing AWS signing information. Should have the properties `key`, `secret`. Also requires the property `bucket`, unless you’re specifying your `bucket` as part of the path, or the request doesn’t use a bucket (i.e. GET Services)
758- `httpSignature` - Options for the [HTTP Signature Scheme](https://github.com/joyent/node-http-signature/blob/master/http_signing.md) using [Joyent's library](https://github.com/joyent/node-http-signature). The `keyId` and `key` properties must be specified. See the docs for other options.
759
760---
761
762- `followRedirect` - follow HTTP 3xx responses as redirects (default: `true`). This property can also be implemented as function which gets `response` object as a single argument and should return `true` if redirects should continue or `false` otherwise.
763- `followAllRedirects` - follow non-GET HTTP 3xx responses as redirects (default: `false`)
764- `maxRedirects` - the maximum number of redirects to follow (default: `10`)
765- `removeRefererHeader` - removes the referer header when a redirect happens (default: `false`).
766
767---
768
769- `encoding` - Encoding to be used on `setEncoding` of response data. If `null`, the `body` is returned as a `Buffer`. Anything else **(including the default value of `undefined`)** will be passed as the [encoding](http://nodejs.org/api/buffer.html#buffer_buffer) parameter to `toString()` (meaning this is effectively `utf8` by default). (**Note:** if you expect binary data, you should set `encoding: null`.)
770- `gzip` - If `true`, add an `Accept-Encoding` header to request compressed content encodings from the server (if not already present) and decode supported content encodings in the response. **Note:** Automatic decoding of the response content is performed on the body data returned through `request` (both through the `request` stream and passed to the callback function) but is not performed on the `response` stream (available from the `response` event) which is the unmodified `http.IncomingMessage` object which may contain compressed data. See example below.
771- `jar` - If `true`, remember cookies for future use (or define your custom cookie jar; see examples section)
772
773---
774
775- `agent` - `http(s).Agent` instance to use
776- `agentClass` - alternatively specify your agent's class name
777- `agentOptions` - and pass its options. **Note:** for HTTPS see [tls API doc for TLS/SSL options](http://nodejs.org/api/tls.html#tls_tls_connect_options_callback) and the [documentation above](#using-optionsagentoptions).
778- `forever` - set to `true` to use the [forever-agent](https://github.com/request/forever-agent) **Note:** Defaults to `http(s).Agent({keepAlive:true})` in node 0.12+
779- `pool` - An object describing which agents to use for the request. If this option is omitted the request will use the global agent (as long as your options allow for it). Otherwise, request will search the pool for your custom agent. If no custom agent is found, a new agent will be created and added to the pool. **Note:** `pool` is used only when the `agent` option is not specified.
780 - A `maxSockets` property can also be provided on the `pool` object to set the max number of sockets for all agents created (ex: `pool: {maxSockets: Infinity}`).
781 - Note that if you are sending multiple requests in a loop and creating
782 multiple new `pool` objects, `maxSockets` will not work as intended. To
783 work around this, either use [`request.defaults`](#requestdefaultsoptions)
784 with your pool options or create the pool object with the `maxSockets`
785 property outside of the loop.
786- `timeout` - Integer containing the number of milliseconds to wait for a
787server to send response headers (and start the response body) before aborting
788the request. Note that if the underlying TCP connection cannot be established,
789the OS-wide TCP connection timeout will overrule the `timeout` option ([the
790default in Linux can be anywhere from 20-120 seconds][linux-timeout]).
791
792[linux-timeout]: http://www.sekuda.com/overriding_the_default_linux_kernel_20_second_tcp_socket_connect_timeout
793
794---
795
796- `localAddress` - Local interface to bind for network connections.
797- `proxy` - An HTTP proxy to be used. Supports proxy Auth with Basic Auth, identical to support for the `url` parameter (by embedding the auth info in the `uri`)
798- `strictSSL` - If `true`, requires 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.
799- `tunnel` - controls the behavior of
800 [HTTP `CONNECT` tunneling](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTTP_tunnel#HTTP_CONNECT_tunneling)
801 as follows:
802 - `undefined` (default) - `true` if the destination is `https` or a previous
803 request in the redirect chain used a tunneling proxy, `false` otherwise
804 - `true` - always tunnel to the destination by making a `CONNECT` request to
805 the proxy
806 - `false` - request the destination as a `GET` request.
807- `proxyHeaderWhiteList` - A whitelist of headers to send to a
808 tunneling proxy.
809- `proxyHeaderExclusiveList` - A whitelist of headers to send
810 exclusively to a tunneling proxy and not to destination.
811
812---
813
814- `time` - If `true`, the request-response cycle (including all redirects) is timed at millisecond resolution, and the result provided on the response's `elapsedTime` property.
815- `har` - A [HAR 1.2 Request Object](http://www.softwareishard.com/blog/har-12-spec/#request), will be processed from HAR format into options overwriting matching values *(see the [HAR 1.2 section](#support-for-har-1.2) for details)*
816
817The callback argument gets 3 arguments:
818
8191. An `error` when applicable (usually from [`http.ClientRequest`](http://nodejs.org/api/http.html#http_class_http_clientrequest) object)
8202. An [`http.IncomingMessage`](http://nodejs.org/api/http.html#http_http_incomingmessage) object
8213. The third is the `response` body (`String` or `Buffer`, or JSON object if the `json` option is supplied)
822
823[back to top](#table-of-contents)
824
825
826---
827
828## Convenience methods
829
830There are also shorthand methods for different HTTP METHODs and some other conveniences.
831
832
833### request.defaults(options)
834
835This method **returns a wrapper** around the normal request API that defaults
836to whatever options you pass to it.
837
838**Note:** `request.defaults()` **does not** modify the global request API;
839instead, it **returns a wrapper** that has your default settings applied to it.
840
841**Note:** You can call `.defaults()` on the wrapper that is returned from
842`request.defaults` to add/override defaults that were previously defaulted.
843
844For example:
845```js
846//requests using baseRequest() will set the 'x-token' header
847var baseRequest = request.defaults({
848 headers: {x-token: 'my-token'}
849})
850
851//requests using specialRequest() will include the 'x-token' header set in
852//baseRequest and will also include the 'special' header
853var specialRequest = baseRequest.defaults({
854 headers: {special: 'special value'}
855})
856```
857
858### request.put
859
860Same as `request()`, but defaults to `method: "PUT"`.
861
862```js
863request.put(url)
864```
865
866### request.patch
867
868Same as `request()`, but defaults to `method: "PATCH"`.
869
870```js
871request.patch(url)
872```
873
874### request.post
875
876Same as `request()`, but defaults to `method: "POST"`.
877
878```js
879request.post(url)
880```
881
882### request.head
883
884Same as `request()`, but defaults to `method: "HEAD"`.
885
886```js
887request.head(url)
888```
889
890### request.del
891
892Same as `request()`, but defaults to `method: "DELETE"`.
893
894```js
895request.del(url)
896```
897
898### request.get
899
900Same as `request()` (for uniformity).
901
902```js
903request.get(url)
904```
905### request.cookie
906
907Function that creates a new cookie.
908
909```js
910request.cookie('key1=value1')
911```
912### request.jar()
913
914Function that creates a new cookie jar.
915
916```js
917request.jar()
918```
919
920[back to top](#table-of-contents)
921
922
923---
924
925
926## Debugging
927
928There are at least three ways to debug the operation of `request`:
929
9301. Launch the node process like `NODE_DEBUG=request node script.js`
931 (`lib,request,otherlib` works too).
932
9332. Set `require('request').debug = true` at any time (this does the same thing
934 as #1).
935
9363. Use the [request-debug module](https://github.com/nylen/request-debug) to
937 view request and response headers and bodies.
938
939[back to top](#table-of-contents)
940
941
942---
943
944## Timeouts
945
946Most requests to external servers should have a timeout attached, in case the
947server is not responding in a timely manner. Without a timeout, your code may
948have a socket open/consume resources for minutes or more.
949
950There are two main types of timeouts: **connection timeouts** and **read
951timeouts**. A connect timeout occurs if the timeout is hit while your client is
952attempting to establish a connection to a remote machine (corresponding to the
953[connect() call][connect] on the socket). A read timeout occurs any time the
954server is too slow to send back a part of the response.
955
956These two situations have widely different implications for what went wrong
957with the request, so it's useful to be able to distinguish them. You can detect
958timeout errors by checking `err.code` for an 'ETIMEDOUT' value. Further, you
959can detect whether the timeout was a connection timeout by checking if the
960`err.connect` property is set to `true`.
961
962```js
963request.get('http://10.255.255.1', {timeout: 1500}, function(err) {
964 console.log(err.code === 'ETIMEDOUT');
965 // Set to `true` if the timeout was a connection timeout, `false` or
966 // `undefined` otherwise.
967 console.log(err.connect === true);
968 process.exit(0);
969});
970```
971
972[connect]: http://linux.die.net/man/2/connect
973
974## Examples:
975
976```js
977 var request = require('request')
978 , rand = Math.floor(Math.random()*100000000).toString()
979 ;
980 request(
981 { method: 'PUT'
982 , uri: 'http://mikeal.iriscouch.com/testjs/' + rand
983 , multipart:
984 [ { 'content-type': 'application/json'
985 , body: JSON.stringify({foo: 'bar', _attachments: {'message.txt': {follows: true, length: 18, 'content_type': 'text/plain' }}})
986 }
987 , { body: 'I am an attachment' }
988 ]
989 }
990 , function (error, response, body) {
991 if(response.statusCode == 201){
992 console.log('document saved as: http://mikeal.iriscouch.com/testjs/'+ rand)
993 } else {
994 console.log('error: '+ response.statusCode)
995 console.log(body)
996 }
997 }
998 )
999```
1000
1001For backwards-compatibility, response compression is not supported by default.
1002To accept gzip-compressed responses, set the `gzip` option to `true`. Note
1003that the body data passed through `request` is automatically decompressed
1004while the response object is unmodified and will contain compressed data if
1005the server sent a compressed response.
1006
1007```js
1008 var request = require('request')
1009 request(
1010 { method: 'GET'
1011 , uri: 'http://www.google.com'
1012 , gzip: true
1013 }
1014 , function (error, response, body) {
1015 // body is the decompressed response body
1016 console.log('server encoded the data as: ' + (response.headers['content-encoding'] || 'identity'))
1017 console.log('the decoded data is: ' + body)
1018 }
1019 ).on('data', function(data) {
1020 // decompressed data as it is received
1021 console.log('decoded chunk: ' + data)
1022 })
1023 .on('response', function(response) {
1024 // unmodified http.IncomingMessage object
1025 response.on('data', function(data) {
1026 // compressed data as it is received
1027 console.log('received ' + data.length + ' bytes of compressed data')
1028 })
1029 })
1030```
1031
1032Cookies are disabled by default (else, they would be used in subsequent requests). To enable cookies, set `jar` to `true` (either in `defaults` or `options`).
1033
1034```js
1035var request = request.defaults({jar: true})
1036request('http://www.google.com', function () {
1037 request('http://images.google.com')
1038})
1039```
1040
1041To use a custom cookie jar (instead of `request`’s global cookie jar), set `jar` to an instance of `request.jar()` (either in `defaults` or `options`)
1042
1043```js
1044var j = request.jar()
1045var request = request.defaults({jar:j})
1046request('http://www.google.com', function () {
1047 request('http://images.google.com')
1048})
1049```
1050
1051OR
1052
1053```js
1054var j = request.jar();
1055var cookie = request.cookie('key1=value1');
1056var url = 'http://www.google.com';
1057j.setCookie(cookie, url);
1058request({url: url, jar: j}, function () {
1059 request('http://images.google.com')
1060})
1061```
1062
1063To use a custom cookie store (such as a
1064[`FileCookieStore`](https://github.com/mitsuru/tough-cookie-filestore)
1065which supports saving to and restoring from JSON files), pass it as a parameter
1066to `request.jar()`:
1067
1068```js
1069var FileCookieStore = require('tough-cookie-filestore');
1070// NOTE - currently the 'cookies.json' file must already exist!
1071var j = request.jar(new FileCookieStore('cookies.json'));
1072request = request.defaults({ jar : j })
1073request('http://www.google.com', function() {
1074 request('http://images.google.com')
1075})
1076```
1077
1078The cookie store must be a
1079[`tough-cookie`](https://github.com/goinstant/tough-cookie)
1080store and it must support synchronous operations; see the
1081[`CookieStore` API docs](https://github.com/goinstant/tough-cookie/#cookiestore-api)
1082for details.
1083
1084To inspect your cookie jar after a request:
1085
1086```js
1087var j = request.jar()
1088request({url: 'http://www.google.com', jar: j}, function () {
1089 var cookie_string = j.getCookieString(url); // "key1=value1; key2=value2; ..."
1090 var cookies = j.getCookies(url);
1091 // [{key: 'key1', value: 'value1', domain: "www.google.com", ...}, ...]
1092})
1093```
1094
1095[back to top](#table-of-contents)