UNPKG

41.3 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/master.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[![Known Vulnerabilities](https://snyk.io/test/npm/request/badge.svg?style=flat-square)](https://snyk.io/test/npm/request)
11[![Gitter](https://img.shields.io/badge/gitter-join_chat-blue.svg?style=flat-square)](https://gitter.im/request/request?utm_source=badge)
12
13
14## Super simple to use
15
16Request is designed to be the simplest way possible to make http calls. It supports HTTPS and follows redirects by default.
17
18```js
19var request = require('request');
20request('http://www.google.com', function (error, response, body) {
21 if (!error && response.statusCode == 200) {
22 console.log(body) // Show the HTML for the Google homepage.
23 }
24})
25```
26
27
28## Table of contents
29
30- [Streaming](#streaming)
31- [Forms](#forms)
32- [HTTP Authentication](#http-authentication)
33- [Custom HTTP Headers](#custom-http-headers)
34- [OAuth Signing](#oauth-signing)
35- [Proxies](#proxies)
36- [Unix Domain Sockets](#unix-domain-sockets)
37- [TLS/SSL Protocol](#tlsssl-protocol)
38- [Support for HAR 1.2](#support-for-har-12)
39- [**All Available Options**](#requestoptions-callback)
40
41Request also offers [convenience methods](#convenience-methods) like
42`request.defaults` and `request.post`, and there are
43lots of [usage examples](#examples) and several
44[debugging techniques](#debugging).
45
46
47---
48
49
50## Streaming
51
52You can stream any response to a file stream.
53
54```js
55request('http://google.com/doodle.png').pipe(fs.createWriteStream('doodle.png'))
56```
57
58You 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).
59
60```js
61fs.createReadStream('file.json').pipe(request.put('http://mysite.com/obj.json'))
62```
63
64Request can also `pipe` to itself. When doing so, `content-type` and `content-length` are preserved in the PUT headers.
65
66```js
67request.get('http://google.com/img.png').pipe(request.put('http://mysite.com/img.png'))
68```
69
70Request 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).
71
72```js
73request
74 .get('http://google.com/img.png')
75 .on('response', function(response) {
76 console.log(response.statusCode) // 200
77 console.log(response.headers['content-type']) // 'image/png'
78 })
79 .pipe(request.put('http://mysite.com/img.png'))
80```
81
82To easily handle errors when streaming requests, listen to the `error` event before piping:
83
84```js
85request
86 .get('http://mysite.com/doodle.png')
87 .on('error', function(err) {
88 console.log(err)
89 })
90 .pipe(fs.createWriteStream('doodle.png'))
91```
92
93Now let’s get fancy.
94
95```js
96http.createServer(function (req, resp) {
97 if (req.url === '/doodle.png') {
98 if (req.method === 'PUT') {
99 req.pipe(request.put('http://mysite.com/doodle.png'))
100 } else if (req.method === 'GET' || req.method === 'HEAD') {
101 request.get('http://mysite.com/doodle.png').pipe(resp)
102 }
103 }
104})
105```
106
107You 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:
108
109```js
110http.createServer(function (req, resp) {
111 if (req.url === '/doodle.png') {
112 var x = request('http://mysite.com/doodle.png')
113 req.pipe(x)
114 x.pipe(resp)
115 }
116})
117```
118
119And since `pipe()` returns the destination stream in ≥ Node 0.5.x you can do one line proxying. :)
120
121```js
122req.pipe(request('http://mysite.com/doodle.png')).pipe(resp)
123```
124
125Also, none of this new functionality conflicts with requests previous features, it just expands them.
126
127```js
128var r = request.defaults({'proxy':'http://localproxy.com'})
129
130http.createServer(function (req, resp) {
131 if (req.url === '/doodle.png') {
132 r.get('http://google.com/doodle.png').pipe(resp)
133 }
134})
135```
136
137You can still use intermediate proxies, the requests will still follow HTTP forwards, etc.
138
139[back to top](#table-of-contents)
140
141
142---
143
144
145## Forms
146
147`request` supports `application/x-www-form-urlencoded` and `multipart/form-data` form uploads. For `multipart/related` refer to the `multipart` API.
148
149
150#### application/x-www-form-urlencoded (URL-Encoded Forms)
151
152URL-encoded forms are simple.
153
154```js
155request.post('http://service.com/upload', {form:{key:'value'}})
156// or
157request.post('http://service.com/upload').form({key:'value'})
158// or
159request.post({url:'http://service.com/upload', form: {key:'value'}}, function(err,httpResponse,body){ /* ... */ })
160```
161
162
163#### multipart/form-data (Multipart Form Uploads)
164
165For `multipart/form-data` we use the [form-data](https://github.com/form-data/form-data) library by [@felixge](https://github.com/felixge). For the most cases, you can pass your upload form data via the `formData` option.
166
167
168```js
169var formData = {
170 // Pass a simple key-value pair
171 my_field: 'my_value',
172 // Pass data via Buffers
173 my_buffer: new Buffer([1, 2, 3]),
174 // Pass data via Streams
175 my_file: fs.createReadStream(__dirname + '/unicycle.jpg'),
176 // Pass multiple values /w an Array
177 attachments: [
178 fs.createReadStream(__dirname + '/attachment1.jpg'),
179 fs.createReadStream(__dirname + '/attachment2.jpg')
180 ],
181 // Pass optional meta-data with an 'options' object with style: {value: DATA, options: OPTIONS}
182 // Use case: for some types of streams, you'll need to provide "file"-related information manually.
183 // See the `form-data` README for more information about options: https://github.com/form-data/form-data
184 custom_file: {
185 value: fs.createReadStream('/dev/urandom'),
186 options: {
187 filename: 'topsecret.jpg',
188 contentType: 'image/jpg'
189 }
190 }
191};
192request.post({url:'http://service.com/upload', formData: formData}, function optionalCallback(err, httpResponse, body) {
193 if (err) {
194 return console.error('upload failed:', err);
195 }
196 console.log('Upload successful! Server responded with:', body);
197});
198```
199
200For 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.)
201
202```js
203// NOTE: Advanced use-case, for normal use see 'formData' usage above
204var r = request.post('http://service.com/upload', function optionalCallback(err, httpResponse, body) {...})
205var form = r.form();
206form.append('my_field', 'my_value');
207form.append('my_buffer', new Buffer([1, 2, 3]));
208form.append('custom_file', fs.createReadStream(__dirname + '/unicycle.jpg'), {filename: 'unicycle.jpg'});
209```
210See the [form-data README](https://github.com/form-data/form-data) for more information & examples.
211
212
213#### multipart/related
214
215Some 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.
216
217```js
218 request({
219 method: 'PUT',
220 preambleCRLF: true,
221 postambleCRLF: true,
222 uri: 'http://service.com/upload',
223 multipart: [
224 {
225 'content-type': 'application/json',
226 body: JSON.stringify({foo: 'bar', _attachments: {'message.txt': {follows: true, length: 18, 'content_type': 'text/plain' }}})
227 },
228 { body: 'I am an attachment' },
229 { body: fs.createReadStream('image.png') }
230 ],
231 // alternatively pass an object containing additional options
232 multipart: {
233 chunked: false,
234 data: [
235 {
236 'content-type': 'application/json',
237 body: JSON.stringify({foo: 'bar', _attachments: {'message.txt': {follows: true, length: 18, 'content_type': 'text/plain' }}})
238 },
239 { body: 'I am an attachment' }
240 ]
241 }
242 },
243 function (error, response, body) {
244 if (error) {
245 return console.error('upload failed:', error);
246 }
247 console.log('Upload successful! Server responded with:', body);
248 })
249```
250
251[back to top](#table-of-contents)
252
253
254---
255
256
257## HTTP Authentication
258
259```js
260request.get('http://some.server.com/').auth('username', 'password', false);
261// or
262request.get('http://some.server.com/', {
263 'auth': {
264 'user': 'username',
265 'pass': 'password',
266 'sendImmediately': false
267 }
268});
269// or
270request.get('http://some.server.com/').auth(null, null, true, 'bearerToken');
271// or
272request.get('http://some.server.com/', {
273 'auth': {
274 'bearer': 'bearerToken'
275 }
276});
277```
278
279If passed as an option, `auth` should be a hash containing values:
280
281- `user` || `username`
282- `pass` || `password`
283- `sendImmediately` (optional)
284- `bearer` (optional)
285
286The method form takes parameters
287`auth(username, password, sendImmediately, bearer)`.
288
289`sendImmediately` defaults to `true`, which causes a basic or bearer
290authentication header to be sent. If `sendImmediately` is `false`, then
291`request` will retry with a proper authentication header after receiving a
292`401` response from the server (which must contain a `WWW-Authenticate` header
293indicating the required authentication method).
294
295Note that you can also specify basic authentication using the URL itself, as
296detailed in [RFC 1738](http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1738.txt). Simply pass the
297`user:password` before the host with an `@` sign:
298
299```js
300var username = 'username',
301 password = 'password',
302 url = 'http://' + username + ':' + password + '@some.server.com';
303
304request({url: url}, function (error, response, body) {
305 // Do more stuff with 'body' here
306});
307```
308
309Digest authentication is supported, but it only works with `sendImmediately`
310set to `false`; otherwise `request` will send basic authentication on the
311initial request, which will probably cause the request to fail.
312
313Bearer authentication is supported, and is activated when the `bearer` value is
314available. The value may be either a `String` or a `Function` returning a
315`String`. Using a function to supply the bearer token is particularly useful if
316used in conjunction with `defaults` to allow a single function to supply the
317last known token at the time of sending a request, or to compute one on the fly.
318
319[back to top](#table-of-contents)
320
321
322---
323
324
325## Custom HTTP Headers
326
327HTTP Headers, such as `User-Agent`, can be set in the `options` object.
328In the example below, we call the github API to find out the number
329of stars and forks for the request repository. This requires a
330custom `User-Agent` header as well as https.
331
332```js
333var request = require('request');
334
335var options = {
336 url: 'https://api.github.com/repos/request/request',
337 headers: {
338 'User-Agent': 'request'
339 }
340};
341
342function callback(error, response, body) {
343 if (!error && response.statusCode == 200) {
344 var info = JSON.parse(body);
345 console.log(info.stargazers_count + " Stars");
346 console.log(info.forks_count + " Forks");
347 }
348}
349
350request(options, callback);
351```
352
353[back to top](#table-of-contents)
354
355
356---
357
358
359## OAuth Signing
360
361[OAuth version 1.0](https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc5849) is supported. The
362default signing algorithm is
363[HMAC-SHA1](https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc5849#section-3.4.2):
364
365```js
366// OAuth1.0 - 3-legged server side flow (Twitter example)
367// step 1
368var qs = require('querystring')
369 , oauth =
370 { callback: 'http://mysite.com/callback/'
371 , consumer_key: CONSUMER_KEY
372 , consumer_secret: CONSUMER_SECRET
373 }
374 , url = 'https://api.twitter.com/oauth/request_token'
375 ;
376request.post({url:url, oauth:oauth}, function (e, r, body) {
377 // Ideally, you would take the body in the response
378 // and construct a URL that a user clicks on (like a sign in button).
379 // The verifier is only available in the response after a user has
380 // verified with twitter that they are authorizing your app.
381
382 // step 2
383 var req_data = qs.parse(body)
384 var uri = 'https://api.twitter.com/oauth/authenticate'
385 + '?' + qs.stringify({oauth_token: req_data.oauth_token})
386 // redirect the user to the authorize uri
387
388 // step 3
389 // after the user is redirected back to your server
390 var auth_data = qs.parse(body)
391 , oauth =
392 { consumer_key: CONSUMER_KEY
393 , consumer_secret: CONSUMER_SECRET
394 , token: auth_data.oauth_token
395 , token_secret: req_data.oauth_token_secret
396 , verifier: auth_data.oauth_verifier
397 }
398 , url = 'https://api.twitter.com/oauth/access_token'
399 ;
400 request.post({url:url, oauth:oauth}, function (e, r, body) {
401 // ready to make signed requests on behalf of the user
402 var perm_data = qs.parse(body)
403 , oauth =
404 { consumer_key: CONSUMER_KEY
405 , consumer_secret: CONSUMER_SECRET
406 , token: perm_data.oauth_token
407 , token_secret: perm_data.oauth_token_secret
408 }
409 , url = 'https://api.twitter.com/1.1/users/show.json'
410 , qs =
411 { screen_name: perm_data.screen_name
412 , user_id: perm_data.user_id
413 }
414 ;
415 request.get({url:url, oauth:oauth, qs:qs, json:true}, function (e, r, user) {
416 console.log(user)
417 })
418 })
419})
420```
421
422For [RSA-SHA1 signing](https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc5849#section-3.4.3), make
423the following changes to the OAuth options object:
424* Pass `signature_method : 'RSA-SHA1'`
425* Instead of `consumer_secret`, specify a `private_key` string in
426 [PEM format](http://how2ssl.com/articles/working_with_pem_files/)
427
428For [PLAINTEXT signing](http://oauth.net/core/1.0/#anchor22), make
429the following changes to the OAuth options object:
430* Pass `signature_method : 'PLAINTEXT'`
431
432To send OAuth parameters via query params or in a post body as described in The
433[Consumer Request Parameters](http://oauth.net/core/1.0/#consumer_req_param)
434section of the oauth1 spec:
435* Pass `transport_method : 'query'` or `transport_method : 'body'` in the OAuth
436 options object.
437* `transport_method` defaults to `'header'`
438
439To use [Request Body Hash](https://oauth.googlecode.com/svn/spec/ext/body_hash/1.0/oauth-bodyhash.html) you can either
440* Manually generate the body hash and pass it as a string `body_hash: '...'`
441* Automatically generate the body hash by passing `body_hash: true`
442
443[back to top](#table-of-contents)
444
445
446---
447
448
449## Proxies
450
451If you specify a `proxy` option, then the request (and any subsequent
452redirects) will be sent via a connection to the proxy server.
453
454If your endpoint is an `https` url, and you are using a proxy, then
455request will send a `CONNECT` request to the proxy server *first*, and
456then use the supplied connection to connect to the endpoint.
457
458That is, first it will make a request like:
459
460```
461HTTP/1.1 CONNECT endpoint-server.com:80
462Host: proxy-server.com
463User-Agent: whatever user agent you specify
464```
465
466and then the proxy server make a TCP connection to `endpoint-server`
467on port `80`, and return a response that looks like:
468
469```
470HTTP/1.1 200 OK
471```
472
473At this point, the connection is left open, and the client is
474communicating directly with the `endpoint-server.com` machine.
475
476See [the wikipedia page on HTTP Tunneling](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTTP_tunnel)
477for more information.
478
479By default, when proxying `http` traffic, request will simply make a
480standard proxied `http` request. This is done by making the `url`
481section of the initial line of the request a fully qualified url to
482the endpoint.
483
484For example, it will make a single request that looks like:
485
486```
487HTTP/1.1 GET http://endpoint-server.com/some-url
488Host: proxy-server.com
489Other-Headers: all go here
490
491request body or whatever
492```
493
494Because a pure "http over http" tunnel offers no additional security
495or other features, it is generally simpler to go with a
496straightforward HTTP proxy in this case. However, if you would like
497to force a tunneling proxy, you may set the `tunnel` option to `true`.
498
499You can also make a standard proxied `http` request by explicitly setting
500`tunnel : false`, but **note that this will allow the proxy to see the traffic
501to/from the destination server**.
502
503If you are using a tunneling proxy, you may set the
504`proxyHeaderWhiteList` to share certain headers with the proxy.
505
506You can also set the `proxyHeaderExclusiveList` to share certain
507headers only with the proxy and not with destination host.
508
509By default, this set is:
510
511```
512accept
513accept-charset
514accept-encoding
515accept-language
516accept-ranges
517cache-control
518content-encoding
519content-language
520content-length
521content-location
522content-md5
523content-range
524content-type
525connection
526date
527expect
528max-forwards
529pragma
530proxy-authorization
531referer
532te
533transfer-encoding
534user-agent
535via
536```
537
538Note that, when using a tunneling proxy, the `proxy-authorization`
539header and any headers from custom `proxyHeaderExclusiveList` are
540*never* sent to the endpoint server, but only to the proxy server.
541
542
543### Controlling proxy behaviour using environment variables
544
545The following environment variables are respected by `request`:
546
547 * `HTTP_PROXY` / `http_proxy`
548 * `HTTPS_PROXY` / `https_proxy`
549 * `NO_PROXY` / `no_proxy`
550
551When `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.
552
553`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.
554
555Here's some examples of valid `no_proxy` values:
556
557 * `google.com` - don't proxy HTTP/HTTPS requests to Google.
558 * `google.com:443` - don't proxy HTTPS requests to Google, but *do* proxy HTTP requests to Google.
559 * `google.com:443, yahoo.com:80` - don't proxy HTTPS requests to Google, and don't proxy HTTP requests to Yahoo!
560 * `*` - ignore `https_proxy`/`http_proxy` environment variables altogether.
561
562[back to top](#table-of-contents)
563
564
565---
566
567
568## UNIX Domain Sockets
569
570`request` supports making requests to [UNIX Domain Sockets](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix_domain_socket). To make one, use the following URL scheme:
571
572```js
573/* Pattern */ 'http://unix:SOCKET:PATH'
574/* Example */ request.get('http://unix:/absolute/path/to/unix.socket:/request/path')
575```
576
577Note: The `SOCKET` path is assumed to be absolute to the root of the host file system.
578
579[back to top](#table-of-contents)
580
581
582---
583
584
585## TLS/SSL Protocol
586
587TLS/SSL Protocol options, such as `cert`, `key` and `passphrase`, can be
588set 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 recommended 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).
589
590```js
591var fs = require('fs')
592 , path = require('path')
593 , certFile = path.resolve(__dirname, 'ssl/client.crt')
594 , keyFile = path.resolve(__dirname, 'ssl/client.key')
595 , caFile = path.resolve(__dirname, 'ssl/ca.cert.pem')
596 , request = require('request');
597
598var options = {
599 url: 'https://api.some-server.com/',
600 cert: fs.readFileSync(certFile),
601 key: fs.readFileSync(keyFile),
602 passphrase: 'password',
603 ca: fs.readFileSync(caFile)
604 }
605};
606
607request.get(options);
608```
609
610### Using `options.agentOptions`
611
612In the example below, we call an API requires client side SSL certificate
613(in PEM format) with passphrase protected private key (in PEM format) and disable the SSLv3 protocol:
614
615```js
616var fs = require('fs')
617 , path = require('path')
618 , certFile = path.resolve(__dirname, 'ssl/client.crt')
619 , keyFile = path.resolve(__dirname, 'ssl/client.key')
620 , request = require('request');
621
622var options = {
623 url: 'https://api.some-server.com/',
624 agentOptions: {
625 cert: fs.readFileSync(certFile),
626 key: fs.readFileSync(keyFile),
627 // Or use `pfx` property replacing `cert` and `key` when using private key, certificate and CA certs in PFX or PKCS12 format:
628 // pfx: fs.readFileSync(pfxFilePath),
629 passphrase: 'password',
630 securityOptions: 'SSL_OP_NO_SSLv3'
631 }
632};
633
634request.get(options);
635```
636
637It is able to force using SSLv3 only by specifying `secureProtocol`:
638
639```js
640request.get({
641 url: 'https://api.some-server.com/',
642 agentOptions: {
643 secureProtocol: 'SSLv3_method'
644 }
645});
646```
647
648It is possible to accept other certificates than those signed by generally allowed Certificate Authorities (CAs).
649This can be useful, for example, when using self-signed certificates.
650To require a different root certificate, you can specify the signing CA by adding the contents of the CA's certificate file to the `agentOptions`.
651The certificate the domain presents must be signed by the root certificate specified:
652
653```js
654request.get({
655 url: 'https://api.some-server.com/',
656 agentOptions: {
657 ca: fs.readFileSync('ca.cert.pem')
658 }
659});
660```
661
662[back to top](#table-of-contents)
663
664
665---
666
667## Support for HAR 1.2
668
669The `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`.
670
671a validation step will check if the HAR Request format matches the latest spec (v1.2) and will skip parsing if not matching.
672
673```js
674 var request = require('request')
675 request({
676 // will be ignored
677 method: 'GET',
678 uri: 'http://www.google.com',
679
680 // HTTP Archive Request Object
681 har: {
682 url: 'http://www.mockbin.com/har',
683 method: 'POST',
684 headers: [
685 {
686 name: 'content-type',
687 value: 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded'
688 }
689 ],
690 postData: {
691 mimeType: 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded',
692 params: [
693 {
694 name: 'foo',
695 value: 'bar'
696 },
697 {
698 name: 'hello',
699 value: 'world'
700 }
701 ]
702 }
703 }
704 })
705
706 // a POST request will be sent to http://www.mockbin.com
707 // with body an application/x-www-form-urlencoded body:
708 // foo=bar&hello=world
709```
710
711[back to top](#table-of-contents)
712
713
714---
715
716## request(options, callback)
717
718The first argument can be either a `url` or an `options` object. The only required option is `uri`; all others are optional.
719
720- `uri` || `url` - fully qualified uri or a parsed url object from `url.parse()`
721- `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.
722- `method` - http method (default: `"GET"`)
723- `headers` - http headers (default: `{}`)
724
725---
726
727- `qs` - object containing querystring values to be appended to the `uri`
728- `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:{}}`
729- `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`
730- `useQuerystring` - If true, use `querystring` to stringify and parse
731 querystrings, otherwise use `qs` (default: `false`). Set this option to
732 `true` if you need arrays to be serialized as `foo=bar&foo=baz` instead of the
733 default `foo[0]=bar&foo[1]=baz`.
734
735---
736
737- `body` - entity body for PATCH, POST and PUT requests. Must be a `Buffer`, `String` or `ReadStream`. If `json` is `true`, then `body` must be a JSON-serializable object.
738- `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.
739- `formData` - Data to pass for a `multipart/form-data` request. See
740 [Forms](#forms) section above.
741- `multipart` - array of objects which contain their own headers and `body`
742 attributes. Sends a `multipart/related` request. See [Forms](#forms) section
743 above.
744 - Alternatively you can pass in an object `{chunked: false, data: []}` where
745 `chunked` is used to specify whether the request is sent in
746 [chunked transfer encoding](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chunked_transfer_encoding)
747 In non-chunked requests, data items with body streams are not allowed.
748- `preambleCRLF` - append a newline/CRLF before the boundary of your `multipart/form-data` request.
749- `postambleCRLF` - append a newline/CRLF at the end of the boundary of your `multipart/form-data` request.
750- `json` - sets `body` to JSON representation of value and adds `Content-type: application/json` header. Additionally, parses the response body as JSON.
751- `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.
752- `jsonReplacer` - a [replacer function](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/JSON/stringify) that will be passed to `JSON.stringify()` when stringifying a JSON request body.
753
754---
755
756- `auth` - A hash containing values `user` || `username`, `pass` || `password`, and `sendImmediately` (optional). See documentation above.
757- `oauth` - Options for OAuth HMAC-SHA1 signing. See documentation above.
758- `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).
759- `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). If you want to use AWS sign version 4 use the parameter `sign_version` with value `4` otherwise the default is version 2. **Note:** you need to `npm install aws4` first.
760- `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.
761
762---
763
764- `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.
765- `followAllRedirects` - follow non-GET HTTP 3xx responses as redirects (default: `false`)
766- `maxRedirects` - the maximum number of redirects to follow (default: `10`)
767- `removeRefererHeader` - removes the referer header when a redirect happens (default: `false`). **Note:** if true, referer header set in the initial request is preserved during redirect chain.
768
769---
770
771- `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`.)
772- `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.
773- `jar` - If `true`, remember cookies for future use (or define your custom cookie jar; see examples section)
774
775---
776
777- `agent` - `http(s).Agent` instance to use
778- `agentClass` - alternatively specify your agent's class name
779- `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).
780- `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+
781- `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.
782 - 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}`).
783 - Note that if you are sending multiple requests in a loop and creating
784 multiple new `pool` objects, `maxSockets` will not work as intended. To
785 work around this, either use [`request.defaults`](#requestdefaultsoptions)
786 with your pool options or create the pool object with the `maxSockets`
787 property outside of the loop.
788- `timeout` - Integer containing the number of milliseconds to wait for a
789server to send response headers (and start the response body) before aborting
790the request. Note that if the underlying TCP connection cannot be established,
791the OS-wide TCP connection timeout will overrule the `timeout` option ([the
792default in Linux can be anywhere from 20-120 seconds][linux-timeout]).
793
794[linux-timeout]: http://www.sekuda.com/overriding_the_default_linux_kernel_20_second_tcp_socket_connect_timeout
795
796---
797
798- `localAddress` - Local interface to bind for network connections.
799- `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`)
800- `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.
801- `tunnel` - controls the behavior of
802 [HTTP `CONNECT` tunneling](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTTP_tunnel#HTTP_CONNECT_tunneling)
803 as follows:
804 - `undefined` (default) - `true` if the destination is `https`, `false` otherwise
805 - `true` - always tunnel to the destination by making a `CONNECT` request to
806 the proxy
807 - `false` - request the destination as a `GET` request.
808- `proxyHeaderWhiteList` - A whitelist of headers to send to a
809 tunneling proxy.
810- `proxyHeaderExclusiveList` - A whitelist of headers to send
811 exclusively to a tunneling proxy and not to destination.
812
813---
814
815- `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.
816- `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)*
817- `callback` - alternatively pass the request's callback in the options object
818
819The callback argument gets 3 arguments:
820
8211. An `error` when applicable (usually from [`http.ClientRequest`](http://nodejs.org/api/http.html#http_class_http_clientrequest) object)
8222. An [`http.IncomingMessage`](http://nodejs.org/api/http.html#http_http_incomingmessage) object
8233. The third is the `response` body (`String` or `Buffer`, or JSON object if the `json` option is supplied)
824
825[back to top](#table-of-contents)
826
827
828---
829
830## Convenience methods
831
832There are also shorthand methods for different HTTP METHODs and some other conveniences.
833
834
835### request.defaults(options)
836
837This method **returns a wrapper** around the normal request API that defaults
838to whatever options you pass to it.
839
840**Note:** `request.defaults()` **does not** modify the global request API;
841instead, it **returns a wrapper** that has your default settings applied to it.
842
843**Note:** You can call `.defaults()` on the wrapper that is returned from
844`request.defaults` to add/override defaults that were previously defaulted.
845
846For example:
847```js
848//requests using baseRequest() will set the 'x-token' header
849var baseRequest = request.defaults({
850 headers: {'x-token': 'my-token'}
851})
852
853//requests using specialRequest() will include the 'x-token' header set in
854//baseRequest and will also include the 'special' header
855var specialRequest = baseRequest.defaults({
856 headers: {special: 'special value'}
857})
858```
859
860### request.put
861
862Same as `request()`, but defaults to `method: "PUT"`.
863
864```js
865request.put(url)
866```
867
868### request.patch
869
870Same as `request()`, but defaults to `method: "PATCH"`.
871
872```js
873request.patch(url)
874```
875
876### request.post
877
878Same as `request()`, but defaults to `method: "POST"`.
879
880```js
881request.post(url)
882```
883
884### request.head
885
886Same as `request()`, but defaults to `method: "HEAD"`.
887
888```js
889request.head(url)
890```
891
892### request.del / request.delete
893
894Same as `request()`, but defaults to `method: "DELETE"`.
895
896```js
897request.del(url)
898request.delete(url)
899```
900
901### request.get
902
903Same as `request()` (for uniformity).
904
905```js
906request.get(url)
907```
908### request.cookie
909
910Function that creates a new cookie.
911
912```js
913request.cookie('key1=value1')
914```
915### request.jar()
916
917Function that creates a new cookie jar.
918
919```js
920request.jar()
921```
922
923[back to top](#table-of-contents)
924
925
926---
927
928
929## Debugging
930
931There are at least three ways to debug the operation of `request`:
932
9331. Launch the node process like `NODE_DEBUG=request node script.js`
934 (`lib,request,otherlib` works too).
935
9362. Set `require('request').debug = true` at any time (this does the same thing
937 as #1).
938
9393. Use the [request-debug module](https://github.com/request/request-debug) to
940 view request and response headers and bodies.
941
942[back to top](#table-of-contents)
943
944
945---
946
947## Timeouts
948
949Most requests to external servers should have a timeout attached, in case the
950server is not responding in a timely manner. Without a timeout, your code may
951have a socket open/consume resources for minutes or more.
952
953There are two main types of timeouts: **connection timeouts** and **read
954timeouts**. A connect timeout occurs if the timeout is hit while your client is
955attempting to establish a connection to a remote machine (corresponding to the
956[connect() call][connect] on the socket). A read timeout occurs any time the
957server is too slow to send back a part of the response.
958
959These two situations have widely different implications for what went wrong
960with the request, so it's useful to be able to distinguish them. You can detect
961timeout errors by checking `err.code` for an 'ETIMEDOUT' value. Further, you
962can detect whether the timeout was a connection timeout by checking if the
963`err.connect` property is set to `true`.
964
965```js
966request.get('http://10.255.255.1', {timeout: 1500}, function(err) {
967 console.log(err.code === 'ETIMEDOUT');
968 // Set to `true` if the timeout was a connection timeout, `false` or
969 // `undefined` otherwise.
970 console.log(err.connect === true);
971 process.exit(0);
972});
973```
974
975[connect]: http://linux.die.net/man/2/connect
976
977## Examples:
978
979```js
980 var request = require('request')
981 , rand = Math.floor(Math.random()*100000000).toString()
982 ;
983 request(
984 { method: 'PUT'
985 , uri: 'http://mikeal.iriscouch.com/testjs/' + rand
986 , multipart:
987 [ { 'content-type': 'application/json'
988 , body: JSON.stringify({foo: 'bar', _attachments: {'message.txt': {follows: true, length: 18, 'content_type': 'text/plain' }}})
989 }
990 , { body: 'I am an attachment' }
991 ]
992 }
993 , function (error, response, body) {
994 if(response.statusCode == 201){
995 console.log('document saved as: http://mikeal.iriscouch.com/testjs/'+ rand)
996 } else {
997 console.log('error: '+ response.statusCode)
998 console.log(body)
999 }
1000 }
1001 )
1002```
1003
1004For backwards-compatibility, response compression is not supported by default.
1005To accept gzip-compressed responses, set the `gzip` option to `true`. Note
1006that the body data passed through `request` is automatically decompressed
1007while the response object is unmodified and will contain compressed data if
1008the server sent a compressed response.
1009
1010```js
1011 var request = require('request')
1012 request(
1013 { method: 'GET'
1014 , uri: 'http://www.google.com'
1015 , gzip: true
1016 }
1017 , function (error, response, body) {
1018 // body is the decompressed response body
1019 console.log('server encoded the data as: ' + (response.headers['content-encoding'] || 'identity'))
1020 console.log('the decoded data is: ' + body)
1021 }
1022 ).on('data', function(data) {
1023 // decompressed data as it is received
1024 console.log('decoded chunk: ' + data)
1025 })
1026 .on('response', function(response) {
1027 // unmodified http.IncomingMessage object
1028 response.on('data', function(data) {
1029 // compressed data as it is received
1030 console.log('received ' + data.length + ' bytes of compressed data')
1031 })
1032 })
1033```
1034
1035Cookies are disabled by default (else, they would be used in subsequent requests). To enable cookies, set `jar` to `true` (either in `defaults` or `options`).
1036
1037```js
1038var request = request.defaults({jar: true})
1039request('http://www.google.com', function () {
1040 request('http://images.google.com')
1041})
1042```
1043
1044To 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`)
1045
1046```js
1047var j = request.jar()
1048var request = request.defaults({jar:j})
1049request('http://www.google.com', function () {
1050 request('http://images.google.com')
1051})
1052```
1053
1054OR
1055
1056```js
1057var j = request.jar();
1058var cookie = request.cookie('key1=value1');
1059var url = 'http://www.google.com';
1060j.setCookie(cookie, url);
1061request({url: url, jar: j}, function () {
1062 request('http://images.google.com')
1063})
1064```
1065
1066To use a custom cookie store (such as a
1067[`FileCookieStore`](https://github.com/mitsuru/tough-cookie-filestore)
1068which supports saving to and restoring from JSON files), pass it as a parameter
1069to `request.jar()`:
1070
1071```js
1072var FileCookieStore = require('tough-cookie-filestore');
1073// NOTE - currently the 'cookies.json' file must already exist!
1074var j = request.jar(new FileCookieStore('cookies.json'));
1075request = request.defaults({ jar : j })
1076request('http://www.google.com', function() {
1077 request('http://images.google.com')
1078})
1079```
1080
1081The cookie store must be a
1082[`tough-cookie`](https://github.com/SalesforceEng/tough-cookie)
1083store and it must support synchronous operations; see the
1084[`CookieStore` API docs](https://github.com/SalesforceEng/tough-cookie#cookiestore-api)
1085for details.
1086
1087To inspect your cookie jar after a request:
1088
1089```js
1090var j = request.jar()
1091request({url: 'http://www.google.com', jar: j}, function () {
1092 var cookie_string = j.getCookieString(url); // "key1=value1; key2=value2; ..."
1093 var cookies = j.getCookies(url);
1094 // [{key: 'key1', value: 'value1', domain: "www.google.com", ...}, ...]
1095})
1096```
1097
1098[back to top](#table-of-contents)