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1# Deprecated!
2
3As of Feb 11th 2020, request is fully deprecated. No new changes are expected land. In fact, none have landed for some time.
4
5For more information about why request is deprecated and possible alternatives refer to
6[this issue](https://github.com/request/request/issues/3142).
7
8# Request - Simplified HTTP client
9
10[![npm package](https://nodei.co/npm/request.png?downloads=true&downloadRank=true&stars=true)](https://nodei.co/npm/request/)
11
12[![Build status](https://img.shields.io/travis/request/request/master.svg?style=flat-square)](https://travis-ci.org/request/request)
13[![Coverage](https://img.shields.io/codecov/c/github/request/request.svg?style=flat-square)](https://codecov.io/github/request/request?branch=master)
14[![Coverage](https://img.shields.io/coveralls/request/request.svg?style=flat-square)](https://coveralls.io/r/request/request)
15[![Dependency Status](https://img.shields.io/david/request/request.svg?style=flat-square)](https://david-dm.org/request/request)
16[![Known Vulnerabilities](https://snyk.io/test/npm/request/badge.svg?style=flat-square)](https://snyk.io/test/npm/request)
17[![Gitter](https://img.shields.io/badge/gitter-join_chat-blue.svg?style=flat-square)](https://gitter.im/request/request?utm_source=badge)
18
19
20## Super simple to use
21
22Request is designed to be the simplest way possible to make http calls. It supports HTTPS and follows redirects by default.
23
24```js
25const request = require('request');
26request('http://www.google.com', function (error, response, body) {
27 console.error('error:', error); // Print the error if one occurred
28 console.log('statusCode:', response && response.statusCode); // Print the response status code if a response was received
29 console.log('body:', body); // Print the HTML for the Google homepage.
30});
31```
32
33
34## Table of contents
35
36- [Streaming](#streaming)
37- [Promises & Async/Await](#promises--asyncawait)
38- [Forms](#forms)
39- [HTTP Authentication](#http-authentication)
40- [Custom HTTP Headers](#custom-http-headers)
41- [OAuth Signing](#oauth-signing)
42- [Proxies](#proxies)
43- [Unix Domain Sockets](#unix-domain-sockets)
44- [TLS/SSL Protocol](#tlsssl-protocol)
45- [Support for HAR 1.2](#support-for-har-12)
46- [**All Available Options**](#requestoptions-callback)
47
48Request also offers [convenience methods](#convenience-methods) like
49`request.defaults` and `request.post`, and there are
50lots of [usage examples](#examples) and several
51[debugging techniques](#debugging).
52
53
54---
55
56
57## Streaming
58
59You can stream any response to a file stream.
60
61```js
62request('http://google.com/doodle.png').pipe(fs.createWriteStream('doodle.png'))
63```
64
65You 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).
66
67```js
68fs.createReadStream('file.json').pipe(request.put('http://mysite.com/obj.json'))
69```
70
71Request can also `pipe` to itself. When doing so, `content-type` and `content-length` are preserved in the PUT headers.
72
73```js
74request.get('http://google.com/img.png').pipe(request.put('http://mysite.com/img.png'))
75```
76
77Request emits a "response" event when a response is received. The `response` argument will be an instance of [http.IncomingMessage](https://nodejs.org/api/http.html#http_class_http_incomingmessage).
78
79```js
80request
81 .get('http://google.com/img.png')
82 .on('response', function(response) {
83 console.log(response.statusCode) // 200
84 console.log(response.headers['content-type']) // 'image/png'
85 })
86 .pipe(request.put('http://mysite.com/img.png'))
87```
88
89To easily handle errors when streaming requests, listen to the `error` event before piping:
90
91```js
92request
93 .get('http://mysite.com/doodle.png')
94 .on('error', function(err) {
95 console.error(err)
96 })
97 .pipe(fs.createWriteStream('doodle.png'))
98```
99
100Now let’s get fancy.
101
102```js
103http.createServer(function (req, resp) {
104 if (req.url === '/doodle.png') {
105 if (req.method === 'PUT') {
106 req.pipe(request.put('http://mysite.com/doodle.png'))
107 } else if (req.method === 'GET' || req.method === 'HEAD') {
108 request.get('http://mysite.com/doodle.png').pipe(resp)
109 }
110 }
111})
112```
113
114You 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:
115
116```js
117http.createServer(function (req, resp) {
118 if (req.url === '/doodle.png') {
119 const x = request('http://mysite.com/doodle.png')
120 req.pipe(x)
121 x.pipe(resp)
122 }
123})
124```
125
126And since `pipe()` returns the destination stream in ≥ Node 0.5.x you can do one line proxying. :)
127
128```js
129req.pipe(request('http://mysite.com/doodle.png')).pipe(resp)
130```
131
132Also, none of this new functionality conflicts with requests previous features, it just expands them.
133
134```js
135const r = request.defaults({'proxy':'http://localproxy.com'})
136
137http.createServer(function (req, resp) {
138 if (req.url === '/doodle.png') {
139 r.get('http://google.com/doodle.png').pipe(resp)
140 }
141})
142```
143
144You can still use intermediate proxies, the requests will still follow HTTP forwards, etc.
145
146[back to top](#table-of-contents)
147
148
149---
150
151
152## Promises & Async/Await
153
154`request` supports both streaming and callback interfaces natively. If you'd like `request` to return a Promise instead, you can use an alternative interface wrapper for `request`. These wrappers can be useful if you prefer to work with Promises, or if you'd like to use `async`/`await` in ES2017.
155
156Several alternative interfaces are provided by the request team, including:
157- [`request-promise`](https://github.com/request/request-promise) (uses [Bluebird](https://github.com/petkaantonov/bluebird) Promises)
158- [`request-promise-native`](https://github.com/request/request-promise-native) (uses native Promises)
159- [`request-promise-any`](https://github.com/request/request-promise-any) (uses [any-promise](https://www.npmjs.com/package/any-promise) Promises)
160
161Also, [`util.promisify`](https://nodejs.org/api/util.html#util_util_promisify_original), which is available from Node.js v8.0 can be used to convert a regular function that takes a callback to return a promise instead.
162
163
164[back to top](#table-of-contents)
165
166
167---
168
169
170## Forms
171
172`request` supports `application/x-www-form-urlencoded` and `multipart/form-data` form uploads. For `multipart/related` refer to the `multipart` API.
173
174
175#### application/x-www-form-urlencoded (URL-Encoded Forms)
176
177URL-encoded forms are simple.
178
179```js
180request.post('http://service.com/upload', {form:{key:'value'}})
181// or
182request.post('http://service.com/upload').form({key:'value'})
183// or
184request.post({url:'http://service.com/upload', form: {key:'value'}}, function(err,httpResponse,body){ /* ... */ })
185```
186
187
188#### multipart/form-data (Multipart Form Uploads)
189
190For `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.
191
192
193```js
194const formData = {
195 // Pass a simple key-value pair
196 my_field: 'my_value',
197 // Pass data via Buffers
198 my_buffer: Buffer.from([1, 2, 3]),
199 // Pass data via Streams
200 my_file: fs.createReadStream(__dirname + '/unicycle.jpg'),
201 // Pass multiple values /w an Array
202 attachments: [
203 fs.createReadStream(__dirname + '/attachment1.jpg'),
204 fs.createReadStream(__dirname + '/attachment2.jpg')
205 ],
206 // Pass optional meta-data with an 'options' object with style: {value: DATA, options: OPTIONS}
207 // Use case: for some types of streams, you'll need to provide "file"-related information manually.
208 // See the `form-data` README for more information about options: https://github.com/form-data/form-data
209 custom_file: {
210 value: fs.createReadStream('/dev/urandom'),
211 options: {
212 filename: 'topsecret.jpg',
213 contentType: 'image/jpeg'
214 }
215 }
216};
217request.post({url:'http://service.com/upload', formData: formData}, function optionalCallback(err, httpResponse, body) {
218 if (err) {
219 return console.error('upload failed:', err);
220 }
221 console.log('Upload successful! Server responded with:', body);
222});
223```
224
225For 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.)
226
227```js
228// NOTE: Advanced use-case, for normal use see 'formData' usage above
229const r = request.post('http://service.com/upload', function optionalCallback(err, httpResponse, body) {...})
230const form = r.form();
231form.append('my_field', 'my_value');
232form.append('my_buffer', Buffer.from([1, 2, 3]));
233form.append('custom_file', fs.createReadStream(__dirname + '/unicycle.jpg'), {filename: 'unicycle.jpg'});
234```
235See the [form-data README](https://github.com/form-data/form-data) for more information & examples.
236
237
238#### multipart/related
239
240Some 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.
241
242```js
243 request({
244 method: 'PUT',
245 preambleCRLF: true,
246 postambleCRLF: true,
247 uri: 'http://service.com/upload',
248 multipart: [
249 {
250 'content-type': 'application/json',
251 body: JSON.stringify({foo: 'bar', _attachments: {'message.txt': {follows: true, length: 18, 'content_type': 'text/plain' }}})
252 },
253 { body: 'I am an attachment' },
254 { body: fs.createReadStream('image.png') }
255 ],
256 // alternatively pass an object containing additional options
257 multipart: {
258 chunked: false,
259 data: [
260 {
261 'content-type': 'application/json',
262 body: JSON.stringify({foo: 'bar', _attachments: {'message.txt': {follows: true, length: 18, 'content_type': 'text/plain' }}})
263 },
264 { body: 'I am an attachment' }
265 ]
266 }
267 },
268 function (error, response, body) {
269 if (error) {
270 return console.error('upload failed:', error);
271 }
272 console.log('Upload successful! Server responded with:', body);
273 })
274```
275
276[back to top](#table-of-contents)
277
278
279---
280
281
282## HTTP Authentication
283
284```js
285request.get('http://some.server.com/').auth('username', 'password', false);
286// or
287request.get('http://some.server.com/', {
288 'auth': {
289 'user': 'username',
290 'pass': 'password',
291 'sendImmediately': false
292 }
293});
294// or
295request.get('http://some.server.com/').auth(null, null, true, 'bearerToken');
296// or
297request.get('http://some.server.com/', {
298 'auth': {
299 'bearer': 'bearerToken'
300 }
301});
302```
303
304If passed as an option, `auth` should be a hash containing values:
305
306- `user` || `username`
307- `pass` || `password`
308- `sendImmediately` (optional)
309- `bearer` (optional)
310
311The method form takes parameters
312`auth(username, password, sendImmediately, bearer)`.
313
314`sendImmediately` defaults to `true`, which causes a basic or bearer
315authentication header to be sent. If `sendImmediately` is `false`, then
316`request` will retry with a proper authentication header after receiving a
317`401` response from the server (which must contain a `WWW-Authenticate` header
318indicating the required authentication method).
319
320Note that you can also specify basic authentication using the URL itself, as
321detailed in [RFC 1738](http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1738.txt). Simply pass the
322`user:password` before the host with an `@` sign:
323
324```js
325const username = 'username',
326 password = 'password',
327 url = 'http://' + username + ':' + password + '@some.server.com';
328
329request({url}, function (error, response, body) {
330 // Do more stuff with 'body' here
331});
332```
333
334Digest authentication is supported, but it only works with `sendImmediately`
335set to `false`; otherwise `request` will send basic authentication on the
336initial request, which will probably cause the request to fail.
337
338Bearer authentication is supported, and is activated when the `bearer` value is
339available. The value may be either a `String` or a `Function` returning a
340`String`. Using a function to supply the bearer token is particularly useful if
341used in conjunction with `defaults` to allow a single function to supply the
342last known token at the time of sending a request, or to compute one on the fly.
343
344[back to top](#table-of-contents)
345
346
347---
348
349
350## Custom HTTP Headers
351
352HTTP Headers, such as `User-Agent`, can be set in the `options` object.
353In the example below, we call the github API to find out the number
354of stars and forks for the request repository. This requires a
355custom `User-Agent` header as well as https.
356
357```js
358const request = require('request');
359
360const options = {
361 url: 'https://api.github.com/repos/request/request',
362 headers: {
363 'User-Agent': 'request'
364 }
365};
366
367function callback(error, response, body) {
368 if (!error && response.statusCode == 200) {
369 const info = JSON.parse(body);
370 console.log(info.stargazers_count + " Stars");
371 console.log(info.forks_count + " Forks");
372 }
373}
374
375request(options, callback);
376```
377
378[back to top](#table-of-contents)
379
380
381---
382
383
384## OAuth Signing
385
386[OAuth version 1.0](https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc5849) is supported. The
387default signing algorithm is
388[HMAC-SHA1](https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc5849#section-3.4.2):
389
390```js
391// OAuth1.0 - 3-legged server side flow (Twitter example)
392// step 1
393const qs = require('querystring')
394 , oauth =
395 { callback: 'http://mysite.com/callback/'
396 , consumer_key: CONSUMER_KEY
397 , consumer_secret: CONSUMER_SECRET
398 }
399 , url = 'https://api.twitter.com/oauth/request_token'
400 ;
401request.post({url:url, oauth:oauth}, function (e, r, body) {
402 // Ideally, you would take the body in the response
403 // and construct a URL that a user clicks on (like a sign in button).
404 // The verifier is only available in the response after a user has
405 // verified with twitter that they are authorizing your app.
406
407 // step 2
408 const req_data = qs.parse(body)
409 const uri = 'https://api.twitter.com/oauth/authenticate'
410 + '?' + qs.stringify({oauth_token: req_data.oauth_token})
411 // redirect the user to the authorize uri
412
413 // step 3
414 // after the user is redirected back to your server
415 const auth_data = qs.parse(body)
416 , oauth =
417 { consumer_key: CONSUMER_KEY
418 , consumer_secret: CONSUMER_SECRET
419 , token: auth_data.oauth_token
420 , token_secret: req_data.oauth_token_secret
421 , verifier: auth_data.oauth_verifier
422 }
423 , url = 'https://api.twitter.com/oauth/access_token'
424 ;
425 request.post({url:url, oauth:oauth}, function (e, r, body) {
426 // ready to make signed requests on behalf of the user
427 const perm_data = qs.parse(body)
428 , oauth =
429 { consumer_key: CONSUMER_KEY
430 , consumer_secret: CONSUMER_SECRET
431 , token: perm_data.oauth_token
432 , token_secret: perm_data.oauth_token_secret
433 }
434 , url = 'https://api.twitter.com/1.1/users/show.json'
435 , qs =
436 { screen_name: perm_data.screen_name
437 , user_id: perm_data.user_id
438 }
439 ;
440 request.get({url:url, oauth:oauth, qs:qs, json:true}, function (e, r, user) {
441 console.log(user)
442 })
443 })
444})
445```
446
447For [RSA-SHA1 signing](https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc5849#section-3.4.3), make
448the following changes to the OAuth options object:
449* Pass `signature_method : 'RSA-SHA1'`
450* Instead of `consumer_secret`, specify a `private_key` string in
451 [PEM format](http://how2ssl.com/articles/working_with_pem_files/)
452
453For [PLAINTEXT signing](http://oauth.net/core/1.0/#anchor22), make
454the following changes to the OAuth options object:
455* Pass `signature_method : 'PLAINTEXT'`
456
457To send OAuth parameters via query params or in a post body as described in The
458[Consumer Request Parameters](http://oauth.net/core/1.0/#consumer_req_param)
459section of the oauth1 spec:
460* Pass `transport_method : 'query'` or `transport_method : 'body'` in the OAuth
461 options object.
462* `transport_method` defaults to `'header'`
463
464To use [Request Body Hash](https://oauth.googlecode.com/svn/spec/ext/body_hash/1.0/oauth-bodyhash.html) you can either
465* Manually generate the body hash and pass it as a string `body_hash: '...'`
466* Automatically generate the body hash by passing `body_hash: true`
467
468[back to top](#table-of-contents)
469
470
471---
472
473
474## Proxies
475
476If you specify a `proxy` option, then the request (and any subsequent
477redirects) will be sent via a connection to the proxy server.
478
479If your endpoint is an `https` url, and you are using a proxy, then
480request will send a `CONNECT` request to the proxy server *first*, and
481then use the supplied connection to connect to the endpoint.
482
483That is, first it will make a request like:
484
485```
486HTTP/1.1 CONNECT endpoint-server.com:80
487Host: proxy-server.com
488User-Agent: whatever user agent you specify
489```
490
491and then the proxy server make a TCP connection to `endpoint-server`
492on port `80`, and return a response that looks like:
493
494```
495HTTP/1.1 200 OK
496```
497
498At this point, the connection is left open, and the client is
499communicating directly with the `endpoint-server.com` machine.
500
501See [the wikipedia page on HTTP Tunneling](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTTP_tunnel)
502for more information.
503
504By default, when proxying `http` traffic, request will simply make a
505standard proxied `http` request. This is done by making the `url`
506section of the initial line of the request a fully qualified url to
507the endpoint.
508
509For example, it will make a single request that looks like:
510
511```
512HTTP/1.1 GET http://endpoint-server.com/some-url
513Host: proxy-server.com
514Other-Headers: all go here
515
516request body or whatever
517```
518
519Because a pure "http over http" tunnel offers no additional security
520or other features, it is generally simpler to go with a
521straightforward HTTP proxy in this case. However, if you would like
522to force a tunneling proxy, you may set the `tunnel` option to `true`.
523
524You can also make a standard proxied `http` request by explicitly setting
525`tunnel : false`, but **note that this will allow the proxy to see the traffic
526to/from the destination server**.
527
528If you are using a tunneling proxy, you may set the
529`proxyHeaderWhiteList` to share certain headers with the proxy.
530
531You can also set the `proxyHeaderExclusiveList` to share certain
532headers only with the proxy and not with destination host.
533
534By default, this set is:
535
536```
537accept
538accept-charset
539accept-encoding
540accept-language
541accept-ranges
542cache-control
543content-encoding
544content-language
545content-length
546content-location
547content-md5
548content-range
549content-type
550connection
551date
552expect
553max-forwards
554pragma
555proxy-authorization
556referer
557te
558transfer-encoding
559user-agent
560via
561```
562
563Note that, when using a tunneling proxy, the `proxy-authorization`
564header and any headers from custom `proxyHeaderExclusiveList` are
565*never* sent to the endpoint server, but only to the proxy server.
566
567
568### Controlling proxy behaviour using environment variables
569
570The following environment variables are respected by `request`:
571
572 * `HTTP_PROXY` / `http_proxy`
573 * `HTTPS_PROXY` / `https_proxy`
574 * `NO_PROXY` / `no_proxy`
575
576When `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.
577
578`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.
579
580Here's some examples of valid `no_proxy` values:
581
582 * `google.com` - don't proxy HTTP/HTTPS requests to Google.
583 * `google.com:443` - don't proxy HTTPS requests to Google, but *do* proxy HTTP requests to Google.
584 * `google.com:443, yahoo.com:80` - don't proxy HTTPS requests to Google, and don't proxy HTTP requests to Yahoo!
585 * `*` - ignore `https_proxy`/`http_proxy` environment variables altogether.
586
587[back to top](#table-of-contents)
588
589
590---
591
592
593## UNIX Domain Sockets
594
595`request` supports making requests to [UNIX Domain Sockets](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix_domain_socket). To make one, use the following URL scheme:
596
597```js
598/* Pattern */ 'http://unix:SOCKET:PATH'
599/* Example */ request.get('http://unix:/absolute/path/to/unix.socket:/request/path')
600```
601
602Note: The `SOCKET` path is assumed to be absolute to the root of the host file system.
603
604[back to top](#table-of-contents)
605
606
607---
608
609
610## TLS/SSL Protocol
611
612TLS/SSL Protocol options, such as `cert`, `key` and `passphrase`, can be
613set 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).
614
615```js
616const fs = require('fs')
617 , path = require('path')
618 , certFile = path.resolve(__dirname, 'ssl/client.crt')
619 , keyFile = path.resolve(__dirname, 'ssl/client.key')
620 , caFile = path.resolve(__dirname, 'ssl/ca.cert.pem')
621 , request = require('request');
622
623const options = {
624 url: 'https://api.some-server.com/',
625 cert: fs.readFileSync(certFile),
626 key: fs.readFileSync(keyFile),
627 passphrase: 'password',
628 ca: fs.readFileSync(caFile)
629};
630
631request.get(options);
632```
633
634### Using `options.agentOptions`
635
636In the example below, we call an API that requires client side SSL certificate
637(in PEM format) with passphrase protected private key (in PEM format) and disable the SSLv3 protocol:
638
639```js
640const fs = require('fs')
641 , path = require('path')
642 , certFile = path.resolve(__dirname, 'ssl/client.crt')
643 , keyFile = path.resolve(__dirname, 'ssl/client.key')
644 , request = require('request');
645
646const options = {
647 url: 'https://api.some-server.com/',
648 agentOptions: {
649 cert: fs.readFileSync(certFile),
650 key: fs.readFileSync(keyFile),
651 // Or use `pfx` property replacing `cert` and `key` when using private key, certificate and CA certs in PFX or PKCS12 format:
652 // pfx: fs.readFileSync(pfxFilePath),
653 passphrase: 'password',
654 securityOptions: 'SSL_OP_NO_SSLv3'
655 }
656};
657
658request.get(options);
659```
660
661It is able to force using SSLv3 only by specifying `secureProtocol`:
662
663```js
664request.get({
665 url: 'https://api.some-server.com/',
666 agentOptions: {
667 secureProtocol: 'SSLv3_method'
668 }
669});
670```
671
672It is possible to accept other certificates than those signed by generally allowed Certificate Authorities (CAs).
673This can be useful, for example, when using self-signed certificates.
674To require a different root certificate, you can specify the signing CA by adding the contents of the CA's certificate file to the `agentOptions`.
675The certificate the domain presents must be signed by the root certificate specified:
676
677```js
678request.get({
679 url: 'https://api.some-server.com/',
680 agentOptions: {
681 ca: fs.readFileSync('ca.cert.pem')
682 }
683});
684```
685
686The `ca` value can be an array of certificates, in the event you have a private or internal corporate public-key infrastructure hierarchy. For example, if you want to connect to https://api.some-server.com which presents a key chain consisting of:
6871. its own public key, which is signed by:
6882. an intermediate "Corp Issuing Server", that is in turn signed by:
6893. a root CA "Corp Root CA";
690
691you can configure your request as follows:
692
693```js
694request.get({
695 url: 'https://api.some-server.com/',
696 agentOptions: {
697 ca: [
698 fs.readFileSync('Corp Issuing Server.pem'),
699 fs.readFileSync('Corp Root CA.pem')
700 ]
701 }
702});
703```
704
705[back to top](#table-of-contents)
706
707
708---
709
710## Support for HAR 1.2
711
712The `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`.
713
714A validation step will check if the HAR Request format matches the latest spec (v1.2) and will skip parsing if not matching.
715
716```js
717 const request = require('request')
718 request({
719 // will be ignored
720 method: 'GET',
721 uri: 'http://www.google.com',
722
723 // HTTP Archive Request Object
724 har: {
725 url: 'http://www.mockbin.com/har',
726 method: 'POST',
727 headers: [
728 {
729 name: 'content-type',
730 value: 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded'
731 }
732 ],
733 postData: {
734 mimeType: 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded',
735 params: [
736 {
737 name: 'foo',
738 value: 'bar'
739 },
740 {
741 name: 'hello',
742 value: 'world'
743 }
744 ]
745 }
746 }
747 })
748
749 // a POST request will be sent to http://www.mockbin.com
750 // with body an application/x-www-form-urlencoded body:
751 // foo=bar&hello=world
752```
753
754[back to top](#table-of-contents)
755
756
757---
758
759## request(options, callback)
760
761The first argument can be either a `url` or an `options` object. The only required option is `uri`; all others are optional.
762
763- `uri` || `url` - fully qualified uri or a parsed url object from `url.parse()`
764- `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.
765- `method` - http method (default: `"GET"`)
766- `headers` - http headers (default: `{}`)
767
768---
769
770- `qs` - object containing querystring values to be appended to the `uri`
771- `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:{}}`
772- `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`
773- `useQuerystring` - if true, use `querystring` to stringify and parse
774 querystrings, otherwise use `qs` (default: `false`). Set this option to
775 `true` if you need arrays to be serialized as `foo=bar&foo=baz` instead of the
776 default `foo[0]=bar&foo[1]=baz`.
777
778---
779
780- `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.
781- `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.
782- `formData` - data to pass for a `multipart/form-data` request. See
783 [Forms](#forms) section above.
784- `multipart` - array of objects which contain their own headers and `body`
785 attributes. Sends a `multipart/related` request. See [Forms](#forms) section
786 above.
787 - Alternatively you can pass in an object `{chunked: false, data: []}` where
788 `chunked` is used to specify whether the request is sent in
789 [chunked transfer encoding](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chunked_transfer_encoding)
790 In non-chunked requests, data items with body streams are not allowed.
791- `preambleCRLF` - append a newline/CRLF before the boundary of your `multipart/form-data` request.
792- `postambleCRLF` - append a newline/CRLF at the end of the boundary of your `multipart/form-data` request.
793- `json` - sets `body` to JSON representation of value and adds `Content-type: application/json` header. Additionally, parses the response body as JSON.
794- `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.
795- `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.
796
797---
798
799- `auth` - a hash containing values `user` || `username`, `pass` || `password`, and `sendImmediately` (optional). See documentation above.
800- `oauth` - options for OAuth HMAC-SHA1 signing. See documentation above.
801- `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).
802- `aws` - `object` containing AWS signing information. Should have the properties `key`, `secret`, and optionally `session` (note that this only works for services that require session as part of the canonical string). 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. If you are using SigV4, you can also include a `service` property that specifies the service name. **Note:** you need to `npm install aws4` first.
803- `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.
804
805---
806
807- `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.
808- `followAllRedirects` - follow non-GET HTTP 3xx responses as redirects (default: `false`)
809- `followOriginalHttpMethod` - by default we redirect to HTTP method GET. you can enable this property to redirect to the original HTTP method (default: `false`)
810- `maxRedirects` - the maximum number of redirects to follow (default: `10`)
811- `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.
812
813---
814
815- `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`.)
816- `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.
817- `jar` - if `true`, remember cookies for future use (or define your custom cookie jar; see examples section)
818
819---
820
821- `agent` - `http(s).Agent` instance to use
822- `agentClass` - alternatively specify your agent's class name
823- `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).
824- `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+
825- `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.
826 - 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}`).
827 - Note that if you are sending multiple requests in a loop and creating
828 multiple new `pool` objects, `maxSockets` will not work as intended. To
829 work around this, either use [`request.defaults`](#requestdefaultsoptions)
830 with your pool options or create the pool object with the `maxSockets`
831 property outside of the loop.
832- `timeout` - integer containing number of milliseconds, controls two timeouts.
833 - **Read timeout**: Time to wait for a server to send response headers (and start the response body) before aborting the request.
834 - **Connection timeout**: Sets the socket to timeout after `timeout` milliseconds of inactivity. Note that increasing the timeout beyond the OS-wide TCP connection timeout will not have any effect ([the default in Linux can be anywhere from 20-120 seconds][linux-timeout])
835
836[linux-timeout]: http://www.sekuda.com/overriding_the_default_linux_kernel_20_second_tcp_socket_connect_timeout
837
838---
839
840- `localAddress` - local interface to bind for network connections.
841- `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`)
842- `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.
843- `tunnel` - controls the behavior of
844 [HTTP `CONNECT` tunneling](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTTP_tunnel#HTTP_CONNECT_tunneling)
845 as follows:
846 - `undefined` (default) - `true` if the destination is `https`, `false` otherwise
847 - `true` - always tunnel to the destination by making a `CONNECT` request to
848 the proxy
849 - `false` - request the destination as a `GET` request.
850- `proxyHeaderWhiteList` - a whitelist of headers to send to a
851 tunneling proxy.
852- `proxyHeaderExclusiveList` - a whitelist of headers to send
853 exclusively to a tunneling proxy and not to destination.
854
855---
856
857- `time` - if `true`, the request-response cycle (including all redirects) is timed at millisecond resolution. When set, the following properties are added to the response object:
858 - `elapsedTime` Duration of the entire request/response in milliseconds (*deprecated*).
859 - `responseStartTime` Timestamp when the response began (in Unix Epoch milliseconds) (*deprecated*).
860 - `timingStart` Timestamp of the start of the request (in Unix Epoch milliseconds).
861 - `timings` Contains event timestamps in millisecond resolution relative to `timingStart`. If there were redirects, the properties reflect the timings of the final request in the redirect chain:
862 - `socket` Relative timestamp when the [`http`](https://nodejs.org/api/http.html#http_event_socket) module's `socket` event fires. This happens when the socket is assigned to the request.
863 - `lookup` Relative timestamp when the [`net`](https://nodejs.org/api/net.html#net_event_lookup) module's `lookup` event fires. This happens when the DNS has been resolved.
864 - `connect`: Relative timestamp when the [`net`](https://nodejs.org/api/net.html#net_event_connect) module's `connect` event fires. This happens when the server acknowledges the TCP connection.
865 - `response`: Relative timestamp when the [`http`](https://nodejs.org/api/http.html#http_event_response) module's `response` event fires. This happens when the first bytes are received from the server.
866 - `end`: Relative timestamp when the last bytes of the response are received.
867 - `timingPhases` Contains the durations of each request phase. If there were redirects, the properties reflect the timings of the final request in the redirect chain:
868 - `wait`: Duration of socket initialization (`timings.socket`)
869 - `dns`: Duration of DNS lookup (`timings.lookup` - `timings.socket`)
870 - `tcp`: Duration of TCP connection (`timings.connect` - `timings.socket`)
871 - `firstByte`: Duration of HTTP server response (`timings.response` - `timings.connect`)
872 - `download`: Duration of HTTP download (`timings.end` - `timings.response`)
873 - `total`: Duration entire HTTP round-trip (`timings.end`)
874
875- `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-12) for details)*
876- `callback` - alternatively pass the request's callback in the options object
877
878The callback argument gets 3 arguments:
879
8801. An `error` when applicable (usually from [`http.ClientRequest`](http://nodejs.org/api/http.html#http_class_http_clientrequest) object)
8812. An [`http.IncomingMessage`](https://nodejs.org/api/http.html#http_class_http_incomingmessage) object (Response object)
8823. The third is the `response` body (`String` or `Buffer`, or JSON object if the `json` option is supplied)
883
884[back to top](#table-of-contents)
885
886
887---
888
889## Convenience methods
890
891There are also shorthand methods for different HTTP METHODs and some other conveniences.
892
893
894### request.defaults(options)
895
896This method **returns a wrapper** around the normal request API that defaults
897to whatever options you pass to it.
898
899**Note:** `request.defaults()` **does not** modify the global request API;
900instead, it **returns a wrapper** that has your default settings applied to it.
901
902**Note:** You can call `.defaults()` on the wrapper that is returned from
903`request.defaults` to add/override defaults that were previously defaulted.
904
905For example:
906```js
907//requests using baseRequest() will set the 'x-token' header
908const baseRequest = request.defaults({
909 headers: {'x-token': 'my-token'}
910})
911
912//requests using specialRequest() will include the 'x-token' header set in
913//baseRequest and will also include the 'special' header
914const specialRequest = baseRequest.defaults({
915 headers: {special: 'special value'}
916})
917```
918
919### request.METHOD()
920
921These HTTP method convenience functions act just like `request()` but with a default method already set for you:
922
923- *request.get()*: Defaults to `method: "GET"`.
924- *request.post()*: Defaults to `method: "POST"`.
925- *request.put()*: Defaults to `method: "PUT"`.
926- *request.patch()*: Defaults to `method: "PATCH"`.
927- *request.del() / request.delete()*: Defaults to `method: "DELETE"`.
928- *request.head()*: Defaults to `method: "HEAD"`.
929- *request.options()*: Defaults to `method: "OPTIONS"`.
930
931### request.cookie()
932
933Function that creates a new cookie.
934
935```js
936request.cookie('key1=value1')
937```
938### request.jar()
939
940Function that creates a new cookie jar.
941
942```js
943request.jar()
944```
945
946### response.caseless.get('header-name')
947
948Function that returns the specified response header field using a [case-insensitive match](https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc7230#section-3.2)
949
950```js
951request('http://www.google.com', function (error, response, body) {
952 // print the Content-Type header even if the server returned it as 'content-type' (lowercase)
953 console.log('Content-Type is:', response.caseless.get('Content-Type'));
954});
955```
956
957[back to top](#table-of-contents)
958
959
960---
961
962
963## Debugging
964
965There are at least three ways to debug the operation of `request`:
966
9671. Launch the node process like `NODE_DEBUG=request node script.js`
968 (`lib,request,otherlib` works too).
969
9702. Set `require('request').debug = true` at any time (this does the same thing
971 as #1).
972
9733. Use the [request-debug module](https://github.com/request/request-debug) to
974 view request and response headers and bodies.
975
976[back to top](#table-of-contents)
977
978
979---
980
981## Timeouts
982
983Most requests to external servers should have a timeout attached, in case the
984server is not responding in a timely manner. Without a timeout, your code may
985have a socket open/consume resources for minutes or more.
986
987There are two main types of timeouts: **connection timeouts** and **read
988timeouts**. A connect timeout occurs if the timeout is hit while your client is
989attempting to establish a connection to a remote machine (corresponding to the
990[connect() call][connect] on the socket). A read timeout occurs any time the
991server is too slow to send back a part of the response.
992
993These two situations have widely different implications for what went wrong
994with the request, so it's useful to be able to distinguish them. You can detect
995timeout errors by checking `err.code` for an 'ETIMEDOUT' value. Further, you
996can detect whether the timeout was a connection timeout by checking if the
997`err.connect` property is set to `true`.
998
999```js
1000request.get('http://10.255.255.1', {timeout: 1500}, function(err) {
1001 console.log(err.code === 'ETIMEDOUT');
1002 // Set to `true` if the timeout was a connection timeout, `false` or
1003 // `undefined` otherwise.
1004 console.log(err.connect === true);
1005 process.exit(0);
1006});
1007```
1008
1009[connect]: http://linux.die.net/man/2/connect
1010
1011## Examples:
1012
1013```js
1014 const request = require('request')
1015 , rand = Math.floor(Math.random()*100000000).toString()
1016 ;
1017 request(
1018 { method: 'PUT'
1019 , uri: 'http://mikeal.iriscouch.com/testjs/' + rand
1020 , multipart:
1021 [ { 'content-type': 'application/json'
1022 , body: JSON.stringify({foo: 'bar', _attachments: {'message.txt': {follows: true, length: 18, 'content_type': 'text/plain' }}})
1023 }
1024 , { body: 'I am an attachment' }
1025 ]
1026 }
1027 , function (error, response, body) {
1028 if(response.statusCode == 201){
1029 console.log('document saved as: http://mikeal.iriscouch.com/testjs/'+ rand)
1030 } else {
1031 console.log('error: '+ response.statusCode)
1032 console.log(body)
1033 }
1034 }
1035 )
1036```
1037
1038For backwards-compatibility, response compression is not supported by default.
1039To accept gzip-compressed responses, set the `gzip` option to `true`. Note
1040that the body data passed through `request` is automatically decompressed
1041while the response object is unmodified and will contain compressed data if
1042the server sent a compressed response.
1043
1044```js
1045 const request = require('request')
1046 request(
1047 { method: 'GET'
1048 , uri: 'http://www.google.com'
1049 , gzip: true
1050 }
1051 , function (error, response, body) {
1052 // body is the decompressed response body
1053 console.log('server encoded the data as: ' + (response.headers['content-encoding'] || 'identity'))
1054 console.log('the decoded data is: ' + body)
1055 }
1056 )
1057 .on('data', function(data) {
1058 // decompressed data as it is received
1059 console.log('decoded chunk: ' + data)
1060 })
1061 .on('response', function(response) {
1062 // unmodified http.IncomingMessage object
1063 response.on('data', function(data) {
1064 // compressed data as it is received
1065 console.log('received ' + data.length + ' bytes of compressed data')
1066 })
1067 })
1068```
1069
1070Cookies are disabled by default (else, they would be used in subsequent requests). To enable cookies, set `jar` to `true` (either in `defaults` or `options`).
1071
1072```js
1073const request = request.defaults({jar: true})
1074request('http://www.google.com', function () {
1075 request('http://images.google.com')
1076})
1077```
1078
1079To 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`)
1080
1081```js
1082const j = request.jar()
1083const request = request.defaults({jar:j})
1084request('http://www.google.com', function () {
1085 request('http://images.google.com')
1086})
1087```
1088
1089OR
1090
1091```js
1092const j = request.jar();
1093const cookie = request.cookie('key1=value1');
1094const url = 'http://www.google.com';
1095j.setCookie(cookie, url);
1096request({url: url, jar: j}, function () {
1097 request('http://images.google.com')
1098})
1099```
1100
1101To use a custom cookie store (such as a
1102[`FileCookieStore`](https://github.com/mitsuru/tough-cookie-filestore)
1103which supports saving to and restoring from JSON files), pass it as a parameter
1104to `request.jar()`:
1105
1106```js
1107const FileCookieStore = require('tough-cookie-filestore');
1108// NOTE - currently the 'cookies.json' file must already exist!
1109const j = request.jar(new FileCookieStore('cookies.json'));
1110request = request.defaults({ jar : j })
1111request('http://www.google.com', function() {
1112 request('http://images.google.com')
1113})
1114```
1115
1116The cookie store must be a
1117[`tough-cookie`](https://github.com/SalesforceEng/tough-cookie)
1118store and it must support synchronous operations; see the
1119[`CookieStore` API docs](https://github.com/SalesforceEng/tough-cookie#api)
1120for details.
1121
1122To inspect your cookie jar after a request:
1123
1124```js
1125const j = request.jar()
1126request({url: 'http://www.google.com', jar: j}, function () {
1127 const cookie_string = j.getCookieString(url); // "key1=value1; key2=value2; ..."
1128 const cookies = j.getCookies(url);
1129 // [{key: 'key1', value: 'value1', domain: "www.google.com", ...}, ...]
1130})
1131```
1132
1133[back to top](#table-of-contents)