@openverse/api-client

Thoroughly typed JavaScript client for the Openverse API.

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Installation

npm install @openverse/api-client

The cross-fetch dependency is optional, and only needed when using the Openverse API client in a setting where fetch is not globally available on window (e.g., server-side). If fetch is globally available, the client will always use it. Otherwise, it will attempt to use cross-fetch.

@openverse/api-client ships its own type definitions. cross-fetch was chosen for Node and browser interoperability instead of directly using node-fetch, because cross-fetch uses types identical in structure to browser fetch, significantly simplifying request and response type management.

cross-fetch will not be used if globalThis.fetch is defined. That means Node's native fetch will be used when available, and browser's native fetch is always used. If you target environments that do not have globalThis.fetch available, cross-fetch is used. To avoid cross-fetch for any reason, polyfill globalThis.fetch to your preferred implementation.

Usage

Requests to the Openverse API are made through a function returned by OpenverseClient. The function accepts a string parameter representing the endpoint's method and route. TypeScript infers the possible query parameters for that endpoint, which are passed as the params property of the second argument.

import { OpenverseClient } from "@openverse/api-client";

const openverse = OpenverseClient();

const images = await openverse("GET v1/images/", {
    params: {
        q: "dogs",
        license: "by-nc-sa",
        source: ["flickr", "wikimedia"],
    },
});

images.body.results.forEach((image) => console.log(image.title));

All responses bear the following properties:

• body: The API response. For JSON responses, this will be an object. For all others (e.g., thumbnail requests), this will be an untouched ReadableStream (response.body from fetch).
• meta: An object containing the following information about the request:
  • headers: Response headers
  • status: The status of the response
  • url: The final URL, including query parameters, the client made the request with
  • request: The RequestInit object pased to fetch, including headers and body.

Rate limiting

The requester function does not automatically handle rate limit back-off. To implement this yourself, check the rate limit headers from the response meta.headers.

Authentication

By default, the OpenverseClient function will return an unauthenticated client.

To use an authenticated client, pass a credentials object containing clientId and clientSecret to the OpenverseClient function. The client will automatically request tokens as needed, including upon expiration.

import { OpenverseClient } from "@openverse/api-client";

const authenticatedOpenverse = OpenverseClient({
    credentials: {
        clientId: "...",
        clientSecret: "...",
    },
});

OpenverseClient automatically requests API tokens when authenticated, including eagerly refreshing tokens to avoid halting ongoing requests. This is safe, as the Openverse API does not immediately expire existing tokens when a new one issued. This also means you do not need to share the same token between multiple client instances (e.g., across multiple instances of the same application, as in an application server cluster).

Alternative Openverse API instances

By default, the main Openverse API is used at https://api.openverse.engineering/. Other Openverse API instances may be used by passing baseUrl to the OpenverseClient function:

import { OpenverseClient } from "@openverse/api-client";

const localhostOpenverse = OpenverseClient({
    baseUrl: "localhost:50280",
});

License

@openverse/api-client is distributed under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License v3.0 or later license.