Restler
(C) Dan Webb (dan@danwebb.net/@danwrong) 2011, Licensed under the MIT-LICENSE
An HTTP client library for node.js. Hides most of the complexity of creating and using http.Client.
See Version History for changes
Installing
npm install restler
Running the tests
npm test
Features
- Easy interface for common operations via http.request
- Automatic serialization of post data
- Automatic serialization of query string data
- Automatic deserialization of XML, JSON and YAML responses to JavaScript objects
- Provide your own deserialization functions for other datatypes
- Automatic following of redirects
- Send files with multipart requests
- Transparently handle SSL (just specify https in the URL)
- Deals with basic auth for you, just provide username and password options
- Simple service wrapper that allows you to easily put together REST API libraries
- Transparently handle content-encoded responses (gzip, deflate)
- Transparently handle different content charsets via iconv-lite
API
request(url, options)
Basic method to make a request of any type. The function returns a RestRequest object that emits events:
events
complete: function(result, response)
- emitted when the request has finished whether it was successful or not. Gets passed the response result and the response object as arguments. If some error has occurred,result
is always instance ofError
, otherwise it contains response data.success: function(data, response)
- emitted when the request was successful. Gets passed the response data and the response object as arguments.fail: function(data, response)
- emitted when the request was successful, but 4xx status code returned. Gets passed the response data and the response object as arguments.error: function(err, response)
- emitted when some errors have occurred (eg. connection aborted, parse, encoding, decoding failed or some other unhandled errors). Gets passed theError
object and the response object (when available) as arguments.abort: function()
- emitted whenrequest.abort()
is called.timeout: function(ms)
- when a request takes more than the timeout option eg: {timeout:5000}, the request will be aborted. error and abort events will not be called, instead timeout will be emitted.2XX
,3XX
,4XX
,5XX: function(data, response)
- emitted for all requests with response codes in the range (eg.2XX
emitted for 200, 201, 203).actual response code: function(data, response)
- emitted for every single response code (eg. 404, 201, etc).
members
abort([error])
Cancels request.abort
event is emitted.request.aborted
is set totrue
. If non-falsyerror
is passed, thenerror
will be additionaly emitted (witherror
passed as a param anderror.type
is set to"abort"
). Otherwise onlycomplete
event will raise.retry([timeout])
Re-sends request aftertimeout
ms. Pending request is aborted.aborted
Determines if request was aborted.
get(url, options)
Create a GET request.
post(url, options)
Create a POST request.
put(url, options)
Create a PUT request.
del(url, options)
Create a DELETE request.
head(url, options)
Create a HEAD request.
patch(url, options)
Create a PATCH request.
json(url, data, options)
Send json data
via GET method.
postJson(url, data, options)
Send json data
via POST method.
putJson(url, data, options)
Send json data
via PUT method.
Parsers
You can give any of these to the parsers option to specify how the response data is deserialized.
In case of malformed content, parsers emit error
event. Original data returned by server is stored in response.raw
.
parsers.auto
Checks the content-type and then uses parsers.xml, parsers.json or parsers.yaml. If the content type isn't recognised it just returns the data untouched.
parsers.json, parsers.xml, parsers.yaml
All of these attempt to turn the response into a JavaScript object. In order to use the YAML and XML parsers you must have yaml and/or xml2js installed.
Options
method
Request method, can be get, post, put, delete. Defaults to"get"
.query
Query string variables as a javascript object, will override the querystring in the URL. Defaults to empty.data
The data to be added to the body of the request. Can be a string or any object. Note that if you want your request body to be JSON with theContent-Type: application/json
, you need toJSON.stringify
your object first. Otherwise, it will be sent asapplication/x-www-form-urlencoded
and encoded accordingly. Also you can usejson()
andpostJson()
methods.parser
A function that will be called on the returned data. Use any of predefinedrestler.parsers
. See parsers section below. Defaults torestler.parsers.auto
.encoding
The encoding of the request body. Defaults to"utf8"
.decoding
The encoding of the response body. For a list of supported values see Buffers. Additionally accepts"buffer"
- returns response asBuffer
. Defaults to"utf8"
.headers
A hash of HTTP headers to be sent. Defaults to{ 'Accept': '*/*', 'User-Agent': 'Restler for node.js' }
.username
Basic auth username. Defaults to empty.password
Basic auth password. Defaults to empty.accessToken
OAuth Bearer Token. Defaults to empty.multipart
If set the data passed will be formated asmultipart/form-encoded
. See multipart example below. Defaults tofalse
.client
A http.Client instance if you want to reuse or implement some kind of connection pooling. Defaults to empty.followRedirects
If set will recursively follow redirects. Defaults totrue
.timeout
If set, will emit the timeout event when the response does not return within the said value (in ms)rejectUnauthorized
If true, the server certificate is verified against the list of supplied CAs. An 'error' event is emitted if verification fails. Verification happens at the connection level, before the HTTP request is sent. Default true.
Example usage
var rest = ; rest; rest; rest; rest; rest; // multipart request sending a 321567 byte long file using httpsrest; // create a service constructor for very easy API wrappers a la HTTParty...Twitter = rest; var client = 'danwrong' 'password';client; // post JSONvar jsonData = id: 334 ;rest; // put JSONvar jsonData = id: 334 ;rest;
TODO
- What do you need? Let me know or fork.