# Request — Simplified HTTP client [![npm package](https://nodei.co/npm/request.png?downloads=true&downloadRank=true&stars=true)](https://nodei.co/npm/request/) [![Build status](https://img.shields.io/travis/request/request.svg?style=flat)](https://travis-ci.org/request/request) [![Coverage](https://img.shields.io/coveralls/request/request.svg?style=flat)](https://coveralls.io/r/request/request) [![Gitter](https://img.shields.io/badge/gitter-join_chat-blue.svg?style=flat)](https://gitter.im/request/request?utm_source=badge) ## Super simple to use Request is designed to be the simplest way possible to make http calls. It supports HTTPS and follows redirects by default. ```javascript var request = require('request'); request('http://www.google.com', function (error, response, body) { if (!error && response.statusCode == 200) { console.log(body) // Show the HTML for the Google homepage. } }) ``` ## Streaming You can stream any response to a file stream. ```javascript request('http://google.com/doodle.png').pipe(fs.createWriteStream('doodle.png')) ``` You 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). ```javascript fs.createReadStream('file.json').pipe(request.put('http://mysite.com/obj.json')) ``` Request can also `pipe` to itself. When doing so, `content-type` and `content-length` are preserved in the PUT headers. ```javascript request.get('http://google.com/img.png').pipe(request.put('http://mysite.com/img.png')) ``` Request 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). ```javascript request .get('http://google.com/img.png') .on('response', function(response) { console.log(response.statusCode) // 200 console.log(response.headers['content-type']) // 'image/png' }) .pipe(request.put('http://mysite.com/img.png')) ``` To easily handle errors when streaming requests, listen to the `error` event before piping: ```javascript request .get('http://mysite.com/doodle.png') .on('error', function(err) { console.log(err) }) .pipe(fs.createWriteStream('doodle.png')) ``` Now let’s get fancy. ```javascript http.createServer(function (req, resp) { if (req.url === '/doodle.png') { if (req.method === 'PUT') { req.pipe(request.put('http://mysite.com/doodle.png')) } else if (req.method === 'GET' || req.method === 'HEAD') { request.get('http://mysite.com/doodle.png').pipe(resp) } } }) ``` You 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: ```javascript http.createServer(function (req, resp) { if (req.url === '/doodle.png') { var x = request('http://mysite.com/doodle.png') req.pipe(x) x.pipe(resp) } }) ``` And since `pipe()` returns the destination stream in ≥ Node 0.5.x you can do one line proxying. :) ```javascript req.pipe(request('http://mysite.com/doodle.png')).pipe(resp) ``` Also, none of this new functionality conflicts with requests previous features, it just expands them. ```javascript var r = request.defaults({'proxy':'http://localproxy.com'}) http.createServer(function (req, resp) { if (req.url === '/doodle.png') { r.get('http://google.com/doodle.png').pipe(resp) } }) ``` You can still use intermediate proxies, the requests will still follow HTTP forwards, etc. ## Proxies If you specify a `proxy` option, then the request (and any subsequent redirects) will be sent via a connection to the proxy server. If your endpoint is an `https` url, and you are using a proxy, then request will send a `CONNECT` request to the proxy server *first*, and then use the supplied connection to connect to the endpoint. That is, first it will make a request like: ``` HTTP/1.1 CONNECT endpoint-server.com:80 Host: proxy-server.com User-Agent: whatever user agent you specify ``` and then the proxy server make a TCP connection to `endpoint-server` on port `80`, and return a response that looks like: ``` HTTP/1.1 200 OK ``` At this point, the connection is left open, and the client is communicating directly with the `endpoint-server.com` machine. See [the wikipedia page on HTTP Tunneling](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTTP_tunnel) for more information. By default, when proxying `http` traffic, request will simply make a standard proxied `http` request. This is done by making the `url` section of the initial line of the request a fully qualified url to the endpoint. For example, it will make a single request that looks like: ``` HTTP/1.1 GET http://endpoint-server.com/some-url Host: proxy-server.com Other-Headers: all go here request body or whatever ``` Because a pure "http over http" tunnel offers no additional security or other features, it is generally simpler to go with a straightforward HTTP proxy in this case. However, if you would like to force a tunneling proxy, you may set the `tunnel` option to `true`. You can also make a standard proxied `http` request by explicitly setting `tunnel : false`, but **note that this will allow the proxy to see the traffic to/from the destination server**. If you are using a tunneling proxy, you may set the `proxyHeaderWhiteList` to share certain headers with the proxy. You can also set the `proxyHeaderExclusiveList` to share certain headers only with the proxy and not with destination host. By default, this set is: ``` accept accept-charset accept-encoding accept-language accept-ranges cache-control content-encoding content-language content-length content-location content-md5 content-range content-type connection date expect max-forwards pragma proxy-authorization referer te transfer-encoding user-agent via ``` Note that, when using a tunneling proxy, the `proxy-authorization` header and any headers from custom `proxyHeaderExclusiveList` are *never* sent to the endpoint server, but only to the proxy server. ### Controlling proxy behaviour using environment variables The following environment variables are respected by `request`: * `HTTP_PROXY` / `http_proxy` * `HTTPS_PROXY` / `https_proxy` * `NO_PROXY` / `no_proxy` When `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. `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. Here's some examples of valid `no_proxy` values: * `google.com` - don't proxy HTTP/HTTPS requests to Google. * `google.com:443` - don't proxy HTTPS requests to Google, but *do* proxy HTTP requests to Google. * `google.com:443, yahoo.com:80` - don't proxy HTTPS requests to Google, and don't proxy HTTP requests to Yahoo! * `*` - ignore `https_proxy`/`http_proxy` environment variables altogether. ## UNIX Socket `request` supports making requests to [UNIX Domain Sockets](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix_domain_socket). To make one, use the following URL scheme: ```javascript /* Pattern */ 'http://unix:SOCKET:PATH' /* Example */ request.get('http://unix:/absolute/path/to/unix.socket:/request/path') ``` Note: The `SOCKET` path is assumed to be absolute to the root of the host file system. ## Forms `request` supports `application/x-www-form-urlencoded` and `multipart/form-data` form uploads. For `multipart/related` refer to the `multipart` API. #### application/x-www-form-urlencoded (URL-Encoded Forms) URL-encoded forms are simple. ```javascript request.post('http://service.com/upload', {form:{key:'value'}}) // or request.post('http://service.com/upload').form({key:'value'}) // or request.post({url:'http://service.com/upload', form: {key:'value'}}, function(err,httpResponse,body){ /* ... */ }) ``` #### multipart/form-data (Multipart Form Uploads) For `multipart/form-data` we use the [form-data](https://github.com/felixge/node-form-data) library by [@felixge](https://github.com/felixge). For the most cases, you can pass your upload form data via the `formData` option. ```javascript var formData = { // Pass a simple key-value pair my_field: 'my_value', // Pass data via Buffers my_buffer: new Buffer([1, 2, 3]), // Pass data via Streams my_file: fs.createReadStream(__dirname + '/unicycle.jpg'), // Pass multiple values /w an Array attachments: [ fs.createReadStream(__dirname + '/attachment1.jpg'), fs.createReadStream(__dirname + '/attachment2.jpg') ], // Pass optional meta-data with an 'options' object with style: {value: DATA, options: OPTIONS} // Use case: for some types of streams, you'll need to provide "file"-related information manually. // See the `form-data` README for more information about options: https://github.com/felixge/node-form-data custom_file: { value: fs.createReadStream('/dev/urandom'), options: { filename: 'topsecret.jpg', contentType: 'image/jpg' } } }; request.post({url:'http://service.com/upload', formData: formData}, function optionalCallback(err, httpResponse, body) { if (err) { return console.error('upload failed:', err); } console.log('Upload successful! Server responded with:', body); }); ``` For 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.) ```javascript // NOTE: Advanced use-case, for normal use see 'formData' usage above var r = request.post('http://service.com/upload', function optionalCallback(err, httpResponse, body) { // ... var form = r.form(); form.append('my_field', 'my_value'); form.append('my_buffer', new Buffer([1, 2, 3])); form.append('custom_file', fs.createReadStream(__dirname + '/unicycle.jpg'), {filename: 'unicycle.jpg'}); ``` See the [form-data README](https://github.com/felixge/node-form-data) for more information & examples. #### multipart/related Some 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. ```javascript request({ method: 'PUT', preambleCRLF: true, postambleCRLF: true, uri: 'http://service.com/upload', multipart: [ { 'content-type': 'application/json' body: JSON.stringify({foo: 'bar', _attachments: {'message.txt': {follows: true, length: 18, 'content_type': 'text/plain' }}}) }, { body: 'I am an attachment' }, { body: fs.createReadStream('image.png') } ], // alternatively pass an object containing additional options multipart: { chunked: false, data: [ { 'content-type': 'application/json', body: JSON.stringify({foo: 'bar', _attachments: {'message.txt': {follows: true, length: 18, 'content_type': 'text/plain' }}}) }, { body: 'I am an attachment' } ] } }, function (error, response, body) { if (error) { return console.error('upload failed:', error); } console.log('Upload successful! Server responded with:', body); }) ``` ## HTTP Authentication ```javascript request.get('http://some.server.com/').auth('username', 'password', false); // or request.get('http://some.server.com/', { 'auth': { 'user': 'username', 'pass': 'password', 'sendImmediately': false } }); // or request.get('http://some.server.com/').auth(null, null, true, 'bearerToken'); // or request.get('http://some.server.com/', { 'auth': { 'bearer': 'bearerToken' } }); ``` If passed as an option, `auth` should be a hash containing values: - `user` || `username` - `pass` || `password` - `sendImmediately` (optional) - `bearer` (optional) The method form takes parameters `auth(username, password, sendImmediately, bearer)`. `sendImmediately` defaults to `true`, which causes a basic or bearer authentication header to be sent. If `sendImmediately` is `false`, then `request` will retry with a proper authentication header after receiving a `401` response from the server (which must contain a `WWW-Authenticate` header indicating the required authentication method). Note that you can also specify basic authentication using the URL itself, as detailed in [RFC 1738](http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1738.txt). Simply pass the `user:password` before the host with an `@` sign: ```javascript var username = 'username', password = 'password', url = 'http://' + username + ':' + password + '@some.server.com'; request({url: url}, function (error, response, body) { // Do more stuff with 'body' here }); ``` Digest authentication is supported, but it only works with `sendImmediately` set to `false`; otherwise `request` will send basic authentication on the initial request, which will probably cause the request to fail. Bearer authentication is supported, and is activated when the `bearer` value is available. The value may be either a `String` or a `Function` returning a `String`. Using a function to supply the bearer token is particularly useful if used in conjuction with `defaults` to allow a single function to supply the last known token at the time of sending a request, or to compute one on the fly. ## OAuth Signing [OAuth version 1.0](https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc5849) is supported. The default signing algorithm is [HMAC-SHA1](https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc5849#section-3.4.2): ```javascript // OAuth1.0 - 3-legged server side flow (Twitter example) // step 1 var qs = require('querystring') , oauth = { callback: 'http://mysite.com/callback/' , consumer_key: CONSUMER_KEY , consumer_secret: CONSUMER_SECRET } , url = 'https://api.twitter.com/oauth/request_token' ; request.post({url:url, oauth:oauth}, function (e, r, body) { // Ideally, you would take the body in the response // and construct a URL that a user clicks on (like a sign in button). // The verifier is only available in the response after a user has // verified with twitter that they are authorizing your app. // step 2 var req_data = qs.parse(body) var uri = 'https://api.twitter.com/oauth/authenticate' + '?' + qs.stringify({oauth_token: req_data.oauth_token}) // redirect the user to the authorize uri // step 3 // after the user is redirected back to your server var auth_data = qs.parse(body) , oauth = { consumer_key: CONSUMER_KEY , consumer_secret: CONSUMER_SECRET , token: auth_data.oauth_token , token_secret: req_data.oauth_token_secret , verifier: auth_data.oauth_verifier } , url = 'https://api.twitter.com/oauth/access_token' ; request.post({url:url, oauth:oauth}, function (e, r, body) { // ready to make signed requests on behalf of the user var perm_data = qs.parse(body) , oauth = { consumer_key: CONSUMER_KEY , consumer_secret: CONSUMER_SECRET , token: perm_data.oauth_token , token_secret: perm_data.oauth_token_secret } , url = 'https://api.twitter.com/1.1/users/show.json' , qs = { screen_name: perm_data.screen_name , user_id: perm_data.user_id } ; request.get({url:url, oauth:oauth, json:true}, function (e, r, user) { console.log(user) }) }) }) ``` For [RSA-SHA1 signing](https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc5849#section-3.4.3), make the following changes to the OAuth options object: * Pass `signature_method : 'RSA-SHA1'` * Instead of `consumer_secret`, specify a `private_key` string in [PEM format](http://how2ssl.com/articles/working_with_pem_files/) For [PLAINTEXT signing](http://oauth.net/core/1.0/#anchor22), make the following changes to the OAuth options object: * Pass `signature_method : 'PLAINTEXT'` To send OAuth parameters via query params or in a post body as described in The [Consumer Request Parameters](http://oauth.net/core/1.0/#consumer_req_param) section of the oauth1 spec: * Pass `transport_method : 'query'` or `transport_method : 'body'` in the OAuth options object. * `transport_method` defaults to `'header'` ## Custom HTTP Headers HTTP Headers, such as `User-Agent`, can be set in the `options` object. In the example below, we call the github API to find out the number of stars and forks for the request repository. This requires a custom `User-Agent` header as well as https. ```javascript var request = require('request'); var options = { url: 'https://api.github.com/repos/request/request', headers: { 'User-Agent': 'request' } }; function callback(error, response, body) { if (!error && response.statusCode == 200) { var info = JSON.parse(body); console.log(info.stargazers_count + " Stars"); console.log(info.forks_count + " Forks"); } } request(options, callback); ``` ## TLS/SSL Protocol TLS/SSL Protocol options, such as `cert`, `key` and `passphrase`, can be set in the `agentOptions` property of the `options` object. In the example below, we call an API requires client side SSL certificate (in PEM format) with passphrase protected private key (in PEM format) and disable the SSLv3 protocol: ```javascript var fs = require('fs') , path = require('path') , certFile = path.resolve(__dirname, 'ssl/client.crt') , keyFile = path.resolve(__dirname, 'ssl/client.key') , request = require('request'); var options = { url: 'https://api.some-server.com/', agentOptions: { cert: fs.readFileSync(certFile), key: fs.readFileSync(keyFile), // Or use `pfx` property replacing `cert` and `key` when using private key, certificate and CA certs in PFX or PKCS12 format: // pfx: fs.readFileSync(pfxFilePath), passphrase: 'password', securityOptions: 'SSL_OP_NO_SSLv3' } }; request.get(options); ``` It is able to force using SSLv3 only by specifying `secureProtocol`: ```javascript request.get({ url: 'https://api.some-server.com/', agentOptions: { secureProtocol: 'SSLv3_method' } }); ``` It is possible to accept other certificates than those signed by generally allowed Certificate Authorities (CAs). This can be useful, for example, when using self-signed certificates. To allow a different certificate, you can specify the signing CA by adding the contents of the CA's certificate file to the `agentOptions`: ```javascript request.get({ url: 'https://api.some-server.com/', agentOptions: { ca: fs.readFileSync('ca.cert.pem') } }); ``` ## request(options, callback) The first argument can be either a `url` or an `options` object. The only required option is `uri`; all others are optional. * `uri` || `url` - fully qualified uri or a parsed url object from `url.parse()` * `qs` - object containing querystring values to be appended to the `uri` * `useQuerystring` - If true, use `querystring` to stringify and parse querystrings, otherwise use `qs` (default: `false`). Set this option to `true` if you need arrays to be serialized as `foo=bar&foo=baz` instead of the default `foo[0]=bar&foo[1]=baz`. * `method` - http method (default: `"GET"`) * `headers` - http headers (default: `{}`) * `body` - entity body for PATCH, POST and PUT requests. Must be a `Buffer` or `String`, unless `json` is `true`. If `json` is `true`, then `body` must be a JSON-serializable object. * `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. * `formData` - Data to pass for a `multipart/form-data` request. See [Forms](#forms) section above. * `multipart` - array of objects which contain their own headers and `body` attributes. Sends a `multipart/related` request. See [Forms](#forms) section above. * Alternatively you can pass in an object `{chunked: false, data: []}` where `chunked` is used to specify whether the request is sent in [chunked transfer encoding](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chunked_transfer_encoding) In non-chunked requests, data items with body streams are not allowed. * `auth` - A hash containing values `user` || `username`, `pass` || `password`, and `sendImmediately` (optional). See documentation above. * `json` - sets `body` but to JSON representation of value and adds `Content-type: application/json` header. Additionally, parses the response body as JSON. * `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. * `preambleCRLF` - append a newline/CRLF before the boundary of your `multipart/form-data` request. * `postambleCRLF` - append a newline/CRLF at the end of the boundary of your `multipart/form-data` request. * `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. * `followAllRedirects` - follow non-GET HTTP 3xx responses as redirects (default: `false`) * `maxRedirects` - the maximum number of redirects to follow (default: `10`) * `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). * `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](request.js#L747)). 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. * 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}`). * Note that if you are sending multiple requests in a loop and creating multiple new `pool` objects, `maxSockets` will not work as intended. To work around this, either use [`request.defaults`](#requestdefaultsoptions) with your pool options or create the pool object with the `maxSockets` property outside of the loop. * `timeout` - Integer containing the number of milliseconds to wait for a request to respond before aborting the request. Note that if the underlying TCP connection cannot be established, the OS-wide TCP connection timeout will overrule the `timeout` option ([the default in Linux is around 20 seconds](http://www.sekuda.com/overriding_the_default_linux_kernel_20_second_tcp_socket_connect_timeout)). * `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`) * `oauth` - Options for OAuth HMAC-SHA1 signing. See documentation above. * `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). * `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. * `agentOptions` - Object containing user agent options. See documentation above. **Note:** [see tls API doc for TLS/SSL options](http://nodejs.org/api/tls.html#tls_tls_connect_options_callback). * `jar` - If `true` and `tough-cookie` is installed, remember cookies for future use (or define your custom cookie jar; see examples section) * `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) * `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. * `localAddress` - Local interface to bind for network connections. * `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. * `tunnel` - controls the behavior of [HTTP `CONNECT` tunneling](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTTP_tunnel#HTTP_CONNECT_tunneling) as follows: * `undefined` (default) - `true` if the destination is `https` or a previous request in the redirect chain used a tunneling proxy, `false` otherwise * `true` - always tunnel to the destination by making a `CONNECT` request to the proxy * `false` - request the destination as a `GET` request. * `proxyHeaderWhiteList` - A whitelist of headers to send to a tunneling proxy. * `proxyHeaderExclusiveList` - A whitelist of headers to send exclusively to a tunneling proxy and not to destination. The callback argument gets 3 arguments: 1. An `error` when applicable (usually from [`http.ClientRequest`](http://nodejs.org/api/http.html#http_class_http_clientrequest) object) 2. An [`http.IncomingMessage`](http://nodejs.org/api/http.html#http_http_incomingmessage) object 3. The third is the `response` body (`String` or `Buffer`, or JSON object if the `json` option is supplied) ## Convenience methods There are also shorthand methods for different HTTP METHODs and some other conveniences. ### request.defaults(options) This method **returns a wrapper** around the normal request API that defaults to whatever options you pass to it. **Note:** `request.defaults()` **does not** modify the global request API; instead, it **returns a wrapper** that has your default settings applied to it. **Note:** You can call `.defaults()` on the wrapper that is returned from `request.defaults` to add/override defaults that were previously defaulted. For example: ```javascript //requests using baseRequest() will set the 'x-token' header var baseRequest = request.defaults({ headers: {x-token: 'my-token'} }) //requests using specialRequest() will include the 'x-token' header set in //baseRequest and will also include the 'special' header var specialRequest = baseRequest.defaults({ headers: {special: 'special value'} }) ``` ### request.put Same as `request()`, but defaults to `method: "PUT"`. ```javascript request.put(url) ``` ### request.patch Same as `request()`, but defaults to `method: "PATCH"`. ```javascript request.patch(url) ``` ### request.post Same as `request()`, but defaults to `method: "POST"`. ```javascript request.post(url) ``` ### request.head Same as `request()`, but defaults to `method: "HEAD"`. ```javascript request.head(url) ``` ### request.del Same as `request()`, but defaults to `method: "DELETE"`. ```javascript request.del(url) ``` ### request.get Same as `request()` (for uniformity). ```javascript request.get(url) ``` ### request.cookie Function that creates a new cookie. ```javascript request.cookie('key1=value1') ``` ### request.jar() Function that creates a new cookie jar. ```javascript request.jar() ``` ## Examples: ```javascript var request = require('request') , rand = Math.floor(Math.random()*100000000).toString() ; request( { method: 'PUT' , uri: 'http://mikeal.iriscouch.com/testjs/' + rand , multipart: [ { 'content-type': 'application/json' , body: JSON.stringify({foo: 'bar', _attachments: {'message.txt': {follows: true, length: 18, 'content_type': 'text/plain' }}}) } , { body: 'I am an attachment' } ] } , function (error, response, body) { if(response.statusCode == 201){ console.log('document saved as: http://mikeal.iriscouch.com/testjs/'+ rand) } else { console.log('error: '+ response.statusCode) console.log(body) } } ) ``` For backwards-compatibility, response compression is not supported by default. To accept gzip-compressed responses, set the `gzip` option to `true`. Note that the body data passed through `request` is automatically decompressed while the response object is unmodified and will contain compressed data if the server sent a compressed response. ```javascript var request = require('request') request( { method: 'GET' , uri: 'http://www.google.com' , gzip: true } , function (error, response, body) { // body is the decompressed response body console.log('server encoded the data as: ' + (response.headers['content-encoding'] || 'identity')) console.log('the decoded data is: ' + body) } ).on('data', function(data) { // decompressed data as it is received console.log('decoded chunk: ' + data) }) .on('response', function(response) { // unmodified http.IncomingMessage object response.on('data', function(data) { // compressed data as it is received console.log('received ' + data.length + ' bytes of compressed data') }) }) ``` Cookies are disabled by default (else, they would be used in subsequent requests). To enable cookies, set `jar` to `true` (either in `defaults` or `options`) and install `tough-cookie`. ```javascript var request = request.defaults({jar: true}) request('http://www.google.com', function () { request('http://images.google.com') }) ``` To 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`) ```javascript var j = request.jar() var request = request.defaults({jar:j}) request('http://www.google.com', function () { request('http://images.google.com') }) ``` OR ```javascript var j = request.jar(); var cookie = request.cookie('key1=value1'); var url = 'http://www.google.com'; j.setCookie(cookie, url); request({url: url, jar: j}, function () { request('http://images.google.com') }) ``` To use a custom cookie store (such as a [`FileCookieStore`](https://github.com/mitsuru/tough-cookie-filestore) which supports saving to and restoring from JSON files), pass it as a parameter to `request.jar()`: ```javascript var FileCookieStore = require('tough-cookie-filestore'); // NOTE - currently the 'cookies.json' file must already exist! var j = request.jar(new FileCookieStore('cookies.json')); request = request.defaults({ jar : j }) request('http://www.google.com', function() { request('http://images.google.com') }) ``` The cookie store must be a [`tough-cookie`](https://github.com/goinstant/tough-cookie) store and it must support synchronous operations; see the [`CookieStore` API docs](https://github.com/goinstant/tough-cookie/#cookiestore-api) for details. To inspect your cookie jar after a request: ```javascript var j = request.jar() request({url: 'http://www.google.com', jar: j}, function () { var cookie_string = j.getCookieString(uri); // "key1=value1; key2=value2; ..." var cookies = j.getCookies(uri); // [{key: 'key1', value: 'value1', domain: "www.google.com", ...}, ...] }) ``` ## Debugging There are at least three ways to debug the operation of `request`: 1. Launch the node process like `NODE_DEBUG=request node script.js` (`lib,request,otherlib` works too). 2. Set `require('request').debug = true` at any time (this does the same thing as #1). 3. Use the [request-debug module](https://github.com/nylen/request-debug) to view request and response headers and bodies.