http

HTTP client.
Example
var http = require('http');
 var request = http.request({
    //alternative to host/port/path is
    //URL: 'http://localhost:888/getAppInfo',
    host: 'localhost', port: '80', path: '/getAppInfo',
    method: 'POST',
    sendTimeout: 30000, receiveTimeout: 30000,
    keepAlive: true,
    compressionEnable: true
 });
 request.write('Add string to response');
 var fileContent = fs.readFileSync('d:\binaryFile.txt'); // return ArrayBuffer, since encoding not passed
 request.write(fileContent, 'base64'); // write file content as base64 encoded string
 var response = request.end();


 var http = require('http');
 var assert = require('assert');
 var DOMParser = require('xmldom').DOMParser;
 // set global proxy settings
 http.setGlobalProxyConfiguration('proxy.main:3249', 'localhost');
 var resp = http.get('http://www.google.com/');
 assert.ok(resp.headers('via').startsWith('1.1 proxy.main'), 'proxy used');
 var index = resp.read();
 var doc = new DOMParser().parseFromString(index);
 assert.ok(doc.documentElement.textContent.startsWith('Google'), 'got Google from google');

Classes

ClientRequest
IncomingMessage

Members

STATUS_CODES: Object:.<number:, string:> static

HTTP status codes.

Methods

setGlobalProxyConfiguration(proxy, bypassopt) static

Configure global ( on the http module level) proxy server in case you can't configure it using either proxycfg.exe -u on Windows XP or netsh winhttp import proxy source=ie for other win version or by pass options.proxyName parameter.

Settings applied only for newly created {ClientRequest} instances.

See for details this MS article

Arguments:
  1. proxy (String)  name of the proxy server to use in format [[http|https]://]host[:port] For example 'http://proxy.my.domain:3249'
  2. [bypass] (String|Array)  semicolon delimited list jr array of host names or IP addresses, or host masks or both, that should not be routed through the proxy

setGlobalConnectionDefaults(defaults) static

Override global ( on the http module level) connectiuon defaults.

Settings applied only for newly created {ClientRequest} instances.

     var http = require('http');
     http.setGlobalConnectionDefaults({receiveTimeout: 60000}); // set receive timeout to 60 sec.
Arguments:
  1. defaults (Object)
    Properties
    1. [useHTTPS=false] (Boolean)
    2. [useCompression=true] (Boolean)  Send 'Accept-encoding: gzip' header to server & unzip zipper responses
    3. [keepAlive=false] (Boolean)  Use keep Alive HTTP protocol feature if server support it.
    4. [sendTimeout=30000] (Number)  Send timeout in ms.
    5. [receiveTimeout=30000] (Number)  Receive timeout in ms.
    6. [connectTimeout=60000] (Number)  Connect timeout in ms.

request(options)ClientRequest static

Create new HTTP server connection. In case server behind the proxy - see http.setGlobalProxyConfiguration function.
Arguments:
  1. options (Object|String)  Either URL string in format protocol://host:port/path or config
    Properties
    1. [URL] (String)  Service URL in format protocol://host:port/path. Will override useHTTPS, server, host,portandpath` if passed
    2. [server] (String)  DEPRECATED. Server to connect in format 'host:port' or 'host' in case port == 80.
    3. [host] (String)  Host to connect. If server not specified this value used
    4. [port] (String)  Port. Default is 80 for HTTP or 443 for HTTPS
    5. [path='/'] (String)  Request path. Defaults to '/'. Should include query string if any. E.G. '/index.html?page=12'
    6. [method='GET'] (String)  HTTP method to use for request
    7. [headers] (Object:.<string:, string:>)  An object containing request headers
    8. [useHTTPS=false] (Boolean)
    9. [useCompression=true] (Boolean)  Send 'Accept-encoding: gzip' header to server & unzip zipper responses
    10. [keepAlive=false] (Boolean)  Use keep Alive HTTP protocol feature if server support it.
    11. [sendTimeout=30000] (Number)  Send timeout in ms.
    12. [receiveTimeout=30000] (Number)  Receive timeout in ms.
    13. [connectTimeout=30000] (Number)  Connect timeout in ms.

buildURL(url, params)String static

Add parameters to URL

 http.buildURL('/myMethod', {a: 1, b: "1212"}; // '/myMethod?a=1&b=1212
Arguments:
  1. url (String)
  2. params (Object)

get(options, URLParamsopt)IncomingMessage static

Since most requests are GET requests without bodies, we provides this convenience method. The two difference between this method and http.request() is that

  • it sets the method to GET and calls req.end() automatically
  • can optionally take URLParams Object {paramName: paramValue, ..} and add parameters to request path
Arguments:
  1. options (Object)  Request options as described in http.request
  2. [URLParams] (Object)  optional parameters to add to options.path