Javascript – Alternatives to request-promise-native

expressjavascriptnode.jsrequest-promise

I was looking for modern modules that implement basic HTTP methods such as GET, POST in Node.js.

I guess the most popular is request. The async/await version of it is called request-promise-native.

Recently I learned that these modules are being deprecated. So, what modern alternatives can I use that are built on the async/await paradigm?

Best Answer

I'd strongly suggest using node-fetch. It is based on the fetch API in modern browsers. Not only is it promise-based it also has an actual standard behind it.

The only reason you wouldn't use fetch is if you don't like the API. Then I'd suggest using something cross-platform like axios or superagent.

I personally find using the same API on the server and browser eases maintainability and offers potential for code reuse.

Dynamically create `<input>`s in a form and submit it

/**
 * sends a request to the specified url from a form. this will change the window location.
 * @param {string} path the path to send the post request to
 * @param {object} params the parameters to add to the url
 * @param {string} [method=post] the method to use on the form
 */

function post(path, params, method='post') {

  // The rest of this code assumes you are not using a library.
  // It can be made less verbose if you use one.
  const form = document.createElement('form');
  form.method = method;
  form.action = path;

  for (const key in params) {
    if (params.hasOwnProperty(key)) {
      const hiddenField = document.createElement('input');
      hiddenField.type = 'hidden';
      hiddenField.name = key;
      hiddenField.value = params[key];

      form.appendChild(hiddenField);
    }
  }

  document.body.appendChild(form);
  form.submit();
}

Example:

post('/contact/', {name: 'Johnny Bravo'});

EDIT: Since this has gotten upvoted so much, I'm guessing people will be copy-pasting this a lot. So I added the hasOwnProperty check to fix any inadvertent bugs.

Javascript – How to manage a redirect request after a jQuery Ajax call

I read this question and implemented the approach that has been stated regarding setting the response HTTP status code to 278 in order to avoid the browser transparently handling the redirects. Even though this worked, I was a little dissatisfied as it is a bit of a hack.

After more digging around, I ditched this approach and used JSON. In this case, all responses to AJAX requests have the status code 200 and the body of the response contains a JSON object that is constructed on the server. The JavaScript on the client can then use the JSON object to decide what it needs to do.

I had a similar problem to yours. I perform an AJAX request that has 2 possible responses: one that redirects the browser to a new page and one that replaces an existing HTML form on the current page with a new one. The jQuery code to do this looks something like:

$.ajax({
    type: "POST",
    url: reqUrl,
    data: reqBody,
    dataType: "json",
    success: function(data, textStatus) {
        if (data.redirect) {
            // data.redirect contains the string URL to redirect to
            window.location.href = data.redirect;
        } else {
            // data.form contains the HTML for the replacement form
            $("#myform").replaceWith(data.form);
        }
    }
});

The JSON object "data" is constructed on the server to have 2 members: data.redirect and data.form. I found this approach to be much better.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

JavaScript post request like a form submit

Dynamically create <input>s in a form and submit it

Javascript – How to manage a redirect request after a jQuery Ajax call

Related Topic

Dynamically create `<input>`s in a form and submit it