- [Post data using a file stream](#post-data-using-a-file-stream)
- [Post with form-data (detect multipart)](#post-with-form-data-detect-multipart)
- [Request cancellation with AbortSignal](#request-cancellation-with-abortsignal)
- [API](#api)
- [fetch(url[, options])](#fetchurl-options)
- [Options](#options)
- [Class: Request](#class-request)
- [Class: Response](#class-response)
- [Class: Headers](#class-headers)
- [Interface: Body](#interface-body)
- [Class: FetchError](#class-fetcherror)
- [License](#license)
- [Acknowledgement](#acknowledgement)
<!-- /TOC -->
## Motivation
Instead of implementing `XMLHttpRequest` in Node.js to run browser-specific [Fetch polyfill](https://github.com/github/fetch), why not go from native `http` to `fetch` API directly? Hence, `node-fetch`, minimal code for a `window.fetch` compatible API on Node.js runtime.
See Matt Andrews' [isomorphic-fetch](https://github.com/matthew-andrews/isomorphic-fetch) or Leonardo Quixada's [cross-fetch](https://github.com/lquixada/cross-fetch) for isomorphic usage (exports `node-fetch` for server-side, `whatwg-fetch` for client-side).
## Features
- Stay consistent with `window.fetch` API.
- Make conscious trade-off when following [WHATWG fetch spec][whatwg-fetch] and [stream spec](https://streams.spec.whatwg.org/) implementation details, document known differences.
- Use native promise but allow substituting it with [insert your favorite promise library].
- Use native Node streams for body on both request and response.
- Decode content encoding (gzip/deflate) properly and convert string output (such as `res.text()` and `res.json()`) to UTF-8 automatically.
- Useful extensions such as timeout, redirect limit, response size limit, [explicit errors](ERROR-HANDLING.md) for troubleshooting.
## Difference from client-side fetch
- See [Known Differences](LIMITS.md) for details.
- If you happen to use a missing feature that `window.fetch` offers, feel free to open an issue.
- Pull requests are welcomed too!
## Installation
Current stable release (`2.x`)
```sh
$ npm install node-fetch
```
## Loading and configuring the module
We suggest you load the module via `require` until the stabilization of ES modules in node:
```js
const fetch = require('node-fetch');
```
If you are using a Promise library other than native, set it through `fetch.Promise`:
```js
const Bluebird = require('bluebird');
fetch.Promise = Bluebird;
```
## Common Usage
NOTE: The documentation below is up-to-date with `2.x` releases; see the [`1.x` readme](https://github.com/bitinn/node-fetch/blob/1.x/README.md), [changelog](https://github.com/bitinn/node-fetch/blob/1.x/CHANGELOG.md) and [2.x upgrade guide](UPGRADE-GUIDE.md) for the differences.
.then(res => res.json()) // expecting a json response
.then(json => console.log(json));
```
#### Post with JSON
```js
const body = { a: 1 };
fetch('https://httpbin.org/post', {
method: 'post',
body: JSON.stringify(body),
headers: { 'Content-Type': 'application/json' },
})
.then(res => res.json())
.then(json => console.log(json));
```
#### Post with form parameters
`URLSearchParams` is available in Node.js as of v7.5.0. See [official documentation](https://nodejs.org/api/url.html#url_class_urlsearchparams) for more usage methods.
NOTE: The `Content-Type` header is only set automatically to `x-www-form-urlencoded` when an instance of `URLSearchParams` is given as such:
NOTE: 3xx-5xx responses are *NOT* exceptions and should be handled in `then()`; see the next section for more information.
Adding a catch to the fetch promise chain will catch *all* exceptions, such as errors originating from node core libraries, network errors and operational errors, which are instances of FetchError. See the [error handling document](ERROR-HANDLING.md) for more details.
```js
fetch('https://domain.invalid/')
.catch(err => console.error(err));
```
#### Handling client and server errors
It is common to create a helper function to check that the response contains no client (4xx) or server (5xx) error responses:
```js
function checkStatus(res) {
if (res.ok) { // res.status >= 200 && res.status <300
return res;
} else {
throw MyCustomError(res.statusText);
}
}
fetch('https://httpbin.org/status/400')
.then(checkStatus)
.then(res => console.log('will not get here...'))
```
## Advanced Usage
#### Streams
The "Node.js way" is to use streams when possible:
`url` should be an absolute url, such as `https://example.com/`. A path-relative URL (`/file/under/root`) or protocol-relative URL (`//can-be-http-or-https.com/`) will result in a rejected `Promise`.
<aid="fetch-options"></a>
### Options
The default values are shown after each option key.
```js
{
// These properties are part of the Fetch Standard
method: 'GET',
headers: {}, // request headers. format is the identical to that accepted by the Headers constructor (see below)
body: null, // request body. can be null, a string, a Buffer, a Blob, or a Node.js Readable stream
redirect: 'follow', // set to `manual` to extract redirect headers, `error` to reject redirect
signal: null, // pass an instance of AbortSignal to optionally abort requests
// The following properties are node-fetch extensions
follow: 20, // maximum redirect count. 0 to not follow redirect
timeout: 0, // req/res timeout in ms, it resets on redirect. 0 to disable (OS limit applies). Signal is recommended instead.
compress: true, // support gzip/deflate content encoding. false to disable
size: 0, // maximum response body size in bytes. 0 to disable
agent: null // http(s).Agent instance or function that returns an instance (see below)
}
```
##### Default Headers
If no values are set, the following request headers will be sent automatically:
If no agent is specified, the default agent provided by Node.js is used. Note that [this changed in Node.js 19](https://github.com/nodejs/node/blob/4267b92604ad78584244488e7f7508a690cb80d0/lib/_http_agent.js#L564) to have `keepalive` true by default. If you wish to enable `keepalive` in an earlier version of Node.js, you can override the agent as per the following code sample.
In addition, the `agent` option accepts a function that returns `http`(s)`.Agent` instance given current [URL](https://nodejs.org/api/url.html), this is useful during a redirection chain across HTTP and HTTPS protocol.
```js
const httpAgent = new http.Agent({
keepAlive: true
});
const httpsAgent = new https.Agent({
keepAlive: true
});
const options = {
agent: function (_parsedURL) {
if (_parsedURL.protocol == 'http:') {
return httpAgent;
} else {
return httpsAgent;
}
}
}
```
<aid="class-request"></a>
### Class: Request
An HTTP(S) request containing information about URL, method, headers, and the body. This class implements the [Body](#iface-body) interface.
Due to the nature of Node.js, the following properties are not implemented at this moment:
-`type`
-`destination`
-`referrer`
-`referrerPolicy`
-`mode`
-`credentials`
-`cache`
-`integrity`
-`keepalive`
The following node-fetch extension properties are provided:
-`follow`
-`compress`
-`counter`
-`agent`
See [options](#fetch-options) for exact meaning of these extensions.
#### new Request(input[, options])
<small>*(spec-compliant)*</small>
-`input` A string representing a URL, or another `Request` (which will be cloned)
-`options` [Options][#fetch-options] for the HTTP(S) request
Constructs a new `Request` object. The constructor is identical to that in the [browser](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Request/Request).
In most cases, directly `fetch(url, options)` is simpler than creating a `Request` object.
<aid="class-response"></a>
### Class: Response
An HTTP(S) response. This class implements the [Body](#iface-body) interface.
The following properties are not implemented in node-fetch at this moment:
-`Response.error()`
-`Response.redirect()`
-`type`
-`trailer`
#### new Response([body[, options]])
<small>*(spec-compliant)*</small>
-`body` A `String` or [`Readable` stream][node-readable]
-`options` A [`ResponseInit`][response-init] options dictionary
Constructs a new `Response` object. The constructor is identical to that in the [browser](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Response/Response).
Because Node.js does not implement service workers (for which this class was designed), one rarely has to construct a `Response` directly.
#### response.ok
<small>*(spec-compliant)*</small>
Convenience property representing if the request ended normally. Will evaluate to true if the response status was greater than or equal to 200 but smaller than 300.
#### response.redirected
<small>*(spec-compliant)*</small>
Convenience property representing if the request has been redirected at least once. Will evaluate to true if the internal redirect counter is greater than 0.
<aid="class-headers"></a>
### Class: Headers
This class allows manipulating and iterating over a set of HTTP headers. All methods specified in the [Fetch Standard][whatwg-fetch] are implemented.
#### new Headers([init])
<small>*(spec-compliant)*</small>
-`init` Optional argument to pre-fill the `Headers` object
Construct a new `Headers` object. `init` can be either `null`, a `Headers` object, an key-value map object or any iterable object.
```js
// Example adapted from https://fetch.spec.whatwg.org/#example-headers-class
const meta = {
'Content-Type': 'text/xml',
'Breaking-Bad': '<3'
};
const headers = new Headers(meta);
// The above is equivalent to
const meta = [
[ 'Content-Type', 'text/xml' ],
[ 'Breaking-Bad', '<3']
];
const headers = new Headers(meta);
// You can in fact use any iterable objects, like a Map or even another Headers
const meta = new Map();
meta.set('Content-Type', 'text/xml');
meta.set('Breaking-Bad', '<3');
const headers = new Headers(meta);
const copyOfHeaders = new Headers(headers);
```
<aid="iface-body"></a>
### Interface: Body
`Body` is an abstract interface with methods that are applicable to both `Request` and `Response` classes.
The following methods are not yet implemented in node-fetch at this moment:
-`formData()`
#### body.body
<small>*(deviation from spec)*</small>
* Node.js [`Readable` stream][node-readable]
Data are encapsulated in the `Body` object. Note that while the [Fetch Standard][whatwg-fetch] requires the property to always be a WHATWG `ReadableStream`, in node-fetch it is a Node.js [`Readable` stream][node-readable].
#### body.bodyUsed
<small>*(spec-compliant)*</small>
*`Boolean`
A boolean property for if this body has been consumed. Per the specs, a consumed body cannot be used again.
#### body.arrayBuffer()
#### body.blob()
#### body.json()
#### body.text()
<small>*(spec-compliant)*</small>
* Returns: <code>Promise</code>
Consume the body and return a promise that will resolve to one of these formats.
#### body.buffer()
<small>*(node-fetch extension)*</small>
* Returns: <code>Promise<Buffer></code>
Consume the body and return a promise that will resolve to a Buffer.
#### body.textConverted()
<small>*(node-fetch extension)*</small>
* Returns: <code>Promise<String></code>
Identical to `body.text()`, except instead of always converting to UTF-8, encoding sniffing will be performed and text converted to UTF-8 if possible.
(This API requires an optional dependency of the npm package [encoding](https://www.npmjs.com/package/encoding), which you need to install manually. `webpack` users may see [a warning message](https://github.com/bitinn/node-fetch/issues/412#issuecomment-379007792) due to this optional dependency.)
<aid="class-fetcherror"></a>
### Class: FetchError
<small>*(node-fetch extension)*</small>
An operational error in the fetching process. See [ERROR-HANDLING.md][] for more info.
<aid="class-aborterror"></a>
### Class: AbortError
<small>*(node-fetch extension)*</small>
An Error thrown when the request is aborted in response to an `AbortSignal`'s `abort` event. It has a `name` property of `AbortError`. See [ERROR-HANDLING.MD][] for more info.
## Acknowledgement
Thanks to [github/fetch](https://github.com/github/fetch) for providing a solid implementation reference.
`node-fetch` v1 was maintained by [@bitinn](https://github.com/bitinn); v2 was maintained by [@TimothyGu](https://github.com/timothygu), [@bitinn](https://github.com/bitinn) and [@jimmywarting](https://github.com/jimmywarting); v2 readme is written by [@jkantr](https://github.com/jkantr).