JS HTTP GET/POST request
last modified October 18, 2023
In this article we show how to create HTTP GET and POST requests in JavaScript. We use the Fetch API and the Axios library.
HTTP
The Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is an application protocol for distributed, collaborative, hypermedia information systems. HTTP protocol is the foundation of data communication for the World Wide Web.
HTTP GET
The HTTP GET method requests a representation of the specified resource. Requests using GET should only retrieve data.
HTTP POST
The HTTP POST method sends data to the server. It is often used when uploading a file or when submitting a completed web form.
The Fetch API
The Fetch API provides a JavaScript interface for accessing and manipulating parts of the HTTP pipeline, such as requests and responses. The API originates in the browser.
The fetch is a global function which takes url and options
parameters and returns a promise. The promise resolves to the response of the
request.
let promise = fetch(url, [options])
If we do not provide the options, a simple GET request downloading
the contents of the url is generated.
Axios
Axios is a promise based HTTP client for the browser and Node.js. Axios makes it easy to send asynchronous HTTP requests to REST endpoints and perform CRUD operations. It can be used in plain JavaScript or with a library such as Vue or React.
JS fetch GET request
The following example creates a simple GET request and processes the result as text.
<script>
async function doRequest() {
let url = 'http://webcode.me';
let res = await fetch(url);
if (res.ok) {
let text = await res.text();
return text;
} else {
return `HTTP error: ${res.status}`;
}
}
doRequest().then(data => {
console.log(data);
});
</script>
We get the contents of the webcode.me webpage.
let url = 'http://webcode.me'; let res = await fetch(url);
The fetch method takes only the URL as parameter. In such a case,
the default request is the GET request.
let text = await res.text();
We get the body from the request as plain text.
JS fetch POST request
In the next example we create a POST request with JSON data.
<script>
async function doRequest() {
let url = 'http://httpbin.org/post';
let data = {'name': 'John Doe', 'occupation': 'John Doe'};
let res = await fetch(url, {
method: 'POST',
headers: {
'Content-Type': 'application/json',
},
body: JSON.stringify(data),
});
if (res.ok) {
// let text = await res.text();
// return text;
let ret = await res.json();
return JSON.parse(ret.data);
} else {
return `HTTP error: ${res.status}`;
}
}
doRequest().then(data => {
console.log(data);
});
</script>
The POST request is sent to http://httpbin.org/post.
let data = {'name': 'John Doe', 'occupation': 'John Doe'};
This is the data to be sent.
let res = await fetch(url, {
method: 'POST',
headers: {
'Content-Type': 'application/json',
},
body: JSON.stringify(data),
});
We set the method parameter to POST and choose the
application/json for the content type. The data is stringified
to the body parameter.
let ret = await res.json(); return JSON.parse(ret.data);
We get the data back as JSON string and parse it into the JSON object.
JS GET request with Axios
The following example creates a GET reqeust with Axios library.
$ npm i axios
We install the Axios module.
const axios = require('axios');
async function doGetRequest() {
let res = await axios.get('http://webcode.me');
let data = res.data;
console.log(data);
}
doGetRequest();
The example retrieves a home page from a simple website. It uses the
async/await syntax.
JS POST request with Axios
In the following example, we generate a POST request with form data.
$ npm i axios form-data
We install the form-data module.
With application/x-www-form-urlencoded the data is sent in the body of the request; the keys and values are encoded in key-value tuples separated by '&', with a '=' between the key and the value.
const axios = require('axios');
const FormData = require('form-data');
async function doPostRequest() {
const form_data = new FormData();
form_data.append('name', 'John Doe');
form_data.append('occupation', 'gardener');
let res = await axios.post('http://httpbin.org/post', form_data,
{ headers: form_data.getHeaders() });
let data = res.data;
console.log(data);
}
doPostRequest();
To produce form data in the appropriate format, we use the FormData object.
Source
In this article we created HTTP GET/POST requests in JavaScript.