Skip to main content

API's Study Notes: How To Make API Request With Node?


The course shows us we can make API's requests with Node.

The first thing we need to do is to create the "APIs" directory and touch "request.js" file inside that folder.

Then, we need to npm install request package in the APIs directory.

Once we have done those basic steps, we can start to require the "request" and make a request from a JavaScript file.

In the request, we need to have the "url", so the server knows where it should request the API. Next, we need to have a function.

request("url", function(error, response, body)

In the function, there are three things we pass in: error, response, and body.
  • Error: it will hold any potential error that we get such as internet disconnect, 404, and etc. It is important to check for an error.
  • Response: it will be the incoming message that we receive
  • Body: it is the actual response body that came back like HTML code

For example, in the "request.js" file, I make a fake URL in the request, and I write an if statement to check error.

If there is an error, it will print out the error. Else if the response status code is equal to 200, which means the request was received is fine to process, we can print out the body.

Since this URL is a fake one, the request won't be processed correctly. Therefore, the server print out the error message.


Now, I put my personal WordPress blog URL in the request, and run the server. Since my URL is correct, so the server can receive the response and process it. As a result, we can see it print out the Wordpress blog HTML code.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Intermediate Express.js: How To Add Styles & Partials in EJS File?

So far, we only have simple HTML tags and ejs tags in each ejs file. Every template page has no style at all. And the basic HTML header and footer are also missing. Today, I learned how to add styles and partials in ejs file. Link Style Step One: Touch a Separate CSS file I create a new directory "Style" under the "EJSDemo" directory, then I add a new CSS file "app.css" inside "Style" folder. Step Two: Add app.use(express.static()) in the app.js I add app.use(express.static("style")) in the "app.js". This will tell Express.js to serve the content of "Style" directory. Step Three: Write styles in CSS file I simple give body an orange background color and set text color to be grey. Step Four: Link to CSS file in the EJS file I just add <link> tag to link the "app.css" file on the top of the h1 tag in each ejs template. As the result, when I run the app and...

Intro to Backend: Is Browser The Only Place To Send HTTP Request?

Today,  I begin to learn the second part of web develop course: backend. Frontend is the stuff that we can see and interactive with, such as HTML, CSS, and JS. We can type our code, style our page, or write some function to make interaction. However, backend is everything else. For example, we type Target web address in the Internet Browser. As we hit "enter", there are a few steps to go through: 1. The HTTP request is sent to a particular server's IP address. 2. The server figures out what to send us 3. It sends a HTTP response back to us Those process we are hard to see, and it happens in less than one second. The instructor said that the browser is not the only place to send the HTTP request, and there are so many choices out there. In this learning course, we are going to use Postman App . Postman allows us to make HTTP requests and viewer responses. It is really for developers to understand how things are working or debug something. In the P...

Seven RESTful Routes You Should Know!

I have been followed the course to develop several app projects. They all follow the RESTful route pattern. Today, I learned many key points about RESTful and would like to share my study note here. What Is REST? REST stands for representational state transfer. I don't know what does this mean, but it is not important right now. You just need to know that REST is just a pattern for defining our routes. What's The Point Of REST? The important things for us is to define what REST is. REST is a way of mapping HTTP routes and CRUD functionality together. By the way CRUD stands for Create, Read, Update, and Destroy. The point of REST is that we don't do whatever we want. Instead, we follow a pattern. It is also more reliable so that if we are interacting with a restful API, it follows a particular pattern. Seven RESTful Routes The course lists the seven route table. It just acts as a pattern that we can fill in the blanks when we develop our own App. screen...