node-fetch vs axios vs request vs @octokit/graphql vs superagent vs @octokit/rest
HTTP Client Libraries Comparison
1 Year
node-fetchaxiosrequest@octokit/graphqlsuperagent@octokit/restSimilar Packages:
What's HTTP Client Libraries?

HTTP client libraries are essential tools for making HTTP requests in JavaScript applications. They simplify the process of sending requests to servers and handling responses, enabling developers to interact with APIs and fetch data efficiently. These libraries provide various features such as promise-based interfaces, support for different HTTP methods, and built-in error handling, making it easier to manage network operations in web applications.

Package Weekly Downloads Trend
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node-fetch61,413,6958,834107 kB2142 years agoMIT
axios59,900,137106,4252.14 MB6747 days agoMIT
request13,895,54325,682-1355 years agoApache-2.0
@octokit/graphql10,392,69947728.9 kB1319 days agoMIT
superagent9,998,05216,604532 kB1805 months agoMIT
@octokit/rest6,892,1415838.28 kB4319 days agoMIT
Feature Comparison: node-fetch vs axios vs request vs @octokit/graphql vs superagent vs @octokit/rest

API Design

  • node-fetch:

    Node-fetch mimics the Fetch API found in browsers, providing a familiar interface for developers. It supports promises and async/await, making it easy to work with asynchronous code. Its minimalistic design allows for straightforward HTTP requests without unnecessary overhead.

  • axios:

    Axios features a promise-based API that is easy to use and integrates seamlessly with async/await syntax. It allows for a clean separation of concerns by enabling developers to handle request and response transformations, making it a flexible choice for various use cases.

  • request:

    Request provides a rich and extensive API for making HTTP requests, with options for handling redirects, authentication, and streaming. Its flexibility allows developers to customize requests extensively, although its complexity may be overwhelming for simpler use cases.

  • @octokit/graphql:

    @octokit/graphql provides a clean and intuitive API for making GraphQL requests, allowing developers to construct queries and mutations in a straightforward manner. It emphasizes the use of variables for dynamic queries, making it easy to customize requests based on user input or application state.

  • superagent:

    Superagent features a fluent API that allows for method chaining, making it easy to build complex requests. It supports various HTTP methods and provides built-in support for multipart file uploads and form submissions, making it suitable for a wide range of applications.

  • @octokit/rest:

    @octokit/rest offers a simple and consistent API for interacting with GitHub's REST endpoints. It abstracts away the complexities of making HTTP requests and provides methods that correspond directly to GitHub's API endpoints, making it easy to perform common operations like fetching repositories or creating issues.

Error Handling

  • node-fetch:

    Node-fetch returns rejected promises for HTTP errors (4xx and 5xx status codes), allowing developers to handle errors in a straightforward manner. It requires manual checking of response.ok for successful responses, promoting explicit error handling.

  • axios:

    Axios provides a unified way to handle errors through promise rejection. It allows developers to catch errors globally using interceptors, making it easy to manage error responses and implement retry logic or user notifications.

  • request:

    Request provides extensive error handling capabilities, including detailed error objects that include status codes and response bodies. This allows developers to implement comprehensive error management strategies, although it may require more boilerplate code.

  • @octokit/graphql:

    @octokit/graphql includes built-in error handling for GraphQL-specific errors, allowing developers to easily identify and manage issues related to query execution. It provides clear feedback on errors returned from the API, making debugging more straightforward.

  • superagent:

    Superagent simplifies error handling by providing a clear API for managing request failures. It allows developers to easily check for errors and handle them accordingly, making it easier to implement user-friendly error messages.

  • @octokit/rest:

    @octokit/rest handles errors by providing detailed error messages and status codes from GitHub's API responses. This allows developers to implement robust error handling strategies based on the specific errors encountered during API interactions.

Support for Promises

  • node-fetch:

    Node-fetch is designed around the promise-based Fetch API, making it easy to work with asynchronous requests. It supports async/await syntax, allowing developers to write clean and readable code when making HTTP requests.

  • axios:

    Axios is fully promise-based, making it compatible with async/await syntax. This feature enhances code clarity and allows for more straightforward error handling, making it a popular choice among developers for modern JavaScript applications.

  • request:

    Request does not natively support promises, but it can be used with libraries like Bluebird to enable promise support. However, its complexity and the need for additional libraries may deter developers looking for a straightforward promise-based solution.

  • @octokit/graphql:

    @octokit/graphql is built on promises, allowing for easy integration with async/await syntax. This makes it simple to write asynchronous code that interacts with GraphQL APIs, enhancing code readability and maintainability.

  • superagent:

    Superagent supports promises and can be used with async/await, providing a modern approach to handling HTTP requests. Its promise-based design allows for cleaner code and easier error management, making it a flexible choice for developers.

  • @octokit/rest:

    @octokit/rest uses promises for its API calls, enabling developers to leverage async/await for cleaner asynchronous code. This feature simplifies error handling and improves the overall flow of the application when making API requests.

Browser Compatibility

  • node-fetch:

    Node-fetch is specifically designed for Node.js, providing a lightweight implementation of the Fetch API. While it does not work in the browser, it is an excellent choice for server-side applications that require a minimalistic HTTP client.

  • axios:

    Axios is widely used in both Node.js and browser environments, providing a consistent API across platforms. Its ability to handle requests in both contexts makes it a popular choice for full-stack applications.

  • request:

    Request is primarily designed for Node.js and is not suitable for browser environments. Its extensive feature set is tailored for server-side applications, making it less versatile for client-side use cases.

  • @octokit/graphql:

    @octokit/graphql is designed for both Node.js and browser environments, making it versatile for applications that need to run in different contexts. Its compatibility with modern JavaScript features ensures a smooth development experience across platforms.

  • superagent:

    Superagent works in both Node.js and browser environments, providing a flexible solution for making HTTP requests across different contexts. Its compatibility with both platforms makes it a good choice for developers building full-stack applications.

  • @octokit/rest:

    @octokit/rest is also compatible with both Node.js and browser environments, allowing developers to use the same API for server-side and client-side applications. This consistency simplifies code sharing and reduces the need for platform-specific implementations.

Community and Ecosystem

  • node-fetch:

    Node-fetch has a growing community and is widely adopted for server-side applications. Its simplicity and adherence to the Fetch API standard make it a popular choice among developers looking for a lightweight HTTP client.

  • axios:

    Axios has a vast community and is one of the most popular HTTP clients in the JavaScript ecosystem. Its widespread use means that developers can easily find tutorials, examples, and community support, making it a safe choice for new projects.

  • request:

    Request was once a dominant HTTP client in the Node.js ecosystem, but it is now deprecated. While it still has a significant amount of legacy support, new projects are encouraged to consider alternatives due to its lack of ongoing maintenance.

  • @octokit/graphql:

    @octokit/graphql is part of the Octokit suite, which is widely used in the GitHub community. Its strong backing and active development ensure that it stays up-to-date with GitHub's API changes, providing a reliable tool for developers working with GitHub.

  • superagent:

    Superagent has a dedicated user base and is well-documented, making it easy for developers to get started. Its flexibility and powerful features have made it a popular choice for projects that require advanced HTTP capabilities.

  • @octokit/rest:

    @octokit/rest benefits from a large user base and extensive documentation, making it easy to find support and resources. Its integration with GitHub's REST API ensures that it remains relevant and well-maintained within the developer community.

How to Choose: node-fetch vs axios vs request vs @octokit/graphql vs superagent vs @octokit/rest
  • node-fetch:

    Use node-fetch for a lightweight and minimalistic approach to making HTTP requests in Node.js. It is a simple implementation of the Fetch API for Node.js, making it easy to work with promises and async/await syntax. This package is ideal for projects that prioritize simplicity and compatibility with the Fetch API.

  • axios:

    Opt for axios if you need a versatile and widely-used HTTP client that supports both browser and Node.js environments. It offers a rich feature set, including interceptors, automatic JSON transformation, and the ability to cancel requests. Axios is a great choice for projects that require a robust and flexible solution for handling HTTP requests.

  • request:

    Consider request if you need a comprehensive and feature-rich HTTP client for Node.js. Although it is now deprecated, it provides a wide range of options for making requests, handling redirects, and managing cookies. It may still be suitable for legacy projects that require extensive HTTP capabilities, but new projects should consider alternatives.

  • @octokit/graphql:

    Choose @octokit/graphql if you are specifically working with GitHub's GraphQL API and need to leverage its powerful querying capabilities. It is designed for efficient data retrieval and manipulation using GraphQL syntax, making it ideal for applications that require complex queries and precise data fetching.

  • superagent:

    Choose superagent for a flexible and powerful HTTP client that supports both Node.js and browsers. It offers an intuitive API for making requests, handling responses, and chaining methods. Superagent is particularly useful for projects that require a more expressive syntax and advanced features like multipart file uploads.

  • @octokit/rest:

    Select @octokit/rest when working with GitHub's REST API. It provides a straightforward way to interact with GitHub resources, making it suitable for CRUD operations on repositories, issues, and other GitHub entities. This package is best for projects that need to perform common GitHub actions without the complexity of GraphQL.

README for node-fetch
Node Fetch

A light-weight module that brings Fetch API to Node.js.

Build status Coverage status Current version Install size Mentioned in Awesome Node.js Discord

Consider supporting us on our Open Collective:

Open Collective

You might be looking for the v2 docs

Motivation

Instead of implementing XMLHttpRequest in Node.js to run browser-specific Fetch polyfill, 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 Jason Miller's isomorphic-unfetch or Leonardo Quixada's 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 and stream spec implementation details, document known differences.
  • Use native promise and async functions.
  • Use native Node streams for body, on both request and response.
  • Decode content encoding (gzip/deflate/brotli) properly, and convert string output (such as res.text() and res.json()) to UTF-8 automatically.
  • Useful extensions such as redirect limit, response size limit, explicit errors for troubleshooting.

Difference from client-side fetch

  • See known differences:
  • 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 (3.x) requires at least Node.js 12.20.0.

npm install node-fetch

Loading and configuring the module

ES Modules (ESM)

import fetch from 'node-fetch';

CommonJS

node-fetch from v3 is an ESM-only module - you are not able to import it with require().

If you cannot switch to ESM, please use v2 which remains compatible with CommonJS. Critical bug fixes will continue to be published for v2.

npm install node-fetch@2

Alternatively, you can use the async import() function from CommonJS to load node-fetch asynchronously:

// mod.cjs
const fetch = (...args) => import('node-fetch').then(({default: fetch}) => fetch(...args));

Providing global access

To use fetch() without importing it, you can patch the global object in node:

// fetch-polyfill.js
import fetch, {
  Blob,
  blobFrom,
  blobFromSync,
  File,
  fileFrom,
  fileFromSync,
  FormData,
  Headers,
  Request,
  Response,
} from 'node-fetch'

if (!globalThis.fetch) {
  globalThis.fetch = fetch
  globalThis.Headers = Headers
  globalThis.Request = Request
  globalThis.Response = Response
}

// index.js
import './fetch-polyfill'

// ...

Upgrading

Using an old version of node-fetch? Check out the following files:

Common Usage

NOTE: The documentation below is up-to-date with 3.x releases, if you are using an older version, please check how to upgrade.

Plain text or HTML

import fetch from 'node-fetch';

const response = await fetch('https://github.com/');
const body = await response.text();

console.log(body);

JSON

import fetch from 'node-fetch';

const response = await fetch('https://api.github.com/users/github');
const data = await response.json();

console.log(data);

Simple Post

import fetch from 'node-fetch';

const response = await fetch('https://httpbin.org/post', {method: 'POST', body: 'a=1'});
const data = await response.json();

console.log(data);

Post with JSON

import fetch from 'node-fetch';

const body = {a: 1};

const response = await fetch('https://httpbin.org/post', {
	method: 'post',
	body: JSON.stringify(body),
	headers: {'Content-Type': 'application/json'}
});
const data = await response.json();

console.log(data);

Post with form parameters

URLSearchParams is available on the global object in Node.js as of v10.0.0. See official documentation 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:

import fetch from 'node-fetch';

const params = new URLSearchParams();
params.append('a', 1);

const response = await fetch('https://httpbin.org/post', {method: 'POST', body: params});
const data = await response.json();

console.log(data);

Handling exceptions

NOTE: 3xx-5xx responses are NOT exceptions, and should be handled in then(), see the next section.

Wrapping the fetch function into a try/catch block will catch all exceptions, such as errors originating from node core libraries, like network errors, and operational errors which are instances of FetchError. See the error handling document for more details.

import fetch from 'node-fetch';

try {
	await fetch('https://domain.invalid/');
} catch (error) {
	console.log(error);
}

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:

import fetch from 'node-fetch';

class HTTPResponseError extends Error {
	constructor(response) {
		super(`HTTP Error Response: ${response.status} ${response.statusText}`);
		this.response = response;
	}
}

const checkStatus = response => {
	if (response.ok) {
		// response.status >= 200 && response.status < 300
		return response;
	} else {
		throw new HTTPResponseError(response);
	}
}

const response = await fetch('https://httpbin.org/status/400');

try {
	checkStatus(response);
} catch (error) {
	console.error(error);

	const errorBody = await error.response.text();
	console.error(`Error body: ${errorBody}`);
}

Handling cookies

Cookies are not stored by default. However, cookies can be extracted and passed by manipulating request and response headers. See Extract Set-Cookie Header for details.

Advanced Usage

Streams

The "Node.js way" is to use streams when possible. You can pipe res.body to another stream. This example uses stream.pipeline to attach stream error handlers and wait for the download to complete.

import {createWriteStream} from 'node:fs';
import {pipeline} from 'node:stream';
import {promisify} from 'node:util'
import fetch from 'node-fetch';

const streamPipeline = promisify(pipeline);

const response = await fetch('https://github.githubassets.com/images/modules/logos_page/Octocat.png');

if (!response.ok) throw new Error(`unexpected response ${response.statusText}`);

await streamPipeline(response.body, createWriteStream('./octocat.png'));

In Node.js 14 you can also use async iterators to read body; however, be careful to catch errors -- the longer a response runs, the more likely it is to encounter an error.

import fetch from 'node-fetch';

const response = await fetch('https://httpbin.org/stream/3');

try {
	for await (const chunk of response.body) {
		console.dir(JSON.parse(chunk.toString()));
	}
} catch (err) {
	console.error(err.stack);
}

In Node.js 12 you can also use async iterators to read body; however, async iterators with streams did not mature until Node.js 14, so you need to do some extra work to ensure you handle errors directly from the stream and wait on it response to fully close.

import fetch from 'node-fetch';

const read = async body => {
	let error;
	body.on('error', err => {
		error = err;
	});

	for await (const chunk of body) {
		console.dir(JSON.parse(chunk.toString()));
	}

	return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
		body.on('close', () => {
			error ? reject(error) : resolve();
		});
	});
};

try {
	const response = await fetch('https://httpbin.org/stream/3');
	await read(response.body);
} catch (err) {
	console.error(err.stack);
}

Accessing Headers and other Metadata

import fetch from 'node-fetch';

const response = await fetch('https://github.com/');

console.log(response.ok);
console.log(response.status);
console.log(response.statusText);
console.log(response.headers.raw());
console.log(response.headers.get('content-type'));

Extract Set-Cookie Header

Unlike browsers, you can access raw Set-Cookie headers manually using Headers.raw(). This is a node-fetch only API.

import fetch from 'node-fetch';

const response = await fetch('https://example.com');

// Returns an array of values, instead of a string of comma-separated values
console.log(response.headers.raw()['set-cookie']);

Post data using a file

import fetch, {
  Blob,
  blobFrom,
  blobFromSync,
  File,
  fileFrom,
  fileFromSync,
} from 'node-fetch'

const mimetype = 'text/plain'
const blob = fileFromSync('./input.txt', mimetype)
const url = 'https://httpbin.org/post'

const response = await fetch(url, { method: 'POST', body: blob })
const data = await response.json()

console.log(data)

node-fetch comes with a spec-compliant FormData implementations for posting multipart/form-data payloads

import fetch, { FormData, File, fileFrom } from 'node-fetch'

const httpbin = 'https://httpbin.org/post'
const formData = new FormData()
const binary = new Uint8Array([ 97, 98, 99 ])
const abc = new File([binary], 'abc.txt', { type: 'text/plain' })

formData.set('greeting', 'Hello, world!')
formData.set('file-upload', abc, 'new name.txt')

const response = await fetch(httpbin, { method: 'POST', body: formData })
const data = await response.json()

console.log(data)

If you for some reason need to post a stream coming from any arbitrary place, then you can append a Blob or a File look-a-like item.

The minimum requirement is that it has:

  1. A Symbol.toStringTag getter or property that is either Blob or File
  2. A known size.
  3. And either a stream() method or a arrayBuffer() method that returns a ArrayBuffer.

The stream() must return any async iterable object as long as it yields Uint8Array (or Buffer) so Node.Readable streams and whatwg streams works just fine.

formData.append('upload', {
	[Symbol.toStringTag]: 'Blob',
	size: 3,
  *stream() {
    yield new Uint8Array([97, 98, 99])
	},
	arrayBuffer() {
		return new Uint8Array([97, 98, 99]).buffer
	}
}, 'abc.txt')

Request cancellation with AbortSignal

You may cancel requests with AbortController. A suggested implementation is abort-controller.

An example of timing out a request after 150ms could be achieved as the following:

import fetch, { AbortError } from 'node-fetch';

// AbortController was added in node v14.17.0 globally
const AbortController = globalThis.AbortController || await import('abort-controller')

const controller = new AbortController();
const timeout = setTimeout(() => {
	controller.abort();
}, 150);

try {
	const response = await fetch('https://example.com', {signal: controller.signal});
	const data = await response.json();
} catch (error) {
	if (error instanceof AbortError) {
		console.log('request was aborted');
	}
} finally {
	clearTimeout(timeout);
}

See test cases for more examples.

API

fetch(url[, options])

  • url A string representing the URL for fetching
  • options Options for the HTTP(S) request
  • Returns: Promise<Response>

Perform an HTTP(S) fetch.

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.

Options

The default values are shown after each option key.

{
	// 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, 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
	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)
	highWaterMark: 16384,   // the maximum number of bytes to store in the internal buffer before ceasing to read from the underlying resource.
	insecureHTTPParser: false	// Use an insecure HTTP parser that accepts invalid HTTP headers when `true`.
}

Default Headers

If no values are set, the following request headers will be sent automatically:

| Header | Value | | ------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------ | | Accept-Encoding | gzip, deflate, br (when options.compress === true) | | Accept | */* | | Content-Length | (automatically calculated, if possible) | | Host | (host and port information from the target URI) | | Transfer-Encoding | chunked (when req.body is a stream) | | User-Agent | node-fetch |

Note: when body is a Stream, Content-Length is not set automatically.

Custom Agent

The agent option allows you to specify networking related options which are out of the scope of Fetch, including and not limited to the following:

  • Support self-signed certificate
  • Use only IPv4 or IPv6
  • Custom DNS Lookup

See http.Agent for more information.

If no agent is specified, the default agent provided by Node.js is used. Note that this changed in Node.js 19 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, this is useful during a redirection chain across HTTP and HTTPS protocol.

import http from 'node:http';
import https from 'node:https';

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;
		}
	}
};

Custom highWaterMark

Stream on Node.js have a smaller internal buffer size (16kB, aka highWaterMark) from client-side browsers (>1MB, not consistent across browsers). Because of that, when you are writing an isomorphic app and using res.clone(), it will hang with large response in Node.

The recommended way to fix this problem is to resolve cloned response in parallel:

import fetch from 'node-fetch';

const response = await fetch('https://example.com');
const r1 = response.clone();

const results = await Promise.all([response.json(), r1.text()]);

console.log(results[0]);
console.log(results[1]);

If for some reason you don't like the solution above, since 3.x you are able to modify the highWaterMark option:

import fetch from 'node-fetch';

const response = await fetch('https://example.com', {
	// About 1MB
	highWaterMark: 1024 * 1024
});

const result = await res.clone().arrayBuffer();
console.dir(result);

Insecure HTTP Parser

Passed through to the insecureHTTPParser option on http(s).request. See http.request for more information.

Manual Redirect

The redirect: 'manual' option for node-fetch is different from the browser & specification, which results in an opaque-redirect filtered response. node-fetch gives you the typical basic filtered response instead.

import fetch from 'node-fetch';

const response = await fetch('https://httpbin.org/status/301', { redirect: 'manual' });

if (response.status === 301 || response.status === 302) {
	const locationURL = new URL(response.headers.get('location'), response.url);
	const response2 = await fetch(locationURL, { redirect: 'manual' });
	console.dir(response2);
}

Class: Request

An HTTP(S) request containing information about URL, method, headers, and the body. This class implements the Body interface.

Due to the nature of Node.js, the following properties are not implemented at this moment:

  • type
  • destination
  • mode
  • credentials
  • cache
  • integrity
  • keepalive

The following node-fetch extension properties are provided:

  • follow
  • compress
  • counter
  • agent
  • highWaterMark

See options for exact meaning of these extensions.

new Request(input[, options])

(spec-compliant)

  • input A string representing a URL, or another Request (which will be cloned)
  • options Options for the HTTP(S) request

Constructs a new Request object. The constructor is identical to that in the browser.

In most cases, directly fetch(url, options) is simpler than creating a Request object.

Class: Response

An HTTP(S) response. This class implements the Body interface.

The following properties are not implemented in node-fetch at this moment:

  • trailer

new Response([body[, options]])

(spec-compliant)

Constructs a new Response object. The constructor is identical to that in the browser.

Because Node.js does not implement service workers (for which this class was designed), one rarely has to construct a Response directly.

response.ok

(spec-compliant)

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

(spec-compliant)

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.

response.type

(deviation from spec)

Convenience property representing the response's type. node-fetch only supports 'default' and 'error' and does not make use of filtered responses.

Class: Headers

This class allows manipulating and iterating over a set of HTTP headers. All methods specified in the Fetch Standard are implemented.

new Headers([init])

(spec-compliant)

  • 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.

// Example adapted from https://fetch.spec.whatwg.org/#example-headers-class
import {Headers} from 'node-fetch';

const meta = {
	'Content-Type': 'text/xml'
};
const headers = new Headers(meta);

// The above is equivalent to
const meta = [['Content-Type', 'text/xml']];
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');
const headers = new Headers(meta);
const copyOfHeaders = new Headers(headers);

Interface: Body

Body is an abstract interface with methods that are applicable to both Request and Response classes.

body.body

(deviation from spec)

Data are encapsulated in the Body object. Note that while the Fetch Standard requires the property to always be a WHATWG ReadableStream, in node-fetch it is a Node.js Readable stream.

body.bodyUsed

(spec-compliant)

  • Boolean

A boolean property for if this body has been consumed. Per the specs, a consumed body cannot be used again.

body.arrayBuffer()

body.formData()

body.blob()

body.json()

body.text()

fetch comes with methods to parse multipart/form-data payloads as well as x-www-form-urlencoded bodies using .formData() this comes from the idea that Service Worker can intercept such messages before it's sent to the server to alter them. This is useful for anybody building a server so you can use it to parse & consume payloads.

Code example
import http from 'node:http'
import { Response } from 'node-fetch'

http.createServer(async function (req, res) {
  const formData = await new Response(req, {
    headers: req.headers // Pass along the boundary value
  }).formData()
  const allFields = [...formData]

  const file = formData.get('uploaded-files')
  const arrayBuffer = await file.arrayBuffer()
  const text = await file.text()
  const whatwgReadableStream = file.stream()

  // other was to consume the request could be to do:
  const json = await new Response(req).json()
  const text = await new Response(req).text()
  const arrayBuffer = await new Response(req).arrayBuffer()
  const blob = await new Response(req, {
    headers: req.headers // So that `type` inherits `Content-Type`
  }.blob()
})

Class: FetchError

(node-fetch extension)

An operational error in the fetching process. See ERROR-HANDLING.md for more info.

Class: AbortError

(node-fetch extension)

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.

TypeScript

Since 3.x types are bundled with node-fetch, so you don't need to install any additional packages.

For older versions please use the type definitions from DefinitelyTyped:

npm install --save-dev @types/node-fetch@2.x

Acknowledgement

Thanks to github/fetch for providing a solid implementation reference.

Team

| David Frank | Jimmy Wärting | Antoni Kepinski | Richie Bendall | Gregor Martynus | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | David Frank | Jimmy Wärting | Antoni Kepinski | Richie Bendall | Gregor Martynus |

Former

License

MIT