Node.js ABC’s - P is for POST

With the web services that are popping from your corporate networks to the wild-internet, accessing HTTP based resources is becoming a critical component to any and all application development.  One of the more popular API application design styles is Representational State Transfer  (or REST).   REST implementations are typically developed on top of HTTP with the objects you are effecting being in the URI and the actions, or verbs, being the HTTP methods.  The HTTP methods follow the four basic methods of persistent storage as referenced in the CRUD  acronym of Create, Read, Update, and Delete acronym.

The Verbs (Actions)

  • POST - Create new object
  • GET - Read the contents of an existing object
  • PUT - Update an existing object
  • DELETE - Delete an object

The Nouns (Objects)

While the HTTP method defines the action you take, the URI defines the object you wish to act on.  The URI path can be used to specify hierarchy as illustrated in the following set of resources

  • POST /article - create an article
  • PUT /article/10 - update article #10
  • POST /article/10/comment - create a comment on article #10
  • DELETE /article/10/comment/1 - delete comment #1 on article #10

In the above examples, the id's of the objects were included in the URI paths to identify the various specific objects.  This is a typical pattern in API design but it's also possible to include those values as part of the payload in the requests

Sample Client and Server

If you are implementing a Node.js based solution, you will likely come into a spot where you need to write either a HTTP client, HTTP server, or both.  While the different verbs have subtle differences in how you pass data (GET and DELETE pass parameters in the URI, while POST and PUT utilize payload data within the request), I'll focus this article on how to build a simple client and server that accept POST data (for new object creation).

The Server (http-server.js)

The server code for this article is a basic HTTP listener that supports both GET and POST requests.  It logs the request content and then returns a message to the calling application.

var http = require('http');

function requestHandler(request, response) {
  console.log("--------------------------");
  console.log(request.method + ": " + request.url);
  if ( request.method == "POST" ) {
    request.setEncoding('utf8');
    var data = "";
    request.on("data", function(chunk) {
      data += chunk;
    });
    request.on("end", function() {
      console.log("DATA: " + data);
    });
  }
  response.end("Thank you for " + request.method + "ing the uri '" + request.url + "'");
}

var server = http.createServer(requestHandler);

server.listen(8080, function() {
  console.log("Listening on http://localhost");
});

The Client (http-client.js)

The client application illustrates how to make a simple GET request and a POST request with payload data.  The GET request is meant to retrieve a listing of articles, and the POST request will create a comment on an existing article.

var http = require("http");

// GET
var get_options = {
  host: "localhost",
  port: 8080,
  path: "/article"
};

http.get(get_options, function(response) {
  response.setEncoding("utf8");
  console.log("Response status code: " + response.statusCode);
  response.on("data", function(data) {
    console.log("Data: " + data);
  });
});

// POST
var post_data = "{'content': 'Blah Blah Blah'}";
var post_options = {
  host: "localhost",
  port: 8080,
  path: "/article/10/comment",
  method: "POST",
  headers: {
    "Content-Type": "application/json",
    "Content-Length": post_data.length
  }
};

var request = http.request(post_options, function(response) {
  response.setEncoding("utf8");
  console.log("Response status code: " + response.statusCode);
  response.on("data", function(data) {
    console.log("Data: " + data);
  });
});
request.write(post_data);
request.end();

Running the code

The client and the server programs can be run by loading them with the node runtime

$ node http-server.js
Listening on http://localhost
--------------------------
GET: /article
--------------------------
POST: /article/10/comment
DATA: {'content': 'Blah Blah Blah'}
$ node http-client.js
Response status code: 200
Data: Thank you for GETing the uri '/article'
Response status code: 200
Data: Thank you for POSTing the uri '/article/10/comment'

Conclusion

With the built-in http node package, calling a HTTP POST method is very seamless and you can be well on your way to building a client or server as part of your architectural solution.

Updated Jun 06, 2023
Version 2.0

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