How do I write a Node.js request to 3rd party API? - httpwebrequest

Question

Does anyone have an example of an API response being passed back from a http.request() made to a 3rd party back to my clientSever and written out to a clients browser?
I keep getting stuck in what I'm sure is simple logic. I'm using express from reading the docs it doesn't seem to supply an abstraction for this.
Thanks

Answer 1

Note that the answer here is a little out of date-- You'll get a deprecated warning. The 2013 equivalent might be:
app.get('/log/goal', function(req, res){
var options = {
host : 'www.example.com',
path : '/api/action/param1/value1/param2/value2',
port : 80,
method : 'GET'
}
var request = http.request(options, function(response){
var body = ""
response.on('data', function(data) {
body += data;
});
response.on('end', function() {
res.send(JSON.parse(body));
});
});
request.on('error', function(e) {
console.log('Problem with request: ' + e.message);
});
request.end();
});
I would also recommend the request module if you're going to be writing a lot of these. It'll save you a lot of keystrokes in the long run!

Answer 2

Here is a quick example of accessing an external API in an express get function:
app.get('/log/goal', function(req, res){
//Setup your client
var client = http.createClient(80, 'http://[put the base url to the api here]');
//Setup the request by passing the parameters in the URL (REST API)
var request = client.request('GET', '/api/action/param1/value1/param2/value2', {"host":"[put base url here again]"});
request.addListener("response", function(response) { //Add listener to watch for the response
var body = "";
response.addListener("data", function(data) { //Add listener for the actual data
body += data; //Append all data coming from api to the body variable
});
response.addListener("end", function() { //When the response ends, do what you will with the data
var response = JSON.parse(body); //In this example, I am parsing a JSON response
});
});
request.end();
res.send(response); //Print the response to the screen
});
Hope that helps!

Answer 3

This example looks pretty similar to what you are trying to achieve (pure Node.js, no express):
http://blog.tredix.com/2011/03/partly-cloudy-nodejs-and-ifs.html
HTH