How to make a http get request using node without 'require'

Question

This question is similar to the below question, but for Node.js e.g. version 8.11.1

How to make an HTTP get request in C without libcurl?

Are there any tricks using JS without the use of require('http') to make a simple GET request with headers and read response ?

Can you please explain why you do not want to use `require('http')` in the first place? — MuzaffarShaikh, Nov 20 '21 at 14:36
Well, you can always open a tcp socket connection and implement the http protocol yourself ... — derpirscher, Nov 20 '21 at 15:50
@madflow - challenge is to not use require at all not just http — asudhak, Nov 21 '21 at 17:51
Let me try to dig into http code to see if I can open raw tcp sockets without the use of require — asudhak, Nov 21 '21 at 17:51

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Nov 20 '21 at 15:36

You can make an http request without the http module in a node script, by using an underlying client on the operating system. This is not "pure" node.js - but is a pragmatic answer I guess.

const { exec } = require('child_process');

exec('curl -v -i https://stackoverflow.com', (error, stdout, stderr) => {
  if (error) {
    console.error(`error: ${error.message}`);
    return;
  }

  if (stderr) {
    console.error(`stderr: ${stderr}`);
    return;
  }

  console.log(`stdout:\n${stdout}`);
});

This wouldn’t work since the question is on how to do this without a require — asudhak, Nov 21 '21 at 17:52

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 20 '21 at 15:25

What you would expect to use in such a case, is the raw XMLHttpRequest. Unfortunately Node.js does not provide XHR API as we know it from the Browser. Same goes with window.fetch() API. There are a few npm libraries out there (node-xmlhttprequest or node-fetch) to overcome this, and help with code reusability, but if you look into their source code, you'll see that internally they also have the require('http').

So I'm not sure if what you want is possible. Of course, unless you dig inside the code of the http module and write your own version of it.

How to make a http get request using node without 'require'

2 Answers2