How to send a HTTP request from Google Cloud Functions (nodeJS)

Question

This is probably a simple question but I'm new to cloud functions/Node programming and haven't found the right documentation yet.

How do I write a Google cloud function that will receive a HTTP request but then send a HTTP request to a different endpoint? For example, I can send the HTTP trigger to my cloud function (https://us-central1-plugin-check-xxxx.cloudfunctions.net/HelloWorldTest). Later in the project I'll figure out how to implement a delay. But then I want to respond with a new HTTP request to a different endpoint (https://maker.ifttt.com/trigger/arrive/with/key/xxxx). How do I do that?

exports.helloWorld = function helloWorld(req, res) {
  // Example input: {"message": "Hello!"}
  if (req.body.message === undefined) {
    // This is an error case, as "message" is required.
    res.status(400).send('No message defined!');
  } else {
    // Everything is okay.
    console.log(req.body.message);
    res.status(200).send('Success: ' + req.body.message);
    // ??? send a HTTP request to IFTTT endpoint here
  }
};

Answer 1

Here is the code that I managed to get working with help from Chetan Kanjani. When I send a text message to my Google Cloud function endpoint, it replys with a text message to IFTTT (a different endpoint).

const request = require('request');

exports.helloWorld = function helloWorld(req, res) {
  // Example input: {"message": "Hello!"}
  if (req.body.message === undefined) {
    // This is an error case, as "message" is required.
    res.status(400).send('No message defined!');
  } else {
    // Everything is okay.
    console.log(req.body.message);

    request.get('https://maker.ifttt.com/trigger/arrival/with/key/xxxx', function (error, response, body) {
      console.log('error:', error); // Print the error if one occurred 
      console.log('statusCode:', response && response.statusCode); // Print the response status code if a response was received 
      console.log('body:', body); //Prints the response of the request. 
    });
    res.status(200).send("Success");
  }
};

I also had to change the package.json file to include the request package. It already had the sample-http package, I added the dependencies:

{
  "name": "sample-http",
  "version": "0.0.1",
  "dependencies": {
    "request": "^2.81.0"
  }
}

I'm still not sure where the console.log function prints out the information. That might be helpful for future debugging.