How to use XHR API in Node.js?

Question

This is a follow-up to my previous question

Suppose I've some javascript code, which runs fine on client (in a browser). This code makes a lot of XHR calls using the browser API.

Now I would like to run this code in node.js. Does node.js provide the XHR API as in browser ?

Answer 1

You don't really need an XHR, since you can use http.request that comes natively with NodeJS, with it you can send GET, POST and PUT requests with headers and body.

Here is the link to the documentation http.request.

Answer 2

Natively Node.js does not provide the browser XHR API. There is, however, a node module xmlhttprequest that does.

If the file is on the server itself, you can use the fs.readFile or fs.readFileSync.

If it is on a remote server, then you can do an asynchronous XHR type request using a module like request: https://www.npmjs.com/package/request. This requires some rewriting of code.

Probably the least re-writing of your client-side code will be if you use the xmlhttprequest node module. It implements the browser XHR API for node.

Answer 3

this is why we use Axios for modules. It can be used on client or server side without any dependency or code changes.