node.js check if a remote URL exists

Question

How do I check to see if a URL exists without pulling it down? I use the following code, but it downloads the whole file. I just need to check that it exists.

app.get('/api/v1/urlCheck/', function (req,res) {
    var url=req.query['url'];
    var request = require('request');
    request.get(url, {timeout: 30000, json:false}, function (error, result) {
        res.send(result.body);

    });

});

Appreciate any help!

Answer 1

Try this:

var http = require('http'),
    options = {method: 'HEAD', host: 'stackoverflow.com', port: 80, path: '/'},
    req = http.request(options, function(r) {
        console.log(JSON.stringify(r.headers));
    });
req.end();

Answer 2

2021 update

Use url-exist:

import urlExist from 'url-exist';

const exists = await urlExist('https://google.com');

// Handle result
console.log(exists);

2020 update

request has now been deprecated which has brought down url-exists with it. Use url-exist instead.

const urlExist = require("url-exist");

(async () => {
    const exists = await urlExist("https://google.com");
    // Handle result
    console.log(exists)
})();

If you (for some reason) need to use it synchronously, you can use url-exist-sync.

2019 update

Since 2017, request and callback-style functions (from url-exists) have fallen out of use.

However, there is a fix. Swap url-exists for url-exist.

So instead of using:

const urlExists = require("url-exists")

urlExists("https://google.com", (_, exists) => {
    // Handle result
    console.log(exists)
})

Use this:

const urlExist = require("url-exist");
 
(async () => {
    const exists = await urlExist("https://google.com");
    // Handle result
    console.log(exists)
})();

Original answer (2017)

If you have access to the request package, you can try this:

const request = require("request")
const urlExists = url => new Promise((resolve, reject) => request.head(url).on("response", res => resolve(res.statusCode.toString()[0] === "2")))
urlExists("https://google.com").then(exists => console.log(exists)) // true

Most of this logic is already provided by url-exists.

Answer 3

Thanks! Here it is, encapsulated in a function (updated on 5/30/17 with the require outside):

    var http = require('http'),
         url = require('url');

    exports.checkUrlExists = function (Url, callback) {
        var options = {
            method: 'HEAD',
            host: url.parse(Url).host,
            port: 80,
            path: url.parse(Url).pathname
        };
        var req = http.request(options, function (r) {
            callback( r.statusCode== 200);});
        req.end();
    }

It's very quick (I get about 50 ms, but it will depend on your connection and the server speed). Note that it's also quite basic, i.e. it won't handle redirects very well...

Answer 4

Simply use url-exists npm package to test if url exists or not

var urlExists = require('url-exists');

urlExists('https://www.google.com', function(err, exists) {
  console.log(exists); // true 
});

urlExists('https://www.fakeurl.notreal', function(err, exists) {
  console.log(exists); // false 
});