Relative uri for node.js request library

Question

I have the following code, and node.js can't resolve the url:

const request = require('request')
const teamURL = `/users/${user._id}/teams`;

const req = request({
    url: teamURL,
    json: true
 }, 
 function(error, response, body) {

    if (!error && response.statusCode == '200') {

        res.render('userHome.html', {
            user: user,
            teams: body
        });
    } 
    else {
        console.error(error);
        next(error);
    }
});

is there a good way to use relative paths/urls with the request library on a server-side node.js Express app?

Answer 1

Giving just a relative url only works if it is clear from context what the root part of the url should be. For instance, if you are on stackoverflow.com and find a link /questions, it's clear from context the full url should be stackoverflow.com/questions.

The request library doesn't have this kind of context information available, so it needs the full url from you to do be able to make the request. You can build the full url yourself of course, for instance by using url.resolve():

var url = require('url');
var fullUrl = url.resolve('http://somesite.com', '/users/15/teams');
console.log(fullUrl); //=> 'http://somesite.com/users/15/teams');

But of course this will still require you to know the root part of the url.

Answer 2

Jasper 's answer is correct -- the request module needs full URL. if you are in a situation where you have a single page application, with lots of requests to an API with the same base URL, you can save a lot of typing by creating a module like this:

    var url = require('url'); 

    var requestParser = (function() {
      var href = document.location.href;
      var urlObj = url.parse(href, true);

      return { 
        href,
        urlObj,
        getQueryStringValue: (key) => {
          let value = ((urlObj && urlObj.query) && urlObj.query[key]) || null;
          return value;
        },
        uriMinusPath: urlObj.protocol + '//' + urlObj.hostname                                               
      };  
    })();

then, to grab the base URL anytime you need it: requestParser.uriMinusPath

and grab the value of an arbitrary query parameter: RequestParser.getQueryStringValue('partner_key');