Why do I get empty reponse from this http request - json

Question

I am working on my first node.js script which simply makes a http request to https://www.swapi.co/api/people/?search=Luke+ and parses the response data.
The endpoint is as follows:
var options = {
host: 'www.swapi.co',
path: `/api/people/?search=`+firstName+'+'+lastName
};
The logic is to get the data from response and parse it to a person object:
makeRequest(options, function( data, error) {
let person = data.results[0];
if (person) {
let height = person.height;
let response = person.name + " is " + height + " centimeters tall.";
callback(null, {"speech": response});
}
else {
callback(null, {"speech": "I'm not sure!"});
}
});
The definition of makerequest function is below:
function makeRequest(options, callback) {
var request = http.request(options,
function(response) {
var responseString = '';
response.on('data', function(data) {
responseString += data;
});
response.on('end', function() {
console.log('end: $$$' + responseString + '$$$');
var responseJSON = JSON.parse(responseString);
callback(responseJSON, null);
});
});
request.end();
}
When I run the script I got the error about parsing the JSON.
Unexpected end of JSON input
at Object.parse (native)
at IncomingMessage.<anonymous> (/var/task/index.js:42:37)
at emitNone (events.js:91:20)
at IncomingMessage.emit (events.js:185:7)
at endReadableNT (_stream_readable.js:974:12)
at _combinedTickCallback (internal/process/next_tick.js:80:11)
at process._tickDomainCallback (internal/process/next_tick.js:128:9)
I tested the endpoint using Postman and got the following JSON as response:
{
"count": 1,
"next": null,
"previous": null,
"results": [
{
"name": "Luke Skywalker",
"height": "172",
"mass": "77",
"hair_color": "blond",
"skin_color": "fair",
"eye_color": "blue",
"birth_year": "19BBY",
"gender": "male",
"homeworld": "https://www.swapi.co/api/planets/1/",
"films": [
"https://www.swapi.co/api/films/2/",
"https://www.swapi.co/api/films/6/",
"https://www.swapi.co/api/films/3/",
"https://www.swapi.co/api/films/1/",
"https://www.swapi.co/api/films/7/"
],
"species": [
"https://www.swapi.co/api/species/1/"
],
"vehicles": [
"https://www.swapi.co/api/vehicles/14/",
"https://www.swapi.co/api/vehicles/30/"
],
"starships": [
"https://www.swapi.co/api/starships/12/",
"https://www.swapi.co/api/starships/22/"
],
"created": "2014-12-09T13:50:51.644000Z",
"edited": "2014-12-20T21:17:56.891000Z",
"url": "https://www.swapi.co/api/people/1/"
}
]
}
However, when I debug my code, the response data is an empty string. And that explains the JSON error.
What is wrong with my http request? Why am I not getting the correct response?

Answer 1

It appears that the API you are targeting only supports SSL, but Node's HTTP library only supports plain-text requests. Try using their HTTPS library instead.
var https = require('https');
var request = https.request(options, ...);

Answer 2

That URL you are using returns HTML by default.
Instead you need to call: https://www.swapi.co/api/people/?format=json&search=Luke+
(Note the format=json parameter)