nodeJS - make HTTPS request, sending JSON data - json

Question

I would like to send an HTTPS POST from one nodeJS server to another. I have some JSON data I would like to send with this request (populated by a html form).
How can I do this? I am aware of https.request() but there does not seem to be an option to include JSON as a part of the query. From my research it seems possible with an HTTP request, but not an HTTPS request. How can I solve this?
const pug = require('pug');
var cloudinary = require('cloudinary');
var express = require('express');
var multer = require('multer');
var upload = multer({ dest: 'uploads/' });
var request = require('request');
var bodyParser = require('body-parser');
var options = {
hostname: 'ec2-54-202-139-197.us-west-2.compute.amazonaws.com',
port: 443,
path: '/',
method: 'GET'
};
var app = express();
var parser = bodyParser.raw();
app.use(parser);
app.set('view engine', 'pug');
app.get('/', upload.single('avatar'), function(req, res) {
return res.render('index.pug');
});
app.get('/makeRequest*', function(req, res) {
query = req['query'];
/*
Here, I would like to send the contents of the query variable as JSON to the server specified in options.
*/
});

Answer 1

You can send JSON data through a POST http request with the native https node module, as stated in the documentation
All options from http.request() are valid.
So, taking the http.request() example you can do the following:
var postData = querystring.stringify({
'msg' : 'Hello World!'
});
var options = {
hostname: 'www.google.com',
port: 80,
path: '/upload',
method: 'POST',
headers: {
'Content-Type': 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded',
'Content-Length': Buffer.byteLength(postData)
}
};
var req = https.request(options, (res) => {
console.log(`STATUS: ${res.statusCode}`);
console.log(`HEADERS: ${JSON.stringify(res.headers)}`);
res.setEncoding('utf8');
res.on('data', (chunk) => {
console.log(`BODY: ${chunk}`);
});
res.on('end', () => {
console.log('No more data in response.');
});
});
req.on('error', (e) => {
console.log(`problem with request: ${e.message}`);
});
// write data to request body
req.write(postData);
req.end();
You should edit postData to your desired JSON object

Answer 2

I believe the below is what you want. Using the request library. See comments in the code for my recommendations.
...
var options = {
hostname: 'ec2-54-202-139-197.us-west-2.compute.amazonaws.com',
port: 443,
path: '/',
method: 'POST',
json: true
};
...
//making a post request and sending up your query is better then putting it in the query string
app.post('/makeRequest', function(req, res) {
var query = req.body['query'];
//NOTE, you cannot use a GET request to send JSON. You'll need to use a POST request.
//(you may need to make changes on your other servers)
options.body = { payload: query };
request(options, function(err, response, body) {
if (err) {
//Handle error
return;
}
if (response.statusCode == 200) {
console.log('contents received');
}
});
});

Answer 3

as matt mentioned you need to use request
to send JSON object not JSON.Stringify so that at the server you can receive it using:
app.post('/makeRequest', function(req, res) {
console.log (req.body.param1);
}
Use the following code:
var request = require("request");
request({
'url':"http://www.url.com",
method: "POST",
json: true,
body: {'param1':'any value'}
}, function (error, resp, body) {
console.log ("check response.");
});