blazed.js

Blazing-fast, light weight, high-performance, promise-based HTTP client

Setup/Installation

To get started with blazed.js, simply run the following command in your terminal:

$ npm i blazed.js

Info

New to Promises?

If you’re not familiar with promises, check out the MDN documentation to learn more.

Advanced HTTP Requests Made Easy

With blazed.js, you can send advanced HTTP requests directly from your Node.js app, featuring automatic JSON parsing and more.

Built on Top of Node.js HTTP

Under the hood, blazed.js leverages the built-in HTTP library in Node.js, ensuring a seamless and efficient experience.

Getting started

First, require this library to your project as follows:

const blazed = require("blazed.js");

If it’s an ES Module then import it to your project as follows:

import blazed from "blazed.js";

GET Request

Once you’ve imported blazed.js into your project, you’re ready to send your first GET request.

Here’s a simple example to get you started:

Note that our examples will mostly use .then and .catch blocks, but you can also use async-await syntax as an alternative.

const headers = { /* your headers */};
const url = 'https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts/1';

blazed.get(url, headers)
  .then(response => {
    console.log(response);
    // Response object contains:
    // - data
    // - responseHeaders
    // - status
    // - requestHeaders
  })
  .catch(error => {
    console.error(error);
  });

It’s actually quite similar to the native fetch api, node-fetch and axios

Point to be noted

The response object returned by any request, regardless of the HTTP method, has the following structure:

{
    "data": string, // Server response data
    "status": number, // Status code of the response
    "responseHeaders": object,  // All response headers
    "requestHeaders": object // All request headers
}

When logging the response, you can access these properties as follows:

• response.data: Server response data
• response.status: Status code of the response
• response.responseHeaders: All response headers
• response.requestHeaders: All request headers

POST Request

To send a POST request with blazed.js, you need to provide data to be sent in the request body.

Here’s how you can achieve this:

const postData = {
  title: 'foo',
  body: 'bar',
  userId: 1
};

const headers = { /* your headers */}
const url = 'https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts';

blazed.post(url, postData, headers)
  .then(response => {
    console.log(response);
    // Response object contains:
    // - data
    // - responseHeaders
    // - status
    // - requestHeaders
  })
  .catch(error => {
    console.error(error);
  });

DELETE Request

The DELETE request is similar to the GET request, but instead, you’ll use the blazed.delete() method to send a DELETE request to the server.

Here’s a simple example:

const headers = { /* your headers */};
const url = 'https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts/1';

blazed.delete(url, headers)
  .then(response => {
    console.log(response);
    // Response object contains:
    // - data
    // - responseHeaders
    // - status
    // - requestHeaders
  })
  .catch(error => {
    console.error(error);
  });

HTTP Method Support

blazed.js supports a range of HTTP methods, including TRACE, OPTIONS, HEAD, PATCH, and more.

Some examples regarding them are as follows:-

PUT request

Example demonstrating PUT request:

const putData = {
  title: 'foo',
  body: 'bar',
  userId: 1
};

const headers = { /* your headers */}
const url = 'https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts';

blazed.put(url, putData, headers)
  .then(response => {
    console.log(response);
    // Response object contains:
    // - data
    // - responseHeaders
    // - status
    // - requestHeaders
  })
  .catch(error => {
    console.error(error);
  });

PATCH request

Example demonstrating PATCH request:

const patchData = { /* your patch data */ };
const headers = { /* your headers */ };
const url = 'https://example.com/api/resource'; // Replace with your desired url

blazed.patch(url, patchData, headers)
 .then(response => {
    console.log(response);
    // Response object contains:
    // - data
    // - responseHeaders
    // - status
    // - requestHeaders
  })
 .catch(error => {
    console.error(error);
  });

HEAD Request

Example demonstrating HEAD request:

const headers = { /* your headers */ };
const url = 'https://example.com/api/resource'; // Replace with your desired url

blazed.head(url, headers)
 .then(response => {
    console.log(response);
    // Response object contains:
    // - data
    // - responseHeaders
    // - status
    // - requestHeaders
  })
 .catch(error => {
    console.error(error);
  });

OPTIONS request

Example demonstrating OPTIONS request:

const headers = { /* your headers */ };
const url = 'https://example.com/api/resource'; // Replace with your desired url

blazed.options(url, headers)
 .then(response => {
    console.log(response);
    // Response object contains:
    // - data
    // - responseHeaders
    // - status
    // - requestHeaders
  })
 .catch(error => {
    console.error(error);
  });

CONNECT Request

Example demonstrating CONNECT request:

const headers = { /* your headers */ };
const url = 'https://example.com/api/resource'; // Replace with your desired url

blazed.connect(url, headers)
 .then(response => {
    console.log(response);
    // Response object contains:
    // - data (contains the connection info object)
    // - responseHeaders
    // - status
    // - requestHeaders
  })
 .catch(error => {
    console.error(error);
  });

Important Note: The CONNECT request behaves differently than standard HTTP requests like GET, POST, etc.

Its primary purpose is to establish a tunnel to the server.

When logging the response.data property of a CONNECT request, you’ll receive a connection info object instead of the typical response data

The object has the following structure:

{
  message: string, // A success message indicating the status of the connection (e.g. "Successfully established a connection to...")
  protocol: string, // The protocol used for the connection (e.g. "http" or "https")
  remoteAddress: string, // The IP address of the remote server
  remotePort: number, // The port number used by the remote server
  localAddress: string, // The IP address of the local machine
  localFamily: string, // The address family of the local machine (e.g. "IPv4" or "IPv6")
  localPort: number // The port number used by the local machine
}

When logging the connection info object, you can access these properties as follows:

• response.data.message: A success message indicating that the connection has been established.
• response.data.protocol: The protocol used in the server’s URL (e.g., http, https, etc.).
• response.data.remoteAddress: The server’s remote IP address.
• response.data.remotePort: The remote port number used by the server.
• response.data.localAddress: The IP address of the local machine.
• response.data.localFamily: The address family of the local machine (e.g. “IPv4” or “IPv6”).
• response.data.localPort: The port number used by the local machine.

TRACE request

Example demonstrating TRACE request:

const headers = { /* your headers */ };
const url = 'https://example.com/api/resource'; // Replace with your desired url

blazed.trace(url, headers)
 .then(response => {
    console.log(response);
    // Response object contains:
    // - data
    // - responseHeaders
    // - status
    // - requestHeaders
  })
 .catch(error => {
    console.error(error);
  });

Other custom HTTP methods

blazed.js also provides you with the ability to perform custom HTTP requests with all the valid HTTP methods that Node.js’s built-in HTTP module supports by default including but not limiting to GET, POST, PUT, TRACE, etc. requests.

To get started, simply call the blazed.request function in your code and take advantage of flexible and customizable request handling!

Heres a simple example demonstrating a GET HTTP request method using the blazed.reqeust() function:

const headers = {} // Provide your custom headers here
const url = "https://api.github.com/users"; // URL to send the HTTP request
const method = "GET" // GET HTTP method
const data = null; // Optional data to include in the request body

// Starting the request
// Since this example is based on GET request therefore the data whic will be attached in the request body is set to null
blazed.request(url, method, headers, data)
.then(res => console.log(res))
.catch(err => console.error(err));

URL Parsing

The blazed.parse() function can be used to parse a URL.

Simply pass the URL as a parameter to this function.

Here’s an simple example with .then() and .catch() statements

const blazed = require('blazed.js'); // or import blazed from 'blazed.js'; for ES Module

blazed.parse('https://www.google.com')
  .then((url) => {
    console.log(url); // prints all values of the url object to the console
  })
  .catch((err) => {
    console.error(err);
  });

After running this code, the parsed URL values will be logged to the console.

If any errors occur, the catch block will catch and print them to the console.

Alternatively, you can use async/await syntax for more concise and readable code.

Events

blazed.js provides a range of events that are triggered regardless of the HTTP method used, allowing you to tap into the request lifecycle.

There are three key events that occur at different stages of the request process:

• beforeRequest: Fired before sending an HTTP request, this event returns a callback with two parameters: url and options.
• afterRequest: Triggered after the HTTP request’s response has finished, this event returns a callback with two parameters: url and response.
• redirect: Fired when blazed.js encounters a redirect, this event returns a callback with a single parameter object, which contains information about the redirect event.
• request: Fired when blazed.js sends the HTTP request, this event returns a callback with one parameter: request. Which contains the request object.
• response: Fired when blazed.js recieves a response from the connected server. This event returns a callback with one parameter: response. Which contains an response object(Not the one provided by the initial response object).

You can listen to these events using the blazed.on() function.

Here are some few examples:

1. beforeRequest event:

// Listen for the "beforeRequest" event
blazed.on("beforeRequest", (url, options) => {
  console.log(`Before request event fired for ${url}`);
  console.log("Request options:");
  console.log(options);
});

// Make a GET request to the GitHub API
blazed.get("https://api.github.com/users")
  .then((res) => {
    console.log("GET request successful:");
    console.log(res);
  })
  .catch((err) => {
    console.error("Error making GET request:");
    console.error(err);
  });

1. afterRequest event:

// Listen for the "afterRequest" event
blazed.on("afterRequest", (url, response) => {
  console.log(`After request event fired for ${url}`);
  console.log(response);
  //Properties of the response object is similar to the response object returned by standard promise based HTTP methods like blazed.get(), blazed.post(), etc.
});

// Make a GET request to the GitHub API
blazed.get("https://api.github.com/users")
  .then((res) => {
    console.log("GET request successful:");
    console.log(res);
  })
  .catch((err) => {
    console.error("Error making GET request:");
    console.error(err);
  });

1. redirect event:

// Listen for the "redirect" event
blazed.on("redirect", (redirectInfo) => {
  console.log(`Redirect event fired from ${redirectInfo.OriginalURL} to ${redirectInfo.RedirectURL}`);
  console.log("Redirect details:");
  console.log(redirectInfo);
});

// Make a GET request to the GitHub API (using HTTP to trigger a redirect)
blazed.get("http://api.github.com/users")
  .then((res) => {
    console.log("GET request successful:");
    console.log(res);
  })
  .catch((err) => {
    console.error("Error making GET request:");
    console.error(err);
  });
// Output will be
// { OriginalURL: 'http://api.github.com/users/', RedirectURL: 'https://api.github.com/users/' }

1. request event:

// Listen for the "request" event
blazed.on("request", (req) => {
  console.log(req) // Note that it will print all associated property with 'req' object to the console
  // - req.destroy(): It is used to destory the stream from server. Note that after the stream has been destroyed it will throw an connection reset error.
  // - req.host: Returns the hostname
  // - req.message: Returns a simple message indicating that it's the 'req' object
});

// Make a GET request to the GitHub API
blazed.get("https://api.github.com/users")
  .then((res) => {
    console.log("GET request successful:");
    console.log(res);
  })
  .catch((err) => {
    console.error("Error making GET request:");
    console.error(err);
  });

1. response event:

const writeStream = fs.createWriteStream("response.txt", "utf-8");

// Listen for the "request" event
blazed.on("response", (res) => {
  console.log(res); // Note that it will print all associated property with 'res' object to the console
  // - req.pipe(): It is used to pipe the response stream from the server to another stream. 'writeStream` for this case.
  res.pipe(writeStream);
  // Piping the response stream to the writeStream here.
});

// Make a GET request to the GitHub API
blazed.get("https://api.github.com/users")
  .then((res) => {
    console.log("GET request successful:");
    console.log(res);
  })
  .catch((err) => {
    console.error("Error making GET request:");
    console.error(err);
  });

Stay up-to-date with our project for upcoming features and enhancements, including additional events that will be introduced in future releases.

Validating Header Names and Values

In addition to sending requests, you can also validate header names and values using the blazed.validateHeaderName() and blazed.validateHeaderValue() functions.

1. Header Name Validation

Use blazed.validateHeaderName() to validate a header name. This method returns a promise that:

• Resolves with true if the header name is valid.
• Rejects with an error if the header name is invalid.

Here’s a simple example with .then and .catch statements -

const headerName = "x-my-header";

blazed.validateHeaderName(headerName)
  .then((data) => {
    console.log(data); // It will print true
  })
  .catch((err) => {
    console.error(err); // Handling the error
  });

So here we can see true getting printed in the console

Let’s rename the headerName to something like abc xyz

const headerName = "abc xyz";

blazed.validateHeaderName(headerName)
  .then((validHeader) => {
    if (!validHeader) {
      console.log(`Header name '${headerName}' is invalid`);
    } else {
      console.log(`Header name '${headerName}' is valid`);
    }
  })
  .catch((error) => {
    console.error(`Error validating header name: ${error.message}`);// The error message will be logged in the console
  });

We will get the follwing error:

TypeError: Header name must be a valid HTTP token! Recieved token: ["abc xyz"]

1. Header Value Validation

Use blazed.validateHeaderValue() to validate a header value. This method returns a promise that:

• Resolves with an object containing the name and value of the header if parsing is successful.
• Rejects with an error if parsing fails.

Here’s a simple example with async and await statements for cleaner code and readability -

// Define a constant for the dummy header name
const HEADER_NAME = "x-my-header";

// Define a constant for the dummy header value
const HEADER_VALUE = "blazed.js";

// Asynchronous headerChecker() function for checking and parsing header name and values
async function headerChecker() {
  try {
    // Validate the header name before parsing the value
    const isValidHeader = await blazed.validateHeaderName(HEADER_NAME);

    // Check if the header name is valid
    if (isValidHeader) {
      // Parse the header value
      const parsedHeader = await blazed.validateHeaderValue(HEADER_NAME, HEADER_VALUE);

      // Log the parsed header object to the console
      console.log(parsedHeader);
    } else {
      console.log(`Invalid header name: ${HEADER_NAME}`);
    }
  } catch (error) {
    console.error(`Error processing header: ${error}`);
  }
}

// Call the headerChecker function
headerChecker();

Run your script using node your-script.js.

If everything is set up correctly, you should see the following output in your console:

{ name: 'x-my-header', value: 'blazed.js' }

Important: Don’t forget to properly handle the promise returned by the function.

If you don’t, you’ll see a pending promise in your console instead:

Promise { <pending> }

This indicates that the promise is still in a pending state, meaning it hasn’t been resolved or rejected, and its result hasn’t been handled or processed.

This is a common gotcha, so make sure to handle the promise correctly to get the expected output.

Error Handling

Robust Error Handling in blazed.js

blazed.js boasts advanced error handling capabilities, detecting a wide range of errors, including:

• Timeout
• Abort
• Network down
• Host unreachable
• Host down

Notably, if the response from the server or URL is null (i.e., empty), the promise is rejected, and an error is thrown with the code ERESNULL, accompanied by a descriptive error message.

To catch and handle errors as needed, use a try-catch block.

status_codes()

Get an object contaning all valid HTTP status codes with blazed.status_codes().

console.log(blazed.status_codes())

methods()

The blazed.methods() function returns an array of all supported HTTP request methods, providing a convenient way to access the full range of valid methods.

console.log(blazed.methods())

about

Get package information as an object with blazed.about().

console.log(blazed.about())

LICENSE

blazed.js is released under the MIT License.

View the full license terms here.

Bugs & Issues

Found a bug or want a new feature?

Report issues and request features on the blazed.js issue tracker.

Thanks for reading!

Have a great day ahead :D

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