JIYIK CN >

Representational State Transfer is abbreviated as REST . An API or Web API (Application Programming Interface) that complies with the restrictions and limitations of the REST architectural style and allows interaction with RESTful web services is called a REST API or RESTful API.

In this article, we will learn how to use Node.js to make requests using third-party packages.

AJAX calls in Node.js

node-fetch is a lightweight package/module that allows us to use fetch()the fetch function in Node.js. Its functionality is very similar to that of fetch in Vanilla JavaScript window.fetch().

node-fetch is a free third-party package, a Promise-based HTTP client for browsers and Node.js. It is available on NPM.

We can use node-fetch to send asynchronous HTTP requests to REST endpoints. Performing CRUD operations becomes easy using node-fetch.

We can use it in Vanilla JavaScript or in libraries like Node.js or React. You can find more information about node fetch here.

HTTP GETmethods are used to retrieve resources from a server. For example, when a browser retrieves a list of TODO data from a server or obtains information about a specific TODO request, it uses the HTTP GET request method.

GETThe and HEADrequests do not change the state of the server.

GETThe API is idempotent, meaning that making multiple identical requests will always produce the same result every time, until another API (such as POST or PUT) is sent to the server, which changes the state of the resource on the server.

Install the node-fetch library using the following command

$ npm i node-fetch

GET requests are made using the get method.

const fetch = require('node-fetch');
async function getTodoData() {
const payload = { title: 'Hello World', body: 'Welcome to Node tutorial' };
  const response = await fetch('https://jsonplaceholder.test.com/posts', {
    method: 'post',
    body: JSON.stringify(payload),
    headers: {'Content-Type': 'application/json'}
  });
  const data = await response.json();
  console.log(data);
}
getTodoData();

In the above example, once the user runs the file, a GET call is sent to the Node server using the fetch module (fictitious in this article) with the specified URL. If the server processes the data without interruption, it returns a success message.

Depending on the output of the server response, we can print a message on the console or notify the user with an appropriate message.

Try running the above code snippet in replit with Node.js support; it will display the result below.

{ title: 'Hello World', body: 'Welcome to Node tutorial', id: 101 }