cogent

A simple HTTP request agent designed primarily for GETing stuff.

Features

• Resolve redirects
• Timeout support
• Automatic gunzipping
• First-class JSON support
• Buffer the response or save it to a file

API

var request = require('cogent')

var uri = 'https://raw.github.com/visionmedia/express/master/package.json'

// Pipe stdout
var res = yield* request(uri)
res.pipe(process.stdout)

// Save to a file
var res = yield* request(uri, require('os').tmpdir() + '/express.package.json')
if (res.destination) console.log('ok')

// Get as JSON
var res = yield* request(uri, true)
var json = res.body

You can also use it without generators by wrapping it with co:

var co = require('co')
var request = co(require('cogent'))

request('https://github.com', function (err, res) {
  res.pipe(process.stdout)
})

var response = yield* request(url, [options])

url is the URL of the request. The options are passed to http.request(). Additional options are:

• buffer - buffer the response and save it as res.buffer
• string - buffer the response as a string and save it as res.text
• json - buffer the response as an object and save it as res.body
• destination - cojs/cogent the response to the file destination
• timeout - response header timeout per try, default 5000 milliseconds
• retries - number of retries when request fails due to common server errors, default 0
• redirects - resolve redirects, default 1

If options === true, it defaults to { json: true }. If typeof options === 'string', it defaults to { destination: string }.

response will have the following properties:

• res.req - the request object
• res.res - the response object, itself if the response was not gzipped
• res.statusCode
• res.headers
• res.destination - populated only if the file was successfully saved on a 200
• res.buffer
• res.text
• res.body - JSON body populated only on a 200

request = request.extend(options)

Create a new cogent instance with default options. This allows you to avoid setting the same options every time. See the options listed above.

• retries
• redirects
• timeout
• method
• gunzip
• netrc
• agent

var request = require('cogent').extend({
  auth: 'username:password'
})

var res = yield* request('http://localhost/', true)
// will send with auth header