How to send a POST request with data in Node.js?

General Discussions
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1

What is the proper way to make a node.js post request with data in Node.js?

I need to send an outbound HTTP POST request with some data in Node.js. How can I achieve this using the appropriate libraries or methods?

2

I’ve worked with HTTP requests in Node.js quite a bit, and one common scenario is testing APIs. Here’s an example of how to mock an HTTP POST request using pytest-mocker in Python, simulating a real API call in a testing environment. This approach is useful when you don’t want to send actual requests while running tests.

import pytest
import requests

def post_code(codestring):
    url = 'https://closure-compiler.appspot.com/compile'
    data = {
        'compilation_level': 'ADVANCED_OPTIMIZATIONS',
        'output_format': 'json',
        'output_info': 'compiled_code',
        'warning_level': 'QUIET',
        'js_code': codestring
    }
    
    response = requests.post(url, data=data)
    return response.json()

def test_post_code(mocker):
    mock_response = mocker.Mock()
    mock_response.json.return_value = {'compiledCode': 'someCompiledCode'}
    
    # Mock the requests.post method to avoid hitting the actual API
    mocker.patch('requests.post', return_value=mock_response)
    
    result = post_code('var x = 10;')
    assert result['compiledCode'] == 'someCompiledCode'
3

That’s a great approach for testing, But if you’re actually working with real-world APIs and don’t need mocking, you can directly use requests to send a node js post request. This is helpful when debugging or interacting with an external API in production.

import requests

def post_code(codestring):
    url = 'https://closure-compiler.appspot.com/compile'
    data = {
        'compilation_level': 'ADVANCED_OPTIMIZATIONS',
        'output_format': 'json',
        'output_info': 'compiled_code',
        'warning_level': 'QUIET',
        'js_code': codestring
    }
    
    response = requests.post(url, data=data)
    return response.json()

# Calling the function
result = post_code('var x = 10;')
print(result)

This approach ensures that you are actually hitting the API and getting real responses instead of mocked ones.

4

Both of your points make sense! Tom’s mocking method is great for testing, and Toby’s direct approach is good for production. But if you’re working with unittest.mock instead of pytest-mocker, here’s how you can mock a node js post request without using an external library.

import requests
from unittest import mock

def post_code(codestring):
    url = 'https://closure-compiler.appspot.com/compile'
    data = {
        'compilation_level': 'ADVANCED_OPTIMIZATIONS',
        'output_format': 'json',
        'output_info': 'compiled_code',
        'warning_level': 'QUIET',
        'js_code': codestring
    }
    
    response = requests.post(url, data=data)
    return response.json()

def test_post_code():
    mock_response = mock.Mock()
    mock_response.json.return_value = {'compiledCode': 'someCompiledCode'}
    
    with mock.patch('requests.post', return_value=mock_response):
        result = post_code('var x = 10;')
        assert result['compiledCode'] == 'someCompiledCode'

This works just like the pytest-mocker example but without needing additional dependencies, which can be useful if you’re sticking to standard libraries.