cybernetics / reqwest

browser asynchronous http requests

It's AJAX

All over again. Includes support for xmlHttpRequest, JSONP, CORS, and CommonJS Promises A.

API

reqwest('path/to/html', function (resp) {
  qwery('#content').html(resp)
})

reqwest({
    url: 'path/to/html'
  , method: 'post'
  , data: { foo: 'bar', baz: 100 }
  , success: function (resp) {
      qwery('#content').html(resp)
    }
})

reqwest({
    url: 'path/to/html'
  , method: 'get'
  , data: [ { name: 'foo', value: 'bar' }, { name: 'baz', value: 100 } ]
  , success: function (resp) {
      qwery('#content').html(resp)
    }
})

reqwest({
    url: 'path/to/json'
  , type: 'json'
  , method: 'post'
  , error: function (err) { }
  , success: function (resp) {
      qwery('#content').html(resp.content)
    }
})

reqwest({
    url: 'path/to/json'
  , type: 'json'
  , method: 'post'
  , contentType: 'application/json'
  , headers: {
      'X-My-Custom-Header': 'SomethingImportant'
    }
  , error: function (err) { }
  , success: function (resp) {
      qwery('#content').html(resp.content)
    }
})

// Uses XMLHttpRequest2 credentialled requests (cookies, HTTP basic auth) if supported
reqwest({
    url: 'path/to/json'
  , type: 'json'
  , method: 'post'
  , contentType: 'application/json'
  , crossOrigin: true
  , withCredentials: true
  , error: function (err) { }
  , success: function (resp) {
      qwery('#content').html(resp.content)
    }
})

reqwest({
    url: 'path/to/data.jsonp?callback=?'
  , type: 'jsonp'
  , success: function (resp) {
      qwery('#content').html(resp.content)
    }
})

reqwest({
    url: 'path/to/data.jsonp?foo=bar'
  , type: 'jsonp'
  , jsonpCallback: 'foo'
  , jsonpCallbackName: 'bar'
  , success: function (resp) {
      qwery('#content').html(resp.content)
    }
})

reqwest({
    url: 'path/to/data.jsonp?foo=bar'
  , type: 'jsonp'
  , jsonpCallback: 'foo'
  , success: function (resp) {
      qwery('#content').html(resp.content)
    }
  , complete: function (resp) {
      qwery('#hide-this').hide()
    }
})

Promises

reqwest({
    url: 'path/to/data.jsonp?foo=bar'
  , type: 'jsonp'
  , jsonpCallback: 'foo'
})
  .then(function (resp) {
    qwery('#content').html(resp.content)
  }, function (err, msg) {
    qwery('#errors').html(msg)
  })
  .always(function (resp) {
    qwery('#hide-this').hide()
  })

reqwest({
    url: 'path/to/data.jsonp?foo=bar'
  , type: 'jsonp'
  , jsonpCallback: 'foo'
})
  .then(function (resp) {
    qwery('#content').html(resp.content)
  })
  .fail(function (err, msg) {
    qwery('#errors').html(msg)
  })
  .always(function (resp) {
    qwery('#hide-this').hide()
  })

var r = reqwest({
    url: 'path/to/data.jsonp?foo=bar'
  , type: 'jsonp'
  , jsonpCallback: 'foo'
  , success: function () {
      setTimeout(function () {
        r
          .then(function (resp) {
            qwery('#content').html(resp.content)
          }, function (err) { })
          .always(function (resp) {
             qwery('#hide-this').hide()
          })
      }, 15)
    }
})

Options

• url a fully qualified uri
• method http method (default: GET)
• headers http headers (default: {})
• data entity body for PATCH, POST and PUT requests. Must be a query String or JSON object
• type a string enum. html, xml, json, or jsonp. Default is inferred by resource extension. Eg: .json will set type to json. .xml to xml etc.
• contentType sets the Content-Type of the request. Eg: application/json
• crossOrigin for cross-origin requests for browsers that support this feature.
• success A function called when the request successfully completes
• error A function called when the request fails.
• complete A function called whether the request is a success or failure. Always called when complete.
• jsonpCallback Specify the callback function name for a JSONP request. This value will be used instead of the random (but recommended) name automatically generated by reqwest.

Contributing

$ git clone git://github.com/ded/reqwest.git reqwest
$ cd !$
$ npm install
$ make

Running Tests

make test

Browser support

• IE6+
• Chrome 1+
• Safari 3+
• Firefox 1+
• Opera

Ender Support

Reqwest can be used as an Ender module. Add it to your existing build as such:

$ ender add reqwest

Use it as such:

$.ajax({ ... })

Serialize things:

$(form).serialize() // returns query string -> x=y&...
$(form).serialize({type:'array'}) // returns array name/value pairs -> [ { name: x, value: y}, ... ]
$(form).serialize({type:'map'}) // returns an object representation -> { x: y, ... }
$(form).serializeArray()
$.toQueryString({
    foo: 'bar'
  , baz: 'thunk'
}) // returns query string -> foo=bar&baz=thunk

Or, get a bit fancy:

$('#myform input[name=myradios]').serialize({type:'map'})['myradios'] // get the selected value
$('input[type=text],#specialthing').serialize() // turn any arbitrary set of form elements into a query string

ajaxSetup

Use the request.ajaxSetup to predefine a data filter on all requests. See the example below that demonstrates JSON hijacking prevention:

$.ajaxSetup({
  dataFilter: function (response, type) {
    if (type == 'json') return response.substring('])}while(1);</x>'.length)
    else return response
  }
})

RequireJs and Jam

Reqwest can also be used with RequireJs and can be installed via jam

jam install reqwest

define(function(require){
  var reqwest = require('reqwest')
});

jQuery and Zepto Compatibility

There are some differences between the Reqwest way and the jQuery/Zepto way.

method

jQuery/Zepto use type to specify the request method while Reqwest uses method and reserves type for the response data type.

dataType

When using jQuery/Zepto you use the dataType option to specify the type of data to expect from the server, Reqwest uses type. jQuery also can also take a space-separated list of data types to specify the request, response and response-conversion types but Reqwest uses the type parameter to infer the response type and leaves conversion up to you.

JSONP

Reqwest also takes optional jsonpCallback and jsonpCallbackName options to specify the callback query-string key and the callback function name respectively while jQuery uses jsonp and jsonpCallback for these same options.

But fear not! If you must work the jQuery/Zepto way then Reqwest has a wrapper that will remap these options for you:

reqwest.compat({
    url: 'path/to/data.jsonp?foo=bar'
  , dataType: 'jsonp'
  , jsonp: 'foo'
  , jsonpCallback: 'bar'
  , success: function (resp) {
      qwery('#content').html(resp.content)
    }
})

// or from Ender:

$.ajax.compat({
  ...
})

If you want to install jQuery/Zepto compatibility mode as the default then simply place this snippet at the top of your code:

$.ajax.compat && $.ender({ ajax: $.ajax.compat });

Happy Ajaxing!