Replacement for http package using fetch

packages
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As you might have realized, the http package will soon be deprecated, since it uses the deprecated request on the server.

However this would break a lot in our code, since it is a great isomorphic abstraction to HTTP calls and I managed to replace request with node-fetch on the server and kept the client code as it is.

You can check out the package on atmosphere and on GitHub.

Install via meteor remove http && meteor add jkuester:http

The API is 95% the same, expect for npmRequestOptions that were removed due to request being removed.

Any feedback is very welcomed!

9 Likes
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There is the fetch package which is suppose to replace the http package, but it is not documented in the docs.
This is a good transition though!

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nice work! since Meteor offers isomorphic fetch couldnā€™t you use the same code that you have for the server in your package more or less and use Meteorā€™s fetch to provide an http package compat. layer?

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This could be a good direction. I simply didnā€™t touch the client code, since tests passed and I am currently a bit under pressure to deliver at work :sweat_smile:

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@jkuester thanks so much for doing this. I spent about 4 hours yesterday trying to convert some of my REST calls to use fetch, and I was completely buried in all of the encoding issues, and trying to get the URL parameters and body in shape. In particular, Twilio was driving me crazy.

I just replaced all of that with your HTTP and it is working perfectly. Thanks again :unicorn:

4 Likes
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Just updated to 2.0. Got the deprecation warning in my logs. From my packages, the following are dependent on HTTP:

  • facebook-oauth
  • mdg:meteor-apm-agent
  • mizzao:timesync

@jkuester am I right in thinking that under normal circumstances, if I use your HTTP package those aforementioned packages automatically default to it?

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am I right in thinking that under normal circumstances, if I use your HTTP package those aforementioned packages automatically default to it?

Unfortunately not, because HTTP is not a global export and thus the accounts- packages will use the deprecated version (using request). This is why Iā€™d like to discuss this topic. We have several options:

  • update accounts (and other core packages) to use fetch
  • update http to use the fetch (via merging jkuester:http into http)
  • keep accounts packages use the (updated/merged) http until they have been migrated
  • other options?
1 Like
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On a project level, what we did as a transition is to copy jkuester:http to /packages/http folder and rename the package as http

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I think we should do a major version upgrade to http where we merge your package in. In the meantime upgrading as much as possible in Meteor core to fetch would be great.

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OK I will open a PR tonight

1 Like
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Did the initial replacement in the usage (just the code, so far no testing, so there are probably mistakes):

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noob question: is there a way to suppress the deprecation warning while we work on upgrading all the affected packages?

we have a user-status package which is causing deprecation messages afresh every few seconds and itā€™s pretty painful to use the browser console.

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Ughh that would drive me crazy! Iā€™m not aware of any measure to turn off such warnings; last resort could be to clone the package locally, then add it to your project and fix the code thatā€™s causing the deprecation warning.

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itā€™s certainly not ideal :sweat_smile:

Iā€™m a little surprised HTTP has been deprecated and not patched, given how widely used it is in the meteor ecosystem. I guess a patch would be difficult though given that it semi-officially exposes the internal request instance on the server.

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Patch is in progress: Patch http package to use fetch by jankapunkt Ā· Pull Request #11313 Ā· meteor/meteor Ā· GitHub

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FYI: I added a branch core-replacement, which is designed to allow you to override http until itā€™s fully patched. Read the docs on how to do it: GitHub - jankapunkt/meteor-http at core-replacement

4 Likes
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FYI - I just released v. 2.1.0 of jkuester:http which now

  • adds AbortController support for distinct timeout handling on the server until we get native support on Node 16
  • moved all tests to meteortesting:mocha; added more tests
  • supports EJSON so sending custom types via HTTP is now possible, too :star_struck:
  • updated all code with linter fixes

Links:

5 Likes