Replacement for http package using fetch

packages
#1

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!

8 Likes
#2

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!

#3

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?

#4

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:

4 Likes
#5

@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:

3 Likes
#6

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?

#7

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
#8

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

1 Like
#9

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.

#10

OK I will open a PR tonight

1 Like
#11

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