How to Call REST API in Node.js

REST stands for Representational State Transfer. A REST API or RESTful API is an API or web API (Application Programming Interface) that conforms to the constraints/restrictions of the REST architectural style and permits interaction with RESTful web services.

In today’s post, we’ll learn how to make requests using third-party packages using Node.js.

Call REST API in Node.js

The HTTP GET method fetches resources from the server. For example, browsers use the HTTP GET request method when fetching the TODO data list from the server or fetching information of specific TODO requests.

GET and HEAD requests do not change the server’s state.

GET APIs are idempotent, which means making multiple identical requests always produce the same result every time until another API such as POST or PUT is made to the server, which changes the resource’s state on the server.

Axios is a free third-party package, a Promise-based HTTP client for the browser and Node.js. It is available on NPM.

You can send asynchronous HTTP requests to REST endpoints using Axios. Performing CRUD operations becomes an easy task using Axios.

We can use it in Vanilla JavaScript or with a library like Node.js or Angular.

Install the Axios library using this command $ npm i axios.

A GET request is created with the get method.

const axios = require('axios');
async function getData() {
  const res = await axios.get('https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/todos/1');
  const data = res.data;
  console.log(data);
}
getData();

In the example above, once the user runs the file, a GET call is sent to the Node server with the specified URL (dummy in this post). If the server processes this data without interruption, it returns a successful message.

Based on the output of the server response, you can print the message on the console or notify the user with the appropriate message.

Output:

{ userId: 1, id: 1, title: 'delectus aut autem', completed: false }

Demo