Getting Started

Http4ts is a minimal HTTP library for JavaScript environments (Node.js, Deno etc.) implementing the pattern of server as a function. In http4ts, a server is just a function with the following signature:

type HttpHandler = (req: HttpRequest) => HttpResponse | Promise<HttpResponse>;

See the simple server application examples, one for deno and another for Node.js.

Installation

Node.js

Http4ts is available via npm. You can install it using the following command:

npm install http4ts

Binding to Node.js

In order to use this library in Node.js, you have to bind the HttpHandler to the Node.js HTTP server. Http4ts supplies a function called toNodeRequestListener to bind an HttpHandler to the Node.js server.

import * as http from "http";
import {  HttpRequest,  toNodeRequestListener,  OK} from "http4ts";
async function handler(req: HttpRequest) {  // 1. Write the handler as a function that returns response  return OK({ body: "Hello world!" });}
const server = http.createServer(  toNodeRequestListener(handler) // 2. Connect the handler to the node.js server);
const hostname = "127.0.0.1";const port = 3000;
server.listen(port, hostname, () => {  // 3. Start your node server as you were before  console.log(`Server running at http://${hostname}:${port}/`);});

Deno

In Deno, it is possible to import the library via its url. You can use Http4ts by importing the following url:

https://deno.land/x/http4ts/mod.ts

Binding to Deno

In order to use this library in Deno, you have to bind the HttpHandler to the Deno HTTP server. Http4ts supplies a function called toDenoRequestListener to bind an HttpHandler to the server.

import { listenAndServe } from "https://deno.land/std/http/server.ts";
import {  HttpRequest,  toDenoRequestListener,  OK} from "https://deno.land/x/http4ts/mod.ts";
async function handler(req: HttpRequest) {  // 1. Write the handler as a function that returns response  return OK({ body: "Hello world!" });}
console.log("Listening on http://localhost:8000");await listenAndServe({ port: 8000 }, toDenoRequestListener(handler));

You can also run this example by executing the following command in your shell environment:

deno run --allow-net=0.0.0.0:8000 https://deno.land/x/http4ts/examples/readme-example.ts

Example Project

We have implemented the famous realworld backend for you to compare the code with other http libraries in node.js. You can find this example here.