Add just enough to make a request, but we just pass the response back…

… raw

index.js

@@ -0,0 +1,34 @@
var net = require('net');
// Because we're building HTTP on top of raw TCP

var url = require('url');
// We need to parse URLs into their parts -- the host and port and path are most interesting.

module.exports = {
    request: function (uri, method, body) {
        var u = url.parse(uri);

        var c = net.createConnection({ host: u.hostname, port: u.port || 80 }); // No https for us! It's complicated.

        // The minimal HTTP/1.1 request:
        // GET / HTTP/1.1
        // Host: foo.com
        // <this line blank>
        c.write(method + " " + u.path + " HTTP/1.1\r\n");
        c.write("Host: " + u.host + "\r\n");
        // We could write request headers here. Eventually we could create an interface for that.
        c.write("\r\n"); // End of header -- a blank line.

        if (method == 'HEAD' || method == 'GET') {
            // HEAD is just like GET, only the client tells the server they don't want the data, just the metadata.
            // Web crawlers use it to make the check if something is fresh cheap, sometimes.
            c.end();
        } else {
            c.end(body);
        }

        // Just passing back c, raw, with whatever the server sends isn't a good interface but it's enough for now.
        return c;

    }
}

package.json

@@ -10,5 +10,8 @@
  "license": "ISC",
  "devDependencies": {
    "tap": "^2.2.0"
  },
  "dependencies": {
    "bl": "^1.0.0"
  }
}

test.js

@@ -1 +1,35 @@
// tap is our test harness
var tap = require('tap');

// We use the node http module to create a server to use while testing
var http = require('http');

// bl = "buffer list" -- it's a stream sink, it collects everything the
// stream emits as a pile of buffers, and gives it to you in one chunk
// at the end. Great module.
var bl = require('bl');

// client is the library we're making, the subject under test
var client = require('./');

tap.test('the library loads a thing', function (t) {
    t.ok(client);
    t.equal(typeof client.request, 'function');
    t.end();
});

tap.test('makes a simple GET request', function (t) {
    var server = http.createServer(function (req, res) {
        t.pass('Got request');
        t.equal(req.url, '/');
        res.end('Hello');
        server.close();
    }).listen(0, function () { // 0 means "Hey, Operating system! Assign us any free port!"
        var res = client.request("http://localhost:" + server.address().port + "/", 'GET');
        res.pipe(bl(function (err, data) {
            t.error(err);
            t.ok(data);
            t.end();
        }));
    });
});