Configurable http.request protocol option

[ckeenan]

Running ipfs-api from an on-disk "file:///.../index.html" does not work. Calling http.request without passing a protocol in the opts, it will default to window.location.protocol. This causes the following error:
TypeError: Failed to execute 'fetch' on 'Window': Failed to parse URL from file://127.0.0.1:5001/api/...

see dist/ipfsapi.js:5837

Could we add a way to explicitly set this protocol option? It could be passed as an opt in the requestAPI or included as a param of IpfsAPI. The latter might be preferable for this scenario so not to require a protocol opt for every method.. maybe it could be IpfsAPI(host_or_multiaddr, port, opts)?

[jbenet]

Ahh i see. yeah we should.

[slothbag]

Same problem here. I cherry-picked the protocol line out of ckeenans PR and was able to get it working, thanks ckeenan, would be great for this to be merged.

[fbaiodias]

Same problem here as well.

I'm trying to run ipfs-api inside a chrome extension and need to specify the protocol, because it defaults to chrome-extension://.

[fmarts]

👍 would love to see it merged

[dignifiedquire]

Is this still an issue with the latest version? (We switched to request and pass http in the url)

[fbaiodias]

Yes, only could get it working when I forced the protocol to http.

[dignifiedquire]

@xicombd okay thanks, strange though as I would expect request to take the protocol from the uri