vscode-http-client

Simple way to do HTTP requests in Visual Studio Code.

Table of contents

1. Install
2. How to use
   • Settings
   • How to execute
     • Execute scripts
       • Constants
         • cancel
         • output
         • progress
       • Functions
         • alert
         • decode_html
         • encode_html
         • from
         • guid
         • new_request
         • now
         • open_html
         • open_markdown
         • sleep
         • uuid
         • utc
       • Modules
3. Enhancements
   • Authorization
     • Basic Auth
4. HTTP files
5. Customizations
   • CSS
6. Syntaxes
7. Support and contribute
8. Related projects
   • node-enumerable
   • vscode-helpers

Install [↑]

Launch VS Code Quick Open (Ctrl + P), paste the following command, and press enter:

ext install vscode-http-client

Or search for things like vscode-http-client in your editor.

How to use [↑]

Settings [↑]

Open (or create) your settings.json in your .vscode subfolder of your workspace or edit the global settings (File >> Preferences >> Settings).

Add a http.client section:

{
    "http.client": {
    }
}

Name	Description
open	An array of one or more paths to .http-request files, which should be opened on startup.
openNewOnStartup	(true), if a new tab with an empty request should be opened on startup. Default: (false)
rejectUnauthorized	(true), to reject unauthorized, self-signed SSL certificates. Default: (false)

How to execute [↑]

Press F1 and enter one of the following commands:

Name	Description	command
HTTP Client: Change style ...	Changes the CSS style for request forms.	extension.http.client.changeStyle
HTTP Client: Create new script ...	Opens a new editor with an example script.	extension.http.client.newRequestScript
HTTP Client: New HTTP request ...	Opens a new HTTP request form.	extension.http.client.newRequest
HTTP Client: New HTTP request (split view) ...	Opens a new HTTP request form by splitting the current view.	extension.http.client.newRequestSplitView
HTTP Client: Send editor content as HTTP request ...	Uses the content of a visible editor as body for a HTTP request.	extension.http.client.newRequestForEditor
HTTP Client: Send file as HTTP request ...	Uses a (local) file as body for a HTTP request.	extension.http.client.newRequestFromFile
HTTP Client: Show help ...	Shows a new help tab.	extension.http.client.showHelp

There are currently no predefined key bindings for these commands, but you can setup them by your own.

Execute scripts [↑]

For things, like batch operations, you can execute scripts, using the Node.js API, which is provided by VS Code.

const USERS = [{
    id: 5979,
    name: 'TM'
}, {
    id: 23979,
    name: 'MK'
}];

const SESSION_ID = uuid();
const CURRENT_TIME = utc();

// show output channel
output.show();

for (let i = 0; i < USERS.length; i++) {
    if (cancel.isCancellationRequested) {
        break;  // user wants to cancel
    }
    
    const U = USERS[i];

    try {
        output.append(`Sending request for '${ U }' ... `);

        const REQUEST = new_request();

        // do not show any result
        // in the GUI
        // this is good, if you do many requests
        REQUEST.noResult(true);

        REQUEST.param('user', U.id)  // set / overwrite an URL / query parameter           
               .header('X-User-Name', U.name)  // set / overwrite a request header
               .header('X-Date', CURRENT_TIME)  // automatically converts to ISO-8601
               .header('X-Session', SESSION_ID)
               .body( await $fs.readFile('/path/to/bodies/user_' + U.id + '.json') );  // set / overwrite body

        // you can also use one of the upper setters
        // as getters
        if ('MK' === REQUEST.header('X-User-Name')) {
            REQUEST.param('debug', 'true');
        }

        await REQUEST.send();

        output.appendLine(`[OK]`);
    } catch (e) {
        output.appendLine(`[ERROR: '${ $h.toStringSafe(e) }']`);
    }
}

Constants [↑]

cancel [↑]

Provides the underlying CancellationToken object.

const USER_IDS = [1, 2, 3];

for (let i = 0; i < USER_IDS.length; i++) {
    if (cancel.isCancellationRequested) {
        break;  // user wants to cancel
    }

    // TODO
}

output [↑]

Provides the OutputChannel of the extension.

output.show();

output.append('Hello');
output.appendLine(', TM!');

progress [↑]

Stores the underlying Progress object, provided by withProgress() function.

const USER_IDS = [1, 2, 3];

for (let i = 0; i < USER_IDS.length; i++) {
    const UID = USER_IDS[i];

    progress.report({
        message: `Executing code for user ${ i + 1 } (ID ${ USER_ID }) of ${ USERS.length } ...`,
        increment: 1.0 / USERS.length * 100.0
    });

    // TODO
}

Functions [↑]

alert [↑]

Shows a (warning) popup.

alert('Hello!');

// with custom buttons
switch (await alert('Sure?', 'NO!', 'Yes')) {
    case 'NO!':
        console.log('User is UN-SURE!');
        break;

    case 'Yes':
        console.log('User is sure.');
        break;
}

decode_html [↑]

Decodes the entities in a HTML string.

let encodedStr = '<strong>This is a test!</strong>';

// all entities
decode_html(encodedStr);  // '<strong>This is a test!</strong>'

// HTML 4
decode_html(encodedStr, '4');
// HTML 5
decode_html(encodedStr, '5');
// XML
decode_html(encodedStr, 'xml');

encode_html [↑]

Encodes a string to HTML entities.

let strToEncode = '<strong>This is a test!</strong>';

// all entities
encode_html(strToEncode);  // '&lt;strong&gt;This is a test!&lt;/strong&gt;'

// HTML 4
encode_html(strToEncode, '4');
// HTML 5
encode_html(strToEncode, '5');
// XML
encode_html(strToEncode, 'xml');

from [↑]

Creates a new LINQ style iterator for any iterable object, like arrays, generators or strings. For more information, s. node-enumerable.

const SEQUENCE     = from([1, '2', null, 3, 4, undefined, '5']);
const SUB_SEQUENCE = SEQUENCE.where(x => !_.isNil(x))  // 1, '2', 3, 4, '5'
                             .ofType('string');  // '2', '5'

for (const ITEM of SUB_SEQUENCE) {
    // TODO
}

guid [↑]

Generates a new unique ID, using node-uuid.

// v1
const GUID_v1_1 = guid('1');
const GUID_v1_2 = guid('v1');

// v4
const GUID_v4_1 = guid();
const GUID_v4_2 = guid('4');
const GUID_v4_3 = guid('v4');

// v5
const GUID_v5_1 = guid('5');
const GUID_v5_2 = guid('v5');

new_request [↑]

Creates a new instance of a HTTP client, by using the data of the current request form. All important data, like URL, headers or body can be overwritten.

const REQUEST = new new_request();

REQUEST.param('user', 5979)  // set / overwrite an URL / query parameter
       .header('X-My-Header', 'TM')  // set / overwrite a request header
       .body( await $fs.readFile('/path/to/body') );  // set / overwrite body

await REQUEST.send();

now [↑]

Returns a new instance of a Moment.js object, by using an optional parameter for the timezone.

const CURRENT_TIME = now();
console.log( CURRENT_TIME.format('YYYY-MM-DD HH:mm:ss') );

const CURRENT_TIME_WITH_TIMEZONE = now('Europe/Berlin');
console.log( CURRENT_TIME_WITH_TIMEZONE.format('DD.MM.YYYY HH:mm') );

open_html [↑]

Opens a new HTML tab.

let htmlCode = `<!doctype html>
<html lang="en">
  <head>
    <meta charset="utf-8">

    <script>

    const vscode = acquireVsCodeApi();

    </script>
  </head>

  <body>
    <div>Hello, TM!</div>
  </body>
</html>`;

// the function returns the underlying webview
// s. https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/extensionAPI/vscode-api#WebviewPanel
html(htmlCode);

// with custom title
html(htmlCode, 'My HTML document');

SECURITY HINT: The new tab is opened with the following settings:

{
    "enableCommandUris": true,
    "enableFindWidget": true,
    "enableScripts": true,
    "retainContextWhenHidden": true
}

open_markdown [↑]

Opens a new HTML tab with parsed Markdown content.

let markdownCode = `# Header 1

## Header 2

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet.
`;

// the function returns the underlying webview
// s. https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/extensionAPI/vscode-api#WebviewPanel
md(markdownCode);

// with custom title
md(markdownCode, 'My Markdown document');

// with custom, optional title and CSS
md(markdownCode, {
    css: `
body {
  background-color: red;
}
`,
    title: 'My Markdown document'
});

The parser uses the following settings:

{
    "breaks": true,
    "gfm": true,
    "mangle": true,
    "silent": true,
    "tables": true,
    "sanitize": true
}

SECURITY HINT: The new tab is opened with the following settings:

{
    "enableCommandUris": false,
    "enableFindWidget": false,
    "enableScripts": true,
    "retainContextWhenHidden": true
}

sleep [↑]

Waits a number of seconds before continue.

await sleep();  // 1 second

await sleep(2.5);  // 2.5 seconds

uuid [↑]

Alias for guid().

utc [↑]

Returns a new instance of a Moment.js object in UTC.

const UTC_NOW = utc();

console.log( UTC_NOW.format('YYYY-MM-DD HH:mm:ss') );

Modules [↑]

Constant	Name	Description
_	lodash	A modern JavaScript utility library delivering modularity, performance and extras.
$fs	fs-extra	Extensions for the Node.js file system module, especially for use in async Promise context.
$h	vscode-helpers	A lot of helpers classes and functions.
$html	node-html-entities	HTML / XML parser.
$linq	node-enumerable	Provides LINQ-style functions and classes.
$md	Marked	Markdown parser.
$moment	Moment.js	Parse, validate, manipulate, and display dates and times in JavaScript. moment-timezone is already provided.
$vs	Visual Studio Code	VS Code API.

You also can include any module, shipped with VS Code, Node.js, that extension or any external script, which is available on your current system, by using the require() function.

Enhancements [↑]

Authorization [↑]

Basic Auth [↑]

Instead of setting up a Basic Auth request header by using a Base64 string like

Authorization: Basic bWtsb3ViZXJ0Om15UGFzc3dvcnQ=

you can use the value as simple plain text, separating username and password by : character:

Authorization: Basic mkloubert:mypassword

Keep in mind: The string right to Basic will be trimmed!

HTTP files [↑]

Requests can be imported from or to HTTP files.

Those files are encoded in ASCII and their lines are separated by CRLF (\r\n):

POST https://example.com/users/1 HTTP/1.1
Content-type: application/json; charset=utf8
X-User: 1

{
    "id": 1,
    "name": "mkloubert"
}

Customizations [↑]

CSS [↑]

You can save a custom CSS file, called custom.css, inside the extension's folder, which is the sub folder .vscode-http-client inside the current user's home directory.

Syntaxes [↑]

Syntax highlighting supports all languages, which are part of highlight.js.

Support and contribute [↑]

If you like the extension, you can support the project by sending a donation via PayPal to me.

To contribute, you can open an issue and/or fork this repository.

To work with the code:

• clone this repository
• create and change to a new branch, like git checkout -b my_new_feature
• run npm install from your project folder
• open that project folder in Visual Studio Code
• now you can edit and debug there
• commit your changes to your new branch and sync it with your forked GitHub repo
• make a pull request

Related projects [↑]

node-enumerable [↑]

node-enumerable is a LINQ implementation for JavaScript, which runs in Node.js and browsers.

vscode-helpers [↑]

vscode-helpers is a NPM module, which you can use in your own VSCode extension and contains a lot of helpful classes and functions.