Generic HTTP Web Service Client in JavaScript (GHoWSt)

A client written to talk to the Generic HTTP Web Service Server

Design goals

• Use local language semantics to talk to the server dynamically. The only thing required are the ghowst classes and a JavaScript runtime.
• Every call, using a method name convention to map to HTTP methods, gets translated to HTTP requests. Responses are parsed from JSON and mapped back to local objects.

Note

This JavaScript project runs in both the browser as well as Node.js. It uses the Fetch API as well as ES6 modules and FormData, so the code is nearly identical between both environments on modern browsers and versions of Node.js greater than or equal to version 21. The only difference is how a File is obtained when sending files.

Example code

import {GenericHttpWebServiceClient} from './js/weburg/ghowst/generic-http-web-service-client.js';

let httpWebService = new GenericHttpWebServiceClient("http://localhost:8081/generichttpws");

// Create
let engine = {
    name: "JSEngine",
    cylinders: 44,
    throttleSetting: 49
}
let engineId1 = await httpWebService.createEngines({engine: engine});

Setup

Ensure Node.js 21 or better is installed if you plan to run the Node.js example. Otherwise you just need a Web browser. Then, run npm install in the project root or use your IDE to install the dependencies.

Running the example

First, ensure the server is running. Refer to other grouped GHoWSt projects to get and run the server. Then, determine whether you want to run the .html in a browser, or run the corresponding .js file meant only for Node.js. Both files contain the same JavaScript calls, the main difference being the context and the manner in which they handle the example file upload. A browser requires the user to select a file, whereas Node.js can load a file from the local disk.

Browser

For running the browser example, it should serve from a local Web server. On the CLI, you can install Node.js and npm, and then install the http-server npm package globally (with the -g flag). Or, your IDE may have a local Web server built in.

If using the CLI, ensure you are in the project directory. Run:

http-server

Now, in a browser, navigate to http://localhost:8080/run-example-generic-http-web-service-client.html

If using an IDE, you should only need to run the below file which ideally opens in a local Web server in your browser:

run-example-generic-http-web-service-client.html

Node.js

Ensure Node.js 21 or better is installed.

If using the CLI, ensure you are in the project directory. Run:

node run-example-generic-http-web-service-client.js

If using an IDE, you should only need to run the below file:

run-example-generic-http-web-service-client.js

The example runs several calls to create, update, replace, read, delete, and do a custom action on resources.

Running the tests

To run unit tests only:

npm test

To run unit and integration tests:

npm run verify