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JavaScript

Vincent DUBROEUCQ
Vincent DUBROEUCQ
61,690 Points
Posted by Vincent DUBROEUCQ
Vincent DUBROEUCQ
61,690 Points

Problem switching to HTTPS requests in Node.js

Hi, I have a problem with Node.js HTTP requests as explained in Node.js Basics. HTTP requests to the Treehouse JSON profiles do not work since they switched to HTTPS. However, https doesn't work either. I correctly required HTTPS and even tried the HTTPS.request method, because I can specify the protocol in the options.

Here's the code

var https = require('https'); var username = 'vincentdubroeucq'; var url = 'https://www.teamtreehouse.com/' + username + '.json' var options = { protocol: 'https:', hostname: 'www.teamtreehouse.com', path: '/' + username + '.json' };

var request = https.request(options, (response) => { console.log('statusCode: ', response.statusCode); console.log('headers: ', response.headers); response.on('data', (data) => { process.stdout.write(data); }); });

However, I still get an http location when I log the header in the console. location: 'http://teamtreehouse.com/vincentdubroeucq.json'

Any ideas?

2 Answers

Jeff Wilton
Jeff Wilton
16,646 Points
Jeff Wilton
Jeff Wilton
16,646 Points

It appears to be a problem with www. in the hostname causing the request to use http instead of https. I messed around with a bunch of different options, but finally I realized that removing the www. from your hostname option did the trick.

var https = require('https'); 
var username = 'vincentdubroeucq'; 
// var url = 'https://www.teamtreehouse.com/' + username + '.json';
var options = { 
  // protocol: 'https:', --this isn't necessary
  hostname: 'teamtreehouse.com', 
  path: '/' + username + '.json',
};
callback = function(response) { 
  var str = '';
//  console.log('statusCode: ', response.statusCode); 
//  console.log('headers: ', response.headers); 

  response.on('data', function(data){ 
    str += data;
  }); 

  response.on('end', function() {
    console.log(str);
  });
}

var request = https.request(options, callback);
request.end()
Vincent DUBROEUCQ
Vincent DUBROEUCQ
61,690 Points
Vincent DUBROEUCQ
Vincent DUBROEUCQ
61,690 Points

Yeah! That works! You're a genius ! Thanks a lot ! Now the question is why does it work without the www. The 'static' url and the dynamically generated one are the same. That's weird. Still, thanks a lot for your help !

Jeff Wilton
Jeff Wilton
16,646 Points
Jeff Wilton
Jeff Wilton
16,646 Points

I'm guessing the Teamtreehouse servers are redirecting their www traffic to a specific http port, but I'm not a DevOps guy so I can't speak to the dark wizardry they practice. Glad I could help you though - it was fun debugging the issue. :)

Vincent DUBROEUCQ
Vincent DUBROEUCQ
61,690 Points
Vincent DUBROEUCQ
Vincent DUBROEUCQ
61,690 Points

I found something weird. When I type in the full url in the https.get method, everything works fine. However, if I use 

var username = 'vincentdubroeucq';
var url = 'https://www.teamtreehouse.com/' + username + '.json'

var request = https.get(url, function(response) { ... }

It doesn't work.