Simple Node.js Client Request crashing on Heroku

Question

I'm running Node.js on Heroku, and I have a simple test url set up on express to make a client request, but it crashes the application everytime and I'm not sure why.

I'm trying to make the server make a simple GET call to https://graph.facebook.com/btaylor

My related server.js contents:

app.get('/test', function(request, response) {
    var http = require('http');
    var test_client = http.createClient(443, "graph.facebook.com", true);

    var facebook_request = test_client.request("GET", "/btaylor", {
        "host":"graph.facebook.com"
    });

    facebook_request.on('response',function(facebook_response){
        facebook_response.on('data',function(chunk){
            console.log(chunk);
        });
        facebook_response.on('end', function() {
            console.log("DONE");
        });
    });
    facebook_request.end();
});

This looks pretty straight forward, but it crashes the server everytime I visit server/test.

I know I'm hitting the right code, because if I remove for example the line "var http = ...", I'll get a "http not defined" as it tries to run http.createClient.

Answer 1

Use the https module for node.js to connect to https websites. The way you do it is overly complicated for simple requesting data.

var express = require("express");
var app = express.createServer();

app.get('/test', function(request, response) {
    var https = require('https');

    response.writeHead(200);
    https.get({ host: 'graph.facebook.com', path: '/btaylor' }, function (res) {
        console.log(res);
        response.end(res.body);
    });
});

app.listen(process.env.PORT);

You might also consider using request.