Aim of this project is to provide a thin type-safe wrapper around fetch API, useful for working with JSON REST APIs.
npm install --save fetcher-ts
As this project is a part of fp-ts
ecosystem, you'll also need fp-ts
and io-ts
as a peer dependencies. And don't forget to install a cross-fetch as a peer dependency as well – it provides an isomorphic implementation of fetch
using whatwg-fetch
and node-fetch
:
npm install --save fp-ts io-ts cross-fetch
Let's dive into an example right away!
// This is main business model – basically, any interface serializable to JSON you can imagine
type User = { name: string };
// And this is a model for HTTP 422 response code – it contains some internal code plus correlation ID from logging system
type FourTwoTwo = { code: number; correlationId: string };
// Type of possible server responses. It should extend `Result<Code, T>` from `fetcher`:
type GetUserResult =
| { code: 200, payload: User[] } // 200 OK – we got the result
| { code: 400, payload: Error } // 400 Bad Request – we did something wrong
| { code: 401, payload: [Error, string] } // 401 Unauthorized – we tried requesting a resource we don't have access to
| { code: 422, payload: FourTwoTwo }; // 422 Unprocessable entity – business logic error from some internal system
// `io-ts` validators for 200 and 422 responses.
// Please note that they are optional – if they are not passed to `.handle()`, the validation stage will be skipped.
const TUsers = io.array(io.type({ name: io.string }));
const TFourTwoTwo = io.type({ code: io.number, correlationId: io.string });
const [n, errors] =
// We create an instance of `Fetcher` class and parameterize it with our response type and final transformation result we want:
await new Fetcher<GetUserResult, string>('https://example.com')
// In 200 handler we need to pass a function from `User[]` to `string`, as specified in `Fetcher` parameters:
.handle(200, (users) => users.map((u) => u.name).join(', '), TUsers)
// In 400 handler we need to handle plain `Error`:
.handle(400, (err) => err.message)
// In 422 we need to deal with internal error code and correlation ID:
.handle(
422,
({ correlationId }) => correlationId,
TFourTwoTwo,
// For the sake of brewity I use non-null assertion here; in real code you should check for presence:
async (res) => ({ code: +res.headers.get('x-code')!, correlationId: res.headers.get('x-correlation-id')! }),
)
// In 401 handler we get as a response name of permission we lack:
.handle(401, ([err, permission]) => `You lack ${permission}. Also, ${err.message}`)
// We CANNOT specify explicit handlers for codes we didn't describe in the `GetUserResult` type:
// .handle(500, () => `Argument of type '500' is not assignable to parameter of type 'never'`)
// However, we can use `discardRest` to specify a "fallback" thunk which will be executed for any codes which are not explicitly handled:
.discardRest(() => '42')
// `Fetcher<T, A>` is a functor in `A`, i.e. could be transformed into `Fetcher<T, B>`:
.map((s) => s.length)
// Finally, we can use `run` to get a `Promise<[Result, Option<io.Errors>]>`:
.run();
// Here `n` will be a `number`, and `errors` will either be undefined, or an instance of `io.Errors`:
console.log(n, errors);
import { Fetcher } from 'fetcher-ts';
A Fetcher
class is a wrapper around window.fetch
with additional type safety. Its public API consists of:
Sum type of possible API endpoint responses. Should consist of a { code: number, payload: T }
entries:
type MyMethodResults =
| { code: 200, payload: string[] }
| { code: 500, payload: Error };
A type into which the response will be transformed. Could easily be the same type as in 200
response – given that you can construct a fallback instance for all other reponse codes.
Creates a new instance of a Fetcher
class. Parameters are exactly the same you would normally use for window.fetch
.
Please note that you'll need to pass type parameters to the constructor as well in order to ensure type inference works correctly:
type MyMethodResults =
| { code: 200, payload: string[] }
| { code: 500, payload: Error };
const fetcher = new Fetcher<MyMethodResults, string>('https://example.com');
.handle(code: number, handler: (data: From) => To, codec?: io.Type, extractor: (response: Response) => Promise): Fetcher<...>
Register a handler for given code
, using optional extractor
to conver the raw Response
into target type From
. Please note that code
should be present in the passed to the constructor type parameter:
type MyMethodResults =
| { code: 200, payload: string[] }
| { code: 500, payload: Error };
const fetcher = new Fetcher<MyMethodResults, string>('https://example.com')
.handle(400, () => 'no way'); // compilation error: Argument of type '400' is not assignable to parameter of type 'never'
Also an io-ts codec could be passed for each handler, providing validation capability for each handler:
type MyOtherMethod = { code: 400, payload: string }; // this enpoint can only fail with a text of an error :(
const [result, errors] = await new Fetcher<MyOtherMethod, string>('https://example.com/other')
.handle(400, (msg) => `Oh noes, error: ${msg}`, io.string)
.run();
// If the server responds not with string, an `io-ts` validation error will be present in `errors` (`Some<Errors>`).
Register a fallback handler for all HTTP status codes not registered explicitly using .handle()
:
type MyMethodResults =
| { code: 200, payload: string[] }
| { code: 500, payload: Error };
const fetcher = new Fetcher<MyMethodResults, string>('https://example.com')
.handle(200, (strings) => string.join(', '))
.discardRest(() => 'no way'); // code 500 and any other will be handled by this thunk
The main method to actually consume the built fetch handling chain and execute the request:
type MyMethodResults =
| { code: 200, payload: string[] }
| { code: 500, payload: Error };
const [result, validationErrors] = await new Fetcher<MyMethodResults, string>('https://example.com')
.handle(200, (strings) => string.join(', '))
.discardRest(() => 'no way')
.run(); // => result: string, validationErrors: Option<io.Errors>
A convenience method to transform built fetcher chain into a TaskEither.
Such fetcher design will be beneficial for autogenerated APIs – i.e. if your result sum type is generated from something akin to OpenAPI specification. In this case the developer who uses fetcher
with such sum type will always be sure that he/she handled all possible codes, as the type system will serve as a guide.