Problem with http GET request on node js

Question

Im writing an http client to read from facebook using node.js and using the following code:

var http = require('http');

var options = {
  host: 'www.fb.com',
  path: '/',
  "user-agent": "node.js"
};

http.get(options, function(res) {
  console.log("Got response: " + res.statusCode);
  console.log(res.headers);
}).on('error', function(e) {
console.log("Got error: " + e.message);
});

In my browser, this returns a 301 redirect with the location of www.facebook.com, however in node.js I get a 302 response with a location of www.fb.com/common/browser.php. I tried it with the latest version of node and it still throws this error.

I'd really appreciate some help with this, Thanks.

I realized what the problem is.. I wasn't using the http.client to make the request. I guess the client handles the keepalive response and the cookies and abstracts it away. HTTP GET sends a new request each time, and the state is not maintained between requests. So fb.com must be doing something like, if cookie not set redirect to fb.com and set the cookie. I might need some more enlightenment here. But moral of the story... use http.client to make requests. You will get the correct behavior — user868459
– user868459, Commented Aug 8, 2011 at 7:37

nalply · Accepted Answer · 2012-09-28 11:34:31Z

26

var request_options = 
{
    host: 'www.fb.com',
    headers: {'user-agent': 'Mozilla/5.0'},
    path: '/'
};

Setting the request option this way should work.

edited Sep 28, 2012 at 11:34

nalply

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answered Aug 4, 2012 at 23:19

abdallah

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Comments

Philip Kirkbride · Accepted Answer · 2017-03-16 19:13:44Z

3

This dosent seem to be a bug of node.js I made a request to fb.com in curl and I got the same redirect.

It probably makes that decision based on the user agent... maybe you can use the user agent of a browser :D

edited Mar 16, 2017 at 19:13

Philip Kirkbride

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answered Aug 7, 2011 at 14:09

megakorre

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