Making HTTP requests with Axios in TypeScript
Make sure to install axios
before using the code samples in the article.
You can install axios
by opening your terminal in your project’s root directory and running the npm install axios
command.
安装axios:
# 👇️ if you need to initialize a package.json file
npm init -y
# ✅ with NPM
npm install axios
# ✅ with YARN
yarn add axios
Axios includes TypeScript definitions, so we don’t have to install them separately.
Making HTTP GET requests with Axios in TypeScript
Here is an example of an HTTP GET
request using axios
in TypeScript.
index.ts
import axios from 'axios';
type User = {
id: number;
email: string;
first_name: string;
};
type GetUsersResponse = {
data: User[];
};
async function getUsers() {
try {
// 👇️ const data: GetUsersResponse
const { data, status } = await axios.get<GetUsersResponse>(
'https://reqres.in/api/users',
{
headers: {
Accept: 'application/json',
},
},
);
console.log(JSON.stringify(data, null, 4));
// 👇️ "response status is: 200"
console.log('response status is: ', status);
return data;
} catch (error) {
if (axios.isAxiosError(error)) {
console.log('error message: ', error.message);
return error.message;
} else {
console.log('unexpected error: ', error);
return 'An unexpected error occurred';
}
}
}
getUsers();
If you get the error “Cannot find module ‘axios’”, click on the following article and follow the installation instructions.
We defined the type for the response we expect from the server and provided it when using the axios.get method.
The first argument the axios.get()
method takes is the URL.
axios.get(url, config)
The second argument is a request config object and is not required.
I only included the second argument because you might be making HTTP
GET
requests to an API that requires authorization. In this case, you might need to set anAuthorization
header.
If you need to check the response schema, look at this section of the axios GitHub repository.
response_schema.js
{
// `data` is the response from the server
data: {},
// `status` is the HTTP status code from the server response
status: 200,
// `statusText` is the HTTP status message from the server response
statusText: 'OK',
// `headers` the HTTP headers that the server responded with
// All header names are lowercase and can be accessed using the bracket notation.
// Example: `response.headers['content-type']`
headers: {},
// `config` is the config that was provided to `axios` for the request
config: {},
// `request` is the request that generated this response
request: {}
}
We destructured the data
property from the axios
response schema.
const { data, status } = await axios.get<GetUsersResponse>(
'https://reqres.in/api/users',
{
headers: {
Accept: 'application/json',
},
},
);
The data
property is the response that was provided by the server.
Another property you might need to use from the response object is
status
. It represents the status code from the server’s response, e.g.200
or404
.
Axios includes a type guard for errors which we used in our catch
method.
catch (error) {
if (axios.isAxiosError(error)) {
console.log('error message: ', error.message);
return error.message;
} else {
console.log('unexpected error: ', error);
return 'An unexpected error occurred';
}
}
If the error is an axios
error, we can safely access the message
property to get the error message.
Otherwise, the error is typed as unknown
and we have to manually check before accessing any properties.
What you might have noticed is that
axios
automatically parses the JSON from the response as opposed to the built-infetch()
method.
We directly have the parsed response stored in the data
variable.
If you want to use the built-in fetch
module to make HTTP requests in TypeScript, check out my other article.
Making HTTP POST requests with Axios in TypeScript
Let’s look at an example HTTP POST
request made with axios
in TypeScript.
I’ll post the entire code snippet and then we’ll go over it.
import axios from 'axios';
type CreateUserResponse = {
name: string;
job: string;
id: string;
createdAt: string;
};
async function createUser() {
try {
// 👇️ const data: CreateUserResponse
const { data, status } = await axios.post<CreateUserResponse>(
'https://reqres.in/api/users',
{ name: 'John Smith', job: 'manager' },
{
headers: {
'Content-Type': 'application/json',
Accept: 'application/json',
},
},
);
console.log(JSON.stringify(data, null, 4));
console.log(status);
return data;
} catch (error) {
if (axios.isAxiosError(error)) {
console.log('error message: ', error.message);
// 👇️ error: AxiosError<any, any>
return error.message;
} else {
console.log('unexpected error: ', error);
return 'An unexpected error occurred';
}
}
}
createUser();
We used the axios.post method to make an HTTP POST
request.
axios.post(url, data, config)
We passed the type of the expected response as a generic to the axios.post()
method.
const { data, status } = await axios.post<CreateUserResponse>(
'https://reqres.in/api/users',
{ name: 'John Smith', job: 'manager' },
{
headers: {
'Content-Type': 'application/json',
Accept: 'application/json',
},
},
);
Notice that we passed the request body as the second argument to the
post()
method.
axios.post(url, data, config)
We don’t have to pass the request body to the JSON.stringify()
method as axios
automatically takes care of this.
For demonstration purposes, we also included the third parameter which is the configuration for the HTTP request.
We included an object containing the request headers.
If your remote API requires authentication, you might need to set an Authorization
header that points to a JSON web token.
You can look at the other possible values in the request config by visiting the axios GitHub repository.
You commonly have to use the status
property from the response to check what status code the server responded with.
response_schema.js
{
// `data` is the response from the server
data: {},
// `status` is the HTTP status code from the server response
status: 200,
// `statusText` is the HTTP status message from the server response
statusText: 'OK',
// `headers` the HTTP headers that the server responded with
// All header names are lowercase and can be accessed using the bracket notation.
// Example: `response.headers['content-type']`
headers: {},
// `config` is the config that was provided to `axios` for the request
config: {},
// `request` is the request that generated this response
request: {}
}
Making HTTP PATCH requests with Axios in TypeScript
Let’s look at an example HTTP PATCH
request made with axios
in TypeScript.
import axios from 'axios';
type UpdateUserResponse = {
name: string;
job: string;
updatedAt: string;
};
async function updateUser() {
try {
// 👇️ const data: UpdateUserResponse
const { data } = await axios.patch<UpdateUserResponse>(
'https://reqres.in/api/users/2',
{ name: 'John Smith', job: 'manager' },
{
headers: {
'Content-Type': 'application/json',
Accept: 'application/json',
},
},
);
console.log(JSON.stringify(data, null, 4));
return data;
} catch (error) {
if (axios.isAxiosError(error)) {
console.log('error message: ', error.message);
// 👇️ error: AxiosError<any, any>
return error.message;
} else {
console.log('unexpected error: ', error);
return 'An unexpected error occurred';
}
}
}
updateUser();
The axios.patch method is very similar to axios.post
and takes the same 3
parameters:
- The URL
- The request body
- The request config object
axios.patch(url, data, config)
The HTTP PATCH method is usually used to update a resource.
const { data } = await axios.patch<UpdateUserResponse>(
'https://reqres.in/api/users/2',
{ name: 'John Smith', job: 'manager' },
{
headers: {
'Content-Type': 'application/json',
Accept: 'application/json',
},
},
);
The signature of the axios.patch
method is the same as axios.post
.
The method takes the data as the second argument and automatically converts it to JSON, so we don’t have to use the JSON.stringify()
method manually.
We only destructured the data
property from the response in the examples, but you might have to use other properties from the response.
You can look at the other possible values in the request config by visiting the axios GitHub repository.
response_schema.js
{
// `data` is the response from the server
data: {},
// `status` is the HTTP status code from the server response
status: 200,
// `statusText` is the HTTP status message from the server response
statusText: 'OK',
// `headers` the HTTP headers that the server responded with
// All header names are lowercase and can be accessed using the bracket notation.
// Example: `response.headers['content-type']`
headers: {},
// `config` is the config that was provided to `axios` for the request
config: {},
// `request` is the request that generated this response
request: {}
}
Making HTTP PUT requests with Axios in TypeScript
For completeness’ sake, let’s look at an example HTTP PUT
request made with axios
in TypeScript.
I’ll post the entire code snippet and then we’ll go over it.
import axios from 'axios';
type UpdateUserResponse = {
name: string;
job: string;
updatedAt: string;
};
async function updateUser() {
try {
// 👇️ const data: UpdateUserResponse
const { data } = await axios.put<UpdateUserResponse>(
'https://reqres.in/api/users/2',
{ name: 'John Smith', job: 'manager' },
{
headers: {
'Content-Type': 'application/json',
Accept: 'application/json',
},
},
);
console.log(JSON.stringify(data, null, 4));
return data;
} catch (error) {
if (axios.isAxiosError(error)) {
console.log('error message: ', error.message);
// 👇️ error: AxiosError<any, any>
return error.message;
} else {
console.log('unexpected error: ', error);
return 'An unexpected error occurred';
}
}
}
updateUser();
The only thing that changed in the code sample is that instead of using axios.patch
, we used axios.put.
axios.put(url, data, config)
The axios.put
method is very similar to axios.patch
and both methods share the same signature.
const { data } = await axios.put<UpdateUserResponse>(
'https://reqres.in/api/users/2',
{ name: 'John Smith', job: 'manager' },
{
headers: {
'Content-Type': 'application/json',
Accept: 'application/json',
},
},
);
Making HTTP DELETE requests with Axios in TypeScript
Let’s look at an example HTTP DELETE
request made with axios
in TypeScript.
import axios from 'axios';
type DeleteUserResponse = '';
async function deleteUser() {
try {
// 👇️ const data: UpdateUserResponse
const { data, status } = await axios.delete<DeleteUserResponse>(
'https://reqres.in/api/users/2',
{
headers: {
Accept: 'application/json',
},
},
);
console.log('response is: ', data);
// 👇️ response status is: 204
console.log('response status is: ', status);
return data;
} catch (error) {
if (axios.isAxiosError(error)) {
console.log('error message: ', error.message);
// 👇️ error: AxiosError<any, any>
return error.message;
} else {
console.log('unexpected error: ', error);
return 'An unexpected error occurred';
}
}
}
deleteUser();
The API I’m using in the examples sends an empty string as a response for an HTTP
delete request.
Most APIs return a
204
“No Content” status when an HTTP Delete request is made.
You can check if the response is not empty before trying to access any properties.
Some APIs send back an empty response on HTTP DELETE requests and others send back the deleted item.
The 2 parameters the axios.delete method takes are the URL and the request config object.
axios.delete(url, config)
We only destructured the data
property from the response in the examples, but you might have to use other properties from the response.
You can look at the other possible values in the request config by visiting the axios GitHub repository.
response_schema.js
{
// `data` is the response from the server
data: {},
// `status` is the HTTP status code from the server response
status: 200,
// `statusText` is the HTTP status message from the server response
statusText: 'OK',
// `headers` the HTTP headers that the server responded with
// All header names are lowercase and can be accessed using the bracket notation.
// Example: `response.headers['content-type']`
headers: {},
// `config` is the config that was provided to `axios` for the request
config: {},
// `request` is the request that generated this response
request: {}
}
If you’d rather use the built-in fetch module to make HTTP requests in TypeScript, check out the following article.