This high-level module accepts a URI string and returns a Readable stream instance. There is built-in support for a variety of "protocols", and it's easily extensible with more:

Install with npm:

$ npm install get-uri

To simply get a stream.Readable instance from a file: URI, try something like:

var getUri = require('get-uri');

// `file:` maps to a `fs.ReadStream` instance…
getUri('file:///Users/nrajlich/wat.json', function (err, rs) {
  if (err) throw err;
  rs.pipe(process.stdout);
});

When you pass in a URI in which the resource referenced does not exist on the destination server, then a NotFoundError will be returned. The code of the error instance is set to "ENOTFOUND", so you can special-case that in your code to detect when a bad filename is requested:

getUri('http://example.com/resource.json', function (err, rs) {
  if (err) {
    if ('ENOTFOUND' == err.code) {
      // bad file path requested
    } else {
      // something else bad happened...
      throw err;
    }
  }

  // your app code…
});

When calling getUri() with the same URI multiple times, the get-uri module supports sending an indicator that the remote resource has not been modified since the last time it has been retreived from that node process.

To do this, pass in a cache option to the "options object" argument with the value set to the stream.Readable instance that was previously returned. If the remote resource has not been changed since the last call for that same URI, then a NotModifiedError instance will be returned with it's code property set to "ENOTMODIFIED".

When the "ENOTMODIFIED" error occurs, then you can safely re-use the results from the previous getUri() call for that same URI:

// maps to a `fs.ReadStream` instance
getUri('http://example.com/resource.json', function (err, rs) {
  if (err) throw err;

  // … some time later, if you need to get this same URI again, pass in the
  // previous `stream.Readable` instance as `cache` option to potentially
  // receive an "ENOTMODIFIED" response:
  var opts = { cache: rs };
  getUri('http://example.com/resource.json', opts, function (err, rs2) {
    if (err) {
      if ('ENOTFOUND' == err.code) {
        // bad file path requested
      } else if ('ENOTMODIFIED' == err.code) {
        // source file has not been modified since last time it was requested,
        // so `rs2` is undefined and you are expected to re-use results from
        // a previous call to `getUri()`
      } else {
        // something else bad happened...
        throw err;
      }
    }
  });
});

A uri String is required. An optional options object may be passed in:

• cache - A stream.Readable instance from a previous call to getUri() with the same URI. If this option is passed in, and the destination endpoint has not been modified, then an ENOTMODIFIED error is returned

Any other options passed in to the options object will be passed through to the low-level connection creation functions (http.get(), ftp.connect(), etc).

Invokes the given callback function with a stream.Readable instance to read the resource at the given uri.

(The MIT License)

Copyright (c) 2014 Nathan Rajlich <[email protected]>

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the 'Software'), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED 'AS IS', WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.