Curriculum: Write up instructions for "HTTP request field day" exercise based on existing notes

[judytuna]

Write a topic outline here based on the following notes:

Do the same two requests over and over again six different ways! Why? Compare and contrast: how are they different? How are they similar?

1. Postman (a Mac app that’s a GUI for curl) (this should be trivial as they've been using it all week. start with something easy on purpose.)
   
   
   
   • at the end of the exercise, have them discover in the Postman GUI that there's a menu option to grab the request in curl syntax. what do we learn about Postman? it's probably a GUI for curl!
   
   
2. curl on the command line, in their terminal
3. XMLHttpRequest in raw javascript in a javascript console in a browser
   
   
   
   • to avoid CORS issues, don't use about:blank. instead, just hit localhost:3000/events in your browser and open a javascript console there. boom, same origin! =D
   
   
   • bonus reading about CORS: https://medium.com/netscape/hacking-it-out-when-cors-wont-let-you-be-great-35f6206cc646 (we aren't encouraging people to use a proxy at this time though. just read this for info)
   
   
4. window.fetch in that javascript console (just to see that it returns a promise)
   
   
   
   • explain that this is newer javascript
   
   
5. http.request in node (it comes with node), in the node repl
6. node-fetch in node, again in the node repl but after npm install --save node-fetch in the client project they're about to work on

Apprentices will look up the syntax (so this is also an exercise in searching for resources and separating signal from noise), with some hints, like "we told you this is an NPM module. where should the very first place you look for it be? answer: docs on npm, which will link to its github repo. example: https://www.npmjs.com/package/node-fetch and https://github.com/bitinn/node-fetch "

More discussion questions:

• What affordances to higher-level libraries give us? What does "higher-level library" mean?

A few "Additional Resources" that compare ways to make requests:

• Axios, Request (different from http.request), and http (the Node standard library): https://flaviocopes.com/node-http-post/
• old and long comment thread including examples with http.request, Request, Unirest, superagent, node-fetch, axios, http using stringbuilder, and more. Somehow convey that here's an example of "there are a million ways to do it," so it might take you some time and research to figure out the best way to do something for the current situation, and that's normal.
• http.request resources
  
  
  
  • http://shiya.io/send-http-requests-to-a-server-with-node-js/
  
  
  • https://itnext.io/how-to-handle-the-post-request-body-in-node-js-without-using-a-framework-cd2038b93190
  
  

For FAQs on how to contribute, see: https://github.com/Techtonica/curriculum#volunteering

[alodahl]

Will this be it’s own topic outline, @judytuna? Want me to make this issue volunteer-ready?

[pydevsg]

I would like to work on this issue @alodahl , after my PR gets merged.
Please do assign it to me.

[antislice]

Hi,
I'm not actively contributing at this time, if there's something specific
someone would like me to contribute to, please let me know via email and
not assigning github issues.

On Wed, Apr 10, 2019 at 6:29 PM Alina L. [e-mail] wrote:

Assigned #616 https://github.com/Techtonica/curriculum/issues/616 to
@antislice https://github.com/antislice.

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[pydevsg]

I have a doubt before making a PR , do I need to make a table comparision of the HTTP request or write just the code for the 6 different methods mentioned above?

[alodahl]

@pydevsg, write the directions for working on the different methods above.

A table to replace the image would be awesome! Have you ever made one with markdown?
https://github.com/adam-p/markdown-here/wiki/Markdown-Cheatsheet#tables

[pydevsg]

@alodahl I will write down the directions for different methods, make the table and come up with a PR, thanks for the guidance.

[saberprashant]

Hi @pydevsg , how are you doing on this one? Are you facing any difficulty? Please ask any mentor if you have any doubt.

[pydevsg]

@saberprashant , I will come up with the PR very soon. Thanks for the helping hands, if I face any issues I will surely tell you.

[alodahl]

@pydevsg are you still able to complete this issue?

[pydevsg]

Yes,I am in the midst trying to wrap it up as early as possible.

[alodahl]

Will you be able to finish this for gssoc?

[pydevsg]

Yes, I will due to semester exam I am unable to provide a PR, the content is ready.
Will grab up as early as possible.

[alodahl]

Hi Sudipto, is this something you would be willing to finish soon?

[pydevsg]

Yes, I will surely complete this very soon.
Sorry for the delay , I couldn't make this my semester exam is still going.
Please wait for few more time.
I will resolve and finish this issue.

[alodahl]

That's fine! When would you expect to be done?

[pydevsg]

It would be expected by next 2 days, sorry for the delay.

[alodahl]

Hi @pydevsg , how is the HTTP exercise coming?

[alodahl]

Hi @pydevsg , should I make this issue available to another volunteer? I haven't heard from you in a while.

[pydevsg]

Extremely sorry for the delay Mam, I gave taken the issue and will solve it .
Will soon do the PR.

[alodahl]

Hi @pydevsg , should I put this back in todo?

[vegetabill]

@alodahl I'm happy to work on this. Just making sure from the long comment thread that no one else is working on this or has WIP work?

[alodahl]

Thanks @vegetabill please do! Someone picked this up in the summer but never made a PR.

[vegetabill]

@alodahl sorry one more question. What separates this from api/apis-and-json.md or ajax/ajax.md? In there are the basics and fetch is covered. Is this additional background practice? Is it worked on before or after that one?

I'm mainly asking because this lesson appears under the API folder but I was trying to see if the apprentice knows HTTP basics at this point or I should link in more background. Note to self: see if b0rk would offer edu discounted copies of her zines. They are so awesome.

[alodahl]

Sorry for the delay, Bill. Yes, it is supposed to be an additional practice outline after Ajax and API s. The intention is to show the variety of ways apprentices might see requests in the wild and compare different syntaxes that do the exact same thing.

[vegetabill]

Done & Done & I mean Done