Node-fetch: Can I force gzip decode?

[teolag]

My request returns a gzip encoded response but the responding server does not set the content-encoding to gzip. Looking at the code, the automatic gzip decoding only activates if content-encoding is gzip or am I missing something. Is there a way to force enable the gzip decoding? Or am i stuck with having to decode the response with my own code?

[JefferyHus]

gzip is backend related, you have to send back headers to your front end. You can include however the content header but that's not a guarantee that it forces your server to gzip or encode the response if you have are not doing it properly. Just activate gzip in your web server.

[teolag]

The response is encoded, but the server I'm connecting to has forgotten to set the content-encoding header, so node-fetch don't believe the response is decoded. The server is out of my control otherwise I would just have enabled the header. Therefor I want a way to force node-fetch to decode the content, or trick it to believe it is encoded.

[JefferyHus]

In that case you have to use a gzip JS implementation to help you decompress the response

[JefferyHus]

Closing, because the issue is not related to node-fetch

[xxczaki]

@teolag That's right - when there is no `content-encoding header, node-fetch does not decode the response:

https://github.com/node-fetch/node-fetch/blob/0936a9af0a049eb05897779f3f0df6b903a95d60/src/index.js#L225

Right now there is no other way than handling the decompression yourself. I would highly recommend asking the server owner (if it's possible of course) to add this header. We might add an option to force the decoding in the future.