Fetch vs Axios in Javascript

#api #fetch #axios #webdev

Hello there ! 👋 In this blog, we are going to learn how to implement APIs by using Fetch API and Axios

Before we get started, the only pre-requisite needed for this tutorial is basic understanding of javascript.

Table of contents

What is fetch?
Syntax of fetch
What is axios?
Syntax for axios
Key differences b/w fetch and axios

What is Fetch ?

Fetch is a standard way of sending asynchronous api calls to the server in web applications. It is a feature of ECMASCRIPT6(ES6) and was introduced back in 2015.
The Fetch API provides a method called fetch () which is defined on the window object. It needs an argument which is the url of the endpoint (resource). This method returns a promise which is resolved to retrieve the response.

Let us see an example, where we are fetching some data from an endpoint

const fetchNames = ()=>{
   fetch("https://localhost:5000/api/names/")
      .then((res)=> res.json()) // successful req, change to json
      .then((data)=>{
       console.log(data); // data contains the json object
    })
     .catch(error=>{
       console.log(error); // something went wrong
    })
}

Note that, for Post request we also need to include the options
For example, we are sending a name with id to the server

const sendName=()=>{
    fetch("http://localhost:5000/api/user/", {
       // the method type 
       method : 'POST',
       // contents to send i.e., the body
       body: JSON.stringify({
        name : 'David',
        id:"1"
       }),
       // headers of the request
       headers:{
        'Content-type':'Application/json'  
       }
      })
      .then( res => res.json())
      .then( data=> console.log(data))
      .catch(error => console.log(error))
}

So, we know how fetch works. Now, let us see axios.

What is Axios?

Axios is a javascript library used to make HTTP requests from node js(runtime for javascript) or XMLHttpRequests (XHR) from the browser. This too supports the promise api that is native to ES6.

Example for showing how we can fetch data and post data using axios

 // get request
  const fetchNames = async()=>{
   // we are using asynchronous function so we need to await for 
   the req to be processed
   try{
     const response = await 
     axios.get('http://localhost:5000/api/names/');
     console.log(response.data)
   }catch(error){
      console.log(error);
  }
}

// post request
const postName = async()=>{
   // same as previous
   try{
      const response = await 
       axios.post('http://localhost:5000/api/users/',{
          name:'David',
          id:1
     });
     // log the data from the response 
      console.log(response.data);
   }catch(error){
     console.log(error); // something went wrong!
     }
}

Key differences between fetch and axios

Fetch	Axios
Fetch is built-in for most modern web browsers, so no installation is required	Axios is a stand-alone third party package (library) which requires installation
Fetch has no url in the request object	Axios has url in it's request object
It doesn't have XSRF (cross-site request forgery) protection	It has XSRF protection in-built
Request is made then the response is converted to json	Here, the response is automatically transformed to json
Request has body which is converted to string	Request has data which contains the object itself
Abort requests by using Abort controller web api	Has request-timeouts for cancelling requests or use AbortController

Hopefully, I have been able to clear the methods of making api calls to the server. If you have understood, then like the post, comment and share so that others can benefit from this.
Thank you for reading this far! Keep developing ! ❤❤

Top comments (11)

José Pablo Ramírez Vargas • Oct 12 '22

Quick note: fetch() can be aborted.

const abortC = new AbortController();
var responsePromise = fetch('http://longrunningrequest.example.com', { signal: abortC.signal });
setTimeout(() => abortC.abort(), 1000);