How do I make a http post request in Node based off of a curl request?

Question

Paypal says to make the following curl request

  curl -v POST https://api-m.sandbox.paypal.com/v1/oauth2/token \
  -H "Accept: application/json" \
  -H "Accept-Language: en_US" \
  -u "CLIENT_ID:SECRET" \
  -d "grant_type=client_credentials"

However, I want to instead do that through an HTTP request. I tried the following:

const HTTP = require('http')
const data = JSON.stringify({
    paypalclientid:paypalsecretid,
    "grant_type": "client_credentials",
})
const options = {
    host: 'api-m.sandbox.paypal.com',
    port: 80,
    path: '/v1/oauth2/token',
    method: 'POST',
    headers: {
        'Accept': 'application/json',
        "Accept-Language": "en_US"
    }
}
const req = http.request(options, res => {
    console.log(`statusCode: ${res.statusCode}`)

    res.on('data', d => {
        process.stdout.write(d)
    })
})

req.on('error', error => {
    console.error(error)
})

req.write(data)
req.end()

and I got the following:

<HTML><HEAD>
<TITLE>Access Denied</TITLE>
</HEAD><BODY>
<H1>Access Denied</H1>
 
You don't have permission to access "http&#58;&#47;&#47;api&#45;m&#46;sandbox&#46;paypal&#46;com&#47;v1&#47;oauth2&#47;token" on this server.<P>
Reference&#32;&#35;18&#46;9ce33e17&#46;1609625956&#46;708d702f
</BODY>
</HTML>

That is what you get when you do a normal GET request.

curl help page: `-u, --user Server user and password`. You are passing it in the post body instead of as the HTTP user/password. — SuperStormer, Jan 02 '21 at 22:24
As a side note, I would recommend that you use a library for http requests, the default http module isn't exactly user friendly. I would recommend [node-fetch](https://github.com/node-fetch/node-fetch) since it implements the same api as browsers do. — Olian04, Jan 02 '21 at 22:29
Does this answer your question? [How to use http.client in Node.js if there is basic authorization](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3905126/how-to-use-http-client-in-node-js-if-there-is-basic-authorization) — Preston PHX, Jan 02 '21 at 22:37
In the curl request, `https` is used but you defined `port: 80` in `options`. The default port for `https` is `443`. — mottek, Jan 02 '21 at 22:43

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 02 '21 at 23:18

You need to base64 encode your credentials and send them along in an Authorization header.
You need to make the request over https.
You need to form encode the content.

Here's an example that works with a valid user and pass:

const https = require('https')

const data = `grant_type=client_credentials`;
const user = 'your client id';
const pass = 'your secret';
const authorization = `Basic ` + Buffer.from(`${user}:${pass}`).toString(`base64`);

const options = {
  hostname: 'api.paypal.com',
  port: 443,
  path: '/v1/oauth2/token',
  method: 'POST',
  headers: {
    'Authorization': authorization,
    'Content-Type': 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded',
    'Content-Length': data.length
  },
}

const req = https.request(options, res => {
  console.log(`statusCode: ${res.statusCode}`)

  res.on('data', d => {
    process.stdout.write(d)
  })
})

req.on('error', error => {
  console.error(error)
})

req.write(data)
req.end()

Well no need to base64 encode strings yourself and build a basic authorization header when using a request library that will do it for you with one line. Also the new `api-m` endpoints are faster — Preston PHX, Jan 02 '21 at 23:31

Preston PHX · Answer 2 · 2021-01-02T23:34:47.553

0

Seems you need basic authentication:

const options = {
    auth: 'CLIENT_ID:SECRET',
    ...

You should also be using port 443 (HTTPS), as well as:

    'Content-Type': 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded'

for this particular token request (almost all other PayPal REST endpoints take application/json)

edited Jan 02 '21 at 23:34

answered Jan 02 '21 at 22:43

Preston PHX

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How do I make a http post request in Node based off of a curl request?

2 Answers2