What is Axios in Nest.js?

Axios is a useful tool for sending requests to websites or web services using JavaScript. In Nest.js, Axios sends requests to external APIs or other online services. The Axios module for Nest.js acts as a bridge between Nest.js and Axios, making it easier to use Axios in our Nest.js applications. This module provides a service compatible with Nest.js, allowing us to send HTTP requests within our application.

To use Axios in our Nest.js application, we need to install it first using npm or yarn:

npm install axios @nestjs/axios # npm installation
yarn add axios @nestjs/axios    # yarn installation

After installation, we need to import the HttpModule from @nestjs/axios in our module:

import { Module } from '@nestjs/common';
import { HttpModule } from '@nestjs/axios';
import { AppController } from './app.controller';
@Module({
  imports: [HttpModule],
  controllers: [AppController],
})
export class AppModule {}

Now we can inject the HttpService provided by the HttpModule in our controller or service. Explore the code in the widget below and click the "Run" button to see the response:

import { NestFactory } from '@nestjs/core';
import { AppModule } from './app.module';

async function bootstrap() {
  const app = await NestFactory.create(AppModule);
  await app.listen(3000);
}
bootstrap();
Demo application

Code explanation

Let's see the code explanation for the main files of the demo application below:

The app.service.ts file

Line 1: We import the HttpService class from the @nestjs/axios module.

Lines 5–21: We define a new class AppService decorated with the @Injectable decorator.

  • Line 7: We define a constructor that injects an instance of the HttpService class into the service.

  • Lines 9–20: We define a new method getPosts() and it returns the API response.

    • Lines 10–11: We use the HttpService instance injected into the service to make a GET request to the URL https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/posts/1.

    • Line 13: We return the data property of the response object, which contains the response body from the API we called.

The app.controller.ts file

Lines 1–2: We import the Controller and Get decorators from the @nestjs/common module and the AppService class we created before.

Lines 4–13: We define a new class AppController decorated with the @Controller('/api') decorator.

  • Line 6: We define a constructor that injects an instance of the AppService class into the controller.

  • Lines 8–12: We define a new route handler getBlogPosts() for the GET HTTP method using the @Get('/posts') decorator, which returns the result of calling the getPosts() method.

Overall, this code defines a new controller for our Nest.js application that provides a route handler for the GET HTTP method. The route handler uses the AppService class, which uses HttpService, to make a GET request to an external API and return the response body.

Note: The @Post(), @Put(), and @Delete() decorators are used in defining a route handler for the HTTP POST, PUT, and DELETE methods, respectively.

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