Discussion on: Do you use Axios or Fetch?

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There's one thing i find annoying when working with axios (the only module im using right now).
So i have a stack wich consists of a react web app + Node.js/Express REST api. Whenever i send a json response from my api and i need to read it in my front-end application i have to access it this way:

// response from api
// { success: true, data : [1,2,3,4,5,6,7] }

axios({...})
  .then((res) => {
     if ( res.success && res.data ) {
       //the data is in res.data.data
     }
  })

This thing happens because axios wraps all the response from the server inside response['data']. So if you're going to use the normal rest convention on your api responses you will need to access it like response['data']['data'] or like response.data.data .

Anwar • Aug 13 '19 • Edited

I just came into 2 things that should interest you (and me as well!) :

transformResponse

This is a configuration option in axios that can let us fix this behavior by returning the plain server response:

axios.get("/users", {
  transformResponse: [
    function(data) {
      return data.data;
    }
  ]
});

I find it a bit ugly to have an array of functions...

Interceptors response

Might be a more elegant way to fix it. Plus, you do not have to add it in your configuration for every request, it is done once and for all.

axios.interceptors.response.use(function (response) {
  return response.data;
});

I will try it and if it works, I might start using it again in my projects :)

António Avelar • Aug 14 '19

Thanks for your advice. That's a nice way of doing it.
I already use interceptors for listening for the 401 response status.

Although i said that's something annoying the verbosity of axios is at the same time where axios shines. We can take as an advantage the verbosity of the response and use it to enrich our logs

Jasterix • Aug 14 '19

I've been reading about Axios interceptors and it seems like a cool way to address not only HTTP errors but async problems that can pop up

António Avelar • Aug 19 '19

You're right! You can also use request interceptors to add custom headers like an authorization token in every single request, removing the need to write repetitive code

Gurkirat Singh • Nov 27 '20

You can use destructuring of the response object

// response from api
// { success: true, data : [1,2,3,4,5,6,7] }

axios({...})
  .then(({ body, ...res }) => {
     if ( body.success ) {
       console.log(body.data)  // [1,2,3,4,5,6,7]
     }
  })