Parsing data operations are frequently performed in software development applications. Today, many software development applications obtain data from third-party services. These third-party services can be RESTful API, GraphQL API, OData API, and more. The data obtained from these services are mostly in JSON or XML format, the most used data transfer format recently. However, in some applications, data is sent in JSON format but in string type.
Usually, at this point, data parsers, like a data parsing tool, parse this data into JSON format. In this way, developers can now use this string type data as a meaningful and structured JSON. In this article, we will develop a step-by-step RESTful API JSON data parser application with Node.js, the programming language frequently used in today’s software development applications.
Table of Contents
How to Develop a JSON Data Parser App With Node.js
In this section, we will develop a JSON data parsing application with the Node.js programming language.
Choose a RESTful API
Before we start developing the application, we need a RESTful API that will provide us with the JSON data that we will parse. For this data, we will use the numverify API, which is one of the most popular among the 90+ free APIs listed on APILayer. The numverify API offers us a unique RESTful API with which we can verify phone numbers of 232 countries. Moreover, it provides this service free of charge.
To use the numverify API, we first need to have an API key. To use this API free, let’s sign up for the free subscription plan offered by numverify and get an API key.
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Create a Node.js Project
In this step, we will create our project to develop a parsing data application with Node.js. For this, ‘Node’ must be installed on your computer.
To create a Node.js project, let’s run the following command in a terminal and proceed with the default settings.
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npm init |
Then let’s open a file named ‘index.js’ in the file path we created this command.
Install Libraries
We need a library to make HTTP requests to the numverify API with our Node.js application. We will also need the express library to develop a web application. For this, let’s open a terminal in the file path where the application is located and run the following command.
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npm i express isomorphic-fetch |
Write Codes
Now we can start developing our app. Let’s put the following codes in the file we created:
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const express = require('express'); const fetch = require('isomorphic-fetch'); const app = express(); const port = 3000; app.get('/validate', (req, res) => { const { number } = req.query; const url = `http://apilayer.net/api/validate?access_key=YOUR-API-KEY&number=${number}`; fetch(url) .then(response => response.json()) .then(data => { const { valid, location, carrier } = data; res.json({ valid, location, carrier }); }) .catch(error => { console.error('Error:', error); res.status(500).json({ error: 'An error occurred' }); }); }); app.listen(port, () => { console.log(`Server is running on port ${port}`); }); |
The API we created with this application will get a phone number in the client, then query the data of this phone number from the numverify API and get a JSON output in an unformatted type. Finally, it will parse the response provided by the numverify into “.then(response => response.json())” JSON and print the desired fields to the console of the application.
Let’s run the following command to run the application:
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node index.js |
Test
We will use Postman, the most popular API testing tool of recent times, to test our developed application. First, open the Postman application and put ‘http://localhost:3000/validate?number=14158586273‘ in the ‘Enter request URL’ field. Then, select the request type GET and press the ‘Send’ button. The response we get as a result of this request will be like the one below.
json response of the node.js parsing data application
What Are the Use Cases of the Data Parsing?
Today, there are many use cases where developers and businesses perform data parsing operations. The popular ones among these use cases are as follows:
- Data Integration: Data parsing is used to exchange data between different systems. For example, developers can make that data available by parsing API responses or database records when one application needs to share data with another application.Get all the details about REST API integration.
- Data Analysis: Data parsing is used to analyze and understand large amounts of data. In data analytics and data mining projects, parsing is important to analyze data from data sources.
- Data Conversion: Data parsing is used to convert data from one format or structure to another format or structure. For example, developers parse to save data coming in a specific format, such as XML or JSON, into the database or, conversely, to use the data from the database in an API response.
- Data Cleaning and Validation: Data parsing is used to clean and validate data from data sources. Segregation processes are performed to detect data errors, correct missing or incorrect information, and ensure data compatibility.
Conclusion
In summary, data parsing is preferred for many reasons today, such as data integration, data analysis, and data transformation. Today, it is possible to handle parsing data operations with Node.js in just a few steps and to work with structured data.
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FAQs
Q: What Is Parsing Data in JSON in Node.js?
A: In Node.js, JSON parsing is, in short, the process of converting a JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) string to a JavaScript object. This operation is used to extract and access certain data from the JSON response received from a REST API.
Q: How Do I Parse a JSON Response in Node.js?
A: You can use the JSON.parse() method to parse a JSON response in Node.js. This method takes a JSON string as input and returns it as a JavaScript object.
Q: How Can I Parse a JSON Response Using the Fetch Library in Node.js?
A: You can easily use the response.json() method to parse a JSON response in Node.js using the fetch module. This method resides in the ‘response’ object returned by the fetch function and parses the response body into JSON format.
Q: How can I Access Certain Data From a Parsed JSON Response in Node.js?
A: After parsing the JSON response into a JavaScript object, you can access certain data using either dot notation (responseObject.propertyName) or square bracket notation (responseObject[‘propertyName’]).
