I am creating a web application using the REST Countries API (link given)
https://restcountries.com/.
The API gives json with the property borders, which is an array of strings giving the cca3 of the bordering countries. I would like to get the names of the countries too and so am making another request for that data. So far this is what I have come up with. But, the json returned from the first request is never changed. I don't know what is going on, if anybody could advice?
const dataAPI = 'https://restcountries.com/v3.1/'
router.get('/country/:code', (req, res, next) => {
const code = req.params.code
fetch(`${dataAPI}/alpha/${code}?fields=borders`)
.then(response => response.json())
.then(json => fetch(`${dataAPI}/alpha?codes=${json.borders.join()}&fields=cca3,name`))
.then(response => response.json())
.then(bordersJson => {
fetch(`${dataAPI}/alpha/${code}`)
.then(response => response.json())
.then(data => {
data.borders = bordersJson
res.send(data)
}).catch(err => next(err))
}).catch(err => next(err))
})
Async/await is a better approach for this case.
const dataAPI = 'https://restcountries.com/v3.1/'
router.get('/country/:code', async (req, res, next) => {
try {
const code = req.params.code;
const borderJSON = await fetch(`${dataAPI}/alpha/${code}?fields=borders`).then(response => response.json());
// response: {"borders":["BGD","BTN","MMR","CHN","NPL","PAK"]}
const codes = borderJSON.borders.join(',');
const cca3 = await fetch(`${dataAPI}/alpha?codes=${codes}&fields=cca3,name`)).then(response => response.json());
// [{"name":{...},"cca3":"BGD"},{"name":{...},"cca3":"PAK"}]
res.send(cca3);
} catch (err) {
next(err);
}
});
The reason the borders property was not replaced was that the API endpoint used returns an array with one object, not the object itself. Also, I found that finding the borders separately was unnecessary.
Final Solution
router.get('/country/:code', (req, res, next) => {
const code = req.params.code
fetch(`${dataAPI}/alpha/${code}`)
.then(response => response.json())
.then(json => {
json = json[0]
fetch(`${dataAPI}/alpha?codes=${json.borders.join()}&fields=cca3,name`)
.then(response => response.json())
.then(bordersJSON => {
json.borders = bordersJSON
res.send(json)
}).catch(err => next(err))
}).catch(err => next(err))
})