Expand the list with some new replacements

[outslept]

1. querystring

Current Status: Deprecated.
Author Message: "The querystring API is considered Legacy. New code should use the URLSearchParams API instead."

Replacement: URLSearchParams API.

Reference: npmjs [1], also an indication in the README of the repository [2]

Package Using querysting

• @redux-devtools/remote (Last Month Downloads: ~28,000)
• node-quickbooks (Last Month Downloads: ~140,000)
• enigma.js (Last Month Downloads: ~70,000)

2. request

Current Status: Deprecated.
Author Message: "The most valuable thing request can do for the JavaScript ecosystem is to go into maintenance mode and stop considering new features or major releases."

Reference: Issue [1]

Replacement:

Feature	request	Modern Replacement
Basic GET	request(url, callback)	await fetch(url)
Basic POST	request.post(url)	fetch(url, {method: 'POST'})
Streaming Download	request(url).pipe(fs.createWriteStream())	pipeline(response.body, fs.createWriteStream())
URL-encoded Forms	request.post(url, {form: data})	fetch(url, {body: new URLSearchParams(data)})
Multipart Forms	request.post(url, {formData: data})	fetch(url, {body: new FormData()})
JSON Body	request({url, json: true})	await fetch(url).then(r => r.json())
Custom Headers	request({headers: {...}})	fetch(url, {headers: {...}})
Basic Auth	request.get(url).auth(user, pass)	fetch(url, {headers: {'Authorization': 'Basic ' + btoa(user + ':' + pass)}})
Bearer Auth	request.get(url).auth(null, null, true, token)	fetch(url, {headers: {'Authorization': 'Bearer ' + token}})
Query Parameters	request({qs: {key: 'value'}})	new URL(url).searchParams.set('key', 'value')
Cookies	request({jar: true})	fetch(url, {credentials: 'include'})
Redirects	request({followRedirect: false})	fetch(url, {redirect: 'manual'})
Timeouts	request({timeout: 1000})	AbortController + setTimeout
Proxy	request({proxy: 'http://....'})	fetch(url, {agent: new HttpsProxyAgent()})
SSL/TLS Options	request({cert: fs.readFileSync()})	fetch(url, {agent: new https.Agent({cert: ...})})
Gzip/Deflate	request({gzip: true})	fetch(url)
Custom CA	request({ca: fs.readFileSync()})	fetch(url, {agent: new https.Agent({ca: ...})})
Keep-Alive	request({forever: true})	fetch(url, {agent: new http.Agent({keepAlive: true})})

Note

I haven't dived deep enough so the list at the top is not 100% feature coverage, but the cases here should cover up to trivial 90+% needs of previous request users. Also check out the article down below.

References:

1. Fetch API Standard: https://fetch.spec.whatwg.org/
2. Node.js Fetch: https://nodejs.org/api/globals.html#fetch
3. Fetch API: https://developer.mozilla.org/docs/Web/API/fetch
4. Node.js Streams: https://nodejs.org/api/stream.html
5. URLSearchParams: https://developer.mozilla.org/docs/Web/API/URLSearchParams
6. FormData API: https://developer.mozilla.org/docs/Web/API/FormData
7. RFC 7578 (Multipart Forms): https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc7578
8. Fetch Response: https://developer.mozilla.org/docs/Web/API/Response
9. Headers API: https://developer.mozilla.org/docs/Web/API/Headers
10. HTTP Authentication: https://developer.mozilla.org/docs/Web/HTTP/Authentication
11. RFC 7617 (Basic Auth): https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc7617
12. RFC 6750 (Bearer Auth): https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc6750
13. URL API: https://developer.mozilla.org/docs/Web/API/URL
14. AbortController: https://developer.mozilla.org/docs/Web/API/AbortController
15. Node.js HTTP Agent: https://nodejs.org/api/http.html
16. Node.js HTTPS: https://nodejs.org/api/https.html
17. TLS Options: https://nodejs.org/api/tls.html
18. HTTP Keep-Alive: https://nodejs.org/api/http.html

Also check this article for more possible replacements.

Package's npmjs

3. clamp

Current Status: Simple utility for clamping values.
Replacement: Could be inlined

// clamp:
const clamp = require('clamp');
console.log(clamp(10, 0, 5)); // 5

// native:
const clamp = (value, min, max) => 
  min < max
    ? Math.min(Math.max(value, min), max)
    : Math.min(Math.max(value, max), min);

console.log(clamp(10, 0, 5)); // 5

Package's npmjs

4. uniq

Current Status: Utility for removing duplicates from arrays.
Replacement: Native Set

// uniq:
const uniq = require('uniq');
const array = [1, 2, 2, 3, 4, 4, 5];
console.log(uniq(array)); // [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

// Set:
const array = [1, 2, 2, 3, 4, 4, 5];
const uniqueArray = [...new Set(array)];
console.log(uniqueArray); // [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

Package's npmjs

5. isomorphic-fetch & node-fetch

Warning

This needs further investigation, but it looks like this can be fully replaced with native fetch by now.

Package's npmjs (isomorphic fetch)
Package's npmjs (node-fetch)

According to caniuse:

"Since March 2017, this feature works across the latest devices and major browser versions (Learn more about Baseline)"
Reference

Also check out this thread

[outslept]

This came out more than I expected, if I find anything else I'll post it in a separate issue. Would love to hear community feedback on this.

[ljharb]

what's the native implementation for clamp?

[outslept]

what's the native implementation for clamp?

const clamp = (value, min, max) => Math.min(Math.max(value, min), max);

However, this doesn't handle the case when min > max.
For a more robust implementation that handles reversed ranges:

const clamp = (value, min, max) => 
  min < max
    ? Math.min(Math.max(value, min), max)
    : Math.min(Math.max(value, max), min);

This will be a 1:1 port of the mentioned dependency

[ljharb]

To be clear tho, that's not a native implementation, that's inlining the implementation of the function. A native implementation would be like Math.clamp().

[outslept]

To be clear tho, that's not a native implementation, that's inlining the implementation of the function. A native implementation would be like Math.clamp().

You're absolutely right with this point. I've chosen not the best terminology for this

[43081j]

this is a great list, really good detail

clamp is really the only non-obvious one since it is an inlining job rather than there being a native clamp function. but many of the JS community would still rather do that in the packages they maintain, so its still worth noting and actioning on. those who don't want that code inlined can keep clamp (it is a tiny package)

adding these to the replacements repo makes sense, but its probably also a good idea to open related issues in the cleanup repo. others in the community may be able to help us find high impact dependents we can start replacing these in