httpFetch(url, [options]) Last updated: 23. Jun 2026

API only function

Calls a URL and returns the full HTTP response — status code, response headers and the raw, unparsed body — unlike httpGet, which returns only the JSON-parsed body. Use it to inspect any web page or API: security headers, HTTP→HTTPS redirects, raw HTML, compression and timing. gzip/deflate/br bodies are decompressed automatically while the original content-encoding header is kept. On failure it returns { DoclyError: "..." } instead of throwing.

Parameters

Name	Type	Description
url	string	URL to call.
options (optional)	object	Specify any of the following options parameters:
• options	object	Request options (see the Options table below). All fields optional. Fields: method (string, default "GET") HTTP method (GET, HEAD, POST, PUT, DELETE, ...); headers (object) name/value object converted to HTTP request headers; body (string \| object) request body, objects are serialized to JSON; contentType (string, default "application/json") Content-Type used when a body is sent; followRedirects (bool, default true) follow 3xx redirects, set false to inspect the location header yourself (e.g. detect HTTP→HTTPS); timeoutMs (number, default 10000) request timeout in milliseconds, clamped to 1000–60000; maxBodyBytes (number, default 2000000) max body bytes returned, clamped to 1024–10000000, larger bodies are cut and truncated is set; blockPrivateNetworks (bool, default false) when true, blocks requests whose host resolves to a loopback / private / link-local address (SSRF guard), only the initial URL is checked, not each redirect hop.

Returns

Returns an object with the full response:

Field	Description
`ok`	`true` for 2xx status codes
`status`	HTTP status code
`statusText`	HTTP status text
`url`	Final URL (after redirects)
`redirected`	`true` if any redirect was followed
`timeMs`	Request duration in milliseconds
`headers`	Response headers (keys lower-cased)
`contentType`	Response Content-Type
`contentEncoding`	Original content-encoding header
`contentLength`	Content length
`truncated`	`true` if the body was cut to `maxBodyBytes`
`body`	Raw, unparsed response body

On error: { DoclyError }.

Example

Code example (JS)

JS is normal JavaScript either running in the browser or on the Docly™ server.

// Fetch a page with the full response (raw HTML + headers)
var r = docly.httpFetch("https://somewebsite.com", {
    followRedirects: true,
    timeoutMs: 10000
});
 
// Handle error
if (r.DoclyError) throw new Error(r.DoclyError);
 
// Inspect security headers (keys are lower-cased)
var hasHsts = !!r.headers["strict-transport-security"];
var hasCsp  = !!r.headers["content-security-policy"];
 
// Inspect the raw HTML body
var isWordPress = r.body.indexOf("wp-content") >= 0;
 
return JSON.stringify({
    status: r.status,
    timeMs: r.timeMs,
    hsts: hasHsts,
    csp: hasCsp,
    wordpress: isWordPress
});