API Response Compression in NodeJS (Express) and Go (Echo)

For API response which have big response size we could reduce its size by using compression. Requesting HTTP request with the ‘Accept-Encoding’ Header the server can response in compressed output in supported encoding

Example of NodeJS/Express simulating huge response (~550k bytes)

const express = require(‘express’);
const app = express();
app.get(‘/’, function(req, res) {
    res.send(‘hello world’.repeat(50000));
});
app.listen(3000, function(err) {
    if (err) console.log(err);
    console.log(“Server listening on PORT 3000”);
});

Counting response in bytes with wc command before adding compression

To compress response in NodeJS/Express we can add compression middleware which will handle ‘Accept-Encoding’

const express = require('express');
const app = express();
const compression = require('compression');
app.use(compression());
app.get('/', function(req, res) {
    res.send('hello world'.repeat(50000));
});
app.listen(3000, function(err) {
    if (err) console.log(err);
    console.log("Server listening on PORT 3000");
});

Counting response in bytes with wc command after adding compression

After adding compression middleware we can reduce output bytes to only 1115 bytes! (The size after compressed will vary base on the input pattern)

Example of Go with Echo simulating huge response

package main
import (
    "net/http"
    "strings"
    "github.com/labstack/echo/v4"
)
func main() {
    
    e := echo.New()
    e.GET("/", func(c echo.Context) error {
        return c.String(http.StatusOK, strings.Repeat("Hello world", 50000))
})
    
    e.Logger.Fatal(e.Start(":8080"))
}

Counting response in bytes with wc command before adding compression

Echo framework also support compression middleware.

package main
import (
    "net/http"
    "strings"
    "github.com/labstack/echo/v4"
    "github.com/labstack/echo/v4/middleware"
)
func main() {
    e := echo.New()
  
    e.Use(middleware.Gzip())
  
    e.GET("/", func(c echo.Context) error {
        return c.String(http.StatusOK, strings.Repeat("Hello world", 50000))
})
    e.Logger.Fatal(e.Start(":8080"))
}

Counting response in bytes with wc command after adding compression

References

Compression in HTTP - HTTP | MDN

compression

https://echo.labstack.com/middleware/gzip/