NPM Downloads

This project provides a REST API to fetch and aggregate download counts for NPM packages over a specified date range. The API handles the limitations of the NPM download counts endpoint by breaking large date ranges into smaller chunks.

Limitations of NPM's Download Counts API

NPM's download counts API has the following limitations:

• Date Range Limitation: The API does not support querying download counts over long date ranges in a single request. This is due to constraints on the maximum period for which data can be retrieved in one call.
• Rate Limiting: The API has rate limits that can affect how frequently data can be fetched.

How These Limitations Are Addressed

1. Chunking Date Ranges: To handle the date range limitation, the date range is divided into smaller chunks (up to 18 months each by default). This ensures that each API request only covers a manageable time period, allowing us to aggregate data over the full range by making multiple requests.
2. Retry Logic: Implemented retry logic with exponential backoff to handle occasional failures due to rate limiting or network issues. This ensures robustness and reliability of the data fetching process.

API Endpoint

Fetch Download Counts

Endpoint: /api/download-counts

Method: GET

Query Parameters:

• package: Comma-separated list of NPM package names.
• from: Start date in YYYY-MM-DD format.
• until: End date in YYYY-MM-DD format.

Example Request:

GET /api/download-counts?package=package1,package2&from=2022-04-01&until=2024-08-25

Response:

The response will include download counts for each package within the specified date range. It will also include the total download counts and sorted data by date.

Example Response:

{
  "package1": {
    "totalDownloads": 123456,
    "downloadsByDate": {
      "2022-04-01": 1000,
      "2022-04-02": 1200,
      // more date-wise counts
    }
  },
  "package2": {
    "totalDownloads": 654321,
    "downloadsByDate": {
      "2022-04-01": 1500,
      "2022-04-02": 1800,
      // more date-wise counts
    }
  }
}

Setup

Prerequisites

• Node.js (v16 or later)
• TypeScript

Installation

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/israfil-miya/npm-downloads
   

2. Navigate to the project directory:

   cd npm-downloads
   

3. Install dependencies:

   npm i -g pnpm
   pnpm i
   

4. Start the server:

   pnpm start
   

   The server will start on port 3000 (or the port specified in the PORT environment variable).

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to open issues or submit pull requests.