A new idea when I'm writing #14952 , it is a proposal to try creating a Joomla.Http object to make our frontend programming more modern.

I dont't think it is necessary for Joomla CMS now since our controller didn't handle PUT and DELETE methods, but I still note a new idea here to consider maybe some developers may need this to call 3rd party APIs.

Interface

Use sendRequest() as main entry, it is similar to HttpPlug's HttpClient interface

Joomla.Http.sendRequest('GET', url, data, headers, options);

// Or use object options

Joomla.Http.sendRequest(requestOptions);

Should return a Promise object.

Joomla.Http.sendRequest(...).then(res => console.log(res.body));

For IE8, we can simply include a promise-polyfill.js or adapt jQuery.Deferred to Promise A/+ like this

Simple shortcuts

Joomla.Http.get(url, headers, options).then();
Joomla.Http.post(url, data, headers, options).then();
Joomla.Http.put(url, data, headers, options).then();
Joomla.Http.delete(url, data, headers, options).then();
Joomla.Http.head(url, data, headers, options).then();

Support auto inject the CSRF token:

Joomla.Http.defaultOptions.headers.post['X-CSRF-Token'] = token;

Extra Functions

These are not required but also list here.

Maybe support X-HTTP-Method-Override or _method=PUT query:

Joomla.Http.sendRequest({ emulateHTTP: true });

Or application/x-www-form-urlencoded

Joomla.Http.sendRequest({ emulateJSON: true });

By default, Joomla.Http should send all request as application/x-www-form-urlencoded because it is similar to jQuery.ajax() and we don't need to change the backend code.

Updated 2017-09-17

Another suggestion is that we can consider simply wrap axios or just include it in as js vendor since it is popular in frontend developers.