experimenting elm-http issue: https://github.com/evancz/elm-http/issues/40

Http.fromJson.elm

import Html
import Html.App
import Html.Events
import Http
import Json.Decode as Json exposing ((:=))
import Task


url : String
url = "http://swapi.co/api/people/1/?format=json"


type alias Model =
  { content : String
  }

init : (Model, Cmd Msg)
init = (Model "", Cmd.none)



type Msg
  = Retrieve
  | RetrieveSuccess String
  | RetrieveFail Http.Error
  
  
update : Msg -> Model -> (Model, Cmd Msg)
update message model =
  case message of
    Retrieve ->
      (model, getData url)
      
    RetrieveSuccess content ->
      ({ model | content = content}, Cmd.none)
      
    RetrieveFail _ ->
      ({ model | content = "error"}, Cmd.none)
      
sendRequest : String -> Platform.Task Http.RawError Http.Response
sendRequest url =
  Http.send 
    Http.defaultSettings
    { verb = "GET"
    , headers = []
    , url = url
    , body = Http.empty
    }

getData : String -> Cmd Msg
getData url =
  Task.perform
    RetrieveFail
    RetrieveSuccess 
    (Http.fromJson ("name" := Json.string) (sendRequest url))


view : Model -> Html.Html Msg
view model =
  Html.div
    []
    [ Html.text ("result: " ++ model.content)
    , Html.br [] []
    , Html.button [ Html.Events.onClick Retrieve ] [ Html.text "Request data" ]
    ]
    
    
main = Html.App.program
  { init = init
  , view = view
  , update = update
  , subscriptions = \_ -> Sub.none
  }

Http.getString.elm

import Html
import Html.App
import Html.Events
import Http
import Json.Decode as Json exposing ((:=))
import Task


url : String
url = "http://swapi.co/api/people/1/?format=json"


type alias Model =
  { content : String
  }

init : (Model, Cmd Msg)
init = (Model "", Cmd.none)



type Msg
  = Retrieve
  | RetrieveSuccess String
  | RetrieveFail Http.Error
  
  
update : Msg -> Model -> (Model, Cmd Msg)
update message model =
  case message of
    Retrieve ->
      (model, getData url)
      
    RetrieveSuccess content ->
      ({ model | content = content}, Cmd.none)
      
    RetrieveFail error ->
      ({ model | content = "error"}, Cmd.none)
      

getData : String -> Cmd Msg
getData url =
  Task.perform RetrieveFail RetrieveSuccess (Http.getString url)
  

view : Model -> Html.Html Msg
view model =
  Html.div
    []
    [ Html.text ("result: " ++ model.content)
    , Html.br [] []
    , Html.button [ Html.Events.onClick Retrieve ] [ Html.text "Request data" ]
    ]
    
    
main = Html.App.program
  { init = init
  , view = view
  , update = update
  , subscriptions = \_ -> Sub.none
  }