npm body parser - estermer/ericstermer.com GitHub Wiki

Body Parser

is a middleware to translate the request.body of server POST route to turn into an Object. It does this by looking at a request, checking if it has a 'body', and turns the body into an object and adds it to a key called 'body' that can be accessed by don notation on the request object.

for example:

//Without Body Parser

app.post('/', function(request, response){
   console.log(req.body); //will output undefined
});

//With Body Parser

app.post('/', function(request, response){
   console.log(req.body); //will output {key: value}
});

This will allow us to access the information coming from form with DOT notation req.body.key

So if a form set up like this:

<form method="POST" action="/">
	<div>
		<label for="description">Description:</label>
		<input name="description">
	</div>
	<div>
		<label for="description">Description:</label>
		<span>yes</span><input type="radio" name="urgent" value="true" checked>
		<span>no</span><input type="radio" name="urgent" value="false">
	</div>
	<div>
		<input type="submit" value="Add ToDo">
	</div>
</form>

Then we can access the data in a POST in the server like so:

app.post('/', function (req,res) {
        console.log(req.body.description);//outputs text from the description input
        console.log(req.body.urgent);// outputs true or false
        //the keys are the 'name' in the input form
	res.redirect('/');
});

To set up Body Parser

run npm install --save body-parser require it in the top of you server.js var bodyParser = require('body-parser'); then declare use at the top as well app.use(bodyParser.urlencoded({extended: true}));

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