How to force parse request body as plain text instead of json in Express?

Question

I am using nodejs + Express (v3) like this:

app.use(express.bodyParser());
app.route('/some/route', function(req, res) {
  var text = req.body; // I expect text to be a string but it is a JSON
});

I checked the request headers and the content-type is missing. Even if "Content-Type" is "text/plain" it is parsing as JSON it seems.

Is there anyway to tell the middleware to always parse the body as a plain text string instead of as json? Earlier versions of req used to have req.rawBody that would get around this issue but now it does not anymore.

What is the easiest way to force parsing of the body as plain text/string in Express?

score 50 · Answer 1 · edited Jul 21 '16 at 20:36

50

By default bodyParser.text() handles only text/plain. Change the type options to include */json or */*.

app.use('/some/route', bodyParser.text({type: '*/*'}), function(req, res) {
  var text = req.body; // I expect text to be a string but it is a JSON
});

//or more generally:
app.use(bodyParser.text({type:"*/*"}));

You can find the docs here

edited Jul 21 '16 at 20:36

Charlie

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answered May 07 '15 at 11:19

Raghu

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was using `application/text` instead of `text/plain`. Thanks for pointing that out! – yashhy Apr 18 '17 at 18:27
Is there a way so tell `bodyParser` not to generate an empty object body when there is no body in the request? – Carl G Aug 26 '17 at 15:30
Would parsing json with `.text()` even work? Isn't that what `.json()` is for? – Drazen Bjelovuk Jun 18 '18 at 17:06
This is the real answer to the question – Jaime Aug 06 '20 at 19:32

score 41 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 27 '14 at 18:14

41

In express 4.x you can use the text parser from bodyParser https://www.npmjs.org/package/body-parser

just add in app.js

app.use(bodyParser.text());

Also in the desired route

router.all('/',function(req,res){
    console.log(req.body);

})

answered Nov 27 '14 at 18:14

Nacho

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JP Richardson · Accepted Answer · 2012-09-10T15:46:30.407

If you remove the use of the bodyParser() middleware, it should be text. You can view the bodyParser docs for more info: http://www.senchalabs.org/connect/middleware-bodyParser.html

Remove this line:

app.use(express.bodyParser());

EDIT:

Looks like you're right. You can create your own rawBody middleware in the meantime. However, you still need to disable the bodyParser(). Note: req.body will still be undefined.

Here is a demo:

app.js

var express = require('express')
  , http = require('http')
  , path = require('path')
  , util = require('util');

var app = express();

function rawBody(req, res, next) {
  req.setEncoding('utf8');
  req.rawBody = '';
  req.on('data', function(chunk) {
    req.rawBody += chunk;
  });
  req.on('end', function(){
    next();
  });
}

app.configure(function(){
  app.set('port', process.env.PORT || 3000);
  app.use(rawBody);
  //app.use(express.bodyParser());
  app.use(express.methodOverride());
  app.use(app.router);
});

app.post('/test', function(req, res) {
  console.log(req.is('text/*'));
  console.log(req.is('json'));
  console.log('RB: ' + req.rawBody);
  console.log('B: ' + JSON.stringify(req.body));
  res.send('got it');
});

http.createServer(app).listen(app.get('port'), function(){
  console.log("Express server listening on port " + app.get('port'));
});

test.js

var request = require('request');

request({
  method: 'POST',
  uri: 'http://localhost:3000/test',
  body: {'msg': 'secret'},
  json: true
}, function (error, response, body) {
  console.log('code: '+ response.statusCode);
  console.log(body);
})

Hope this helps.

That works - accepting your answer. Looks like since the formidable multi-part change they did not bother reimplementing rawBody in Express 3. I wonder if there is already a library that does those 7 lines of code for me... — pathikrit, Sep 10 '12 at 19:42
Any known methods to still have access to bodyParser and rawBody output? — Alan David Garcia, Jan 30 '13 at 22:58
This is GENIUS!!! your `rawBody` function worked where all others failed! Note to others: This makes the received string available on `req.rawBody` (NOT `req.body`). I tried `body-parser` and `express.text()` both with and without the NPM `cors` package, all of which failed to return a simple string. — Abel Wenning, Mar 14 '21 at 02:33
Nice solutions, but careful with that code when including this code as a middleware (tested express version 4.17.1), curl -X POST "myuri" -d "sdfsdf" => we never go in the on(data) or on(end) handler and it make the server hang (seems to be content-type relative). — Daphoque, Feb 06 '23 at 10:46

score 24 · Answer 4 · answered Aug 24 '19 at 20:26

24

Express understands by content-type how to decode a body. It must have specific decoders in middlewares, which is embedded into the library from 4.x:

app.use(express.text())
app.use(express.json())

answered Aug 24 '19 at 20:26

dimpiax

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, but I'm pretty sure these middle-wares were only added to the package in **v4.16.0** and later versions: https://github.com/expressjs/express/releases/tag/4.16.0 – joe Jul 13 '20 at 17:40

Leo Bastin · Answer 5 · 2020-03-26T13:04:12.520

Two important things to achieve this.

You need to add the text middleware in order to process text in the body
You need to set the content type by adding the right header "Content-type: text/plain" in the request

Here is the sample code for both.

const express = require('express');
const app = express();
const bodyParser = require('body-parser')
//This is the needed text parser middleware 
app.use(bodyParser.text()); 

app.post('/api/health/', (req, res) => {
    res.send(req.body);
});

const port = process.env.PORT || 3000;
app.listen(port, () => console.log(`Listening on ${port} ${new Date(Date.now())}`));

Save this as index.js.

Install dependencies.

npm i -S express 
npm i -S body-parser

Run it.

node index.js

Now send a request to it.

curl -s -XPOST -H "Content-type: text/plain" -d 'Any text or  json or whatever {"key":value}' 'localhost:3000/api/health'

You should be able to see it sending back whatever you posted.

score 3 · Answer 6 · answered Sep 01 '16 at 17:05

You can use the plainTextParser (https://www.npmjs.com/package/plaintextparser) middleware..

let plainTextParser = require('plainTextParser');
app.use(plainTextParser());

or

app.post(YOUR_ROUTE, plainTextParser, function(req, res) {             
  let text = req.text;

  //DO SOMETHING....
});

score 2 · Answer 7 · answered Jul 21 '17 at 16:41

I did it:

router.route('/')
.post(function(req,res){
    var chunk = '';

    req.on('data', function(data){
        chunk += data; // here you get your raw data.
    })        

    req.on('end', function(){

        console.log(chunk); //just show in console
    })
    res.send(null);

})

score 1 · Answer 8 · answered Jan 23 '18 at 01:58

1

Make sure the version of express and bodyParser has been upgraded to the appropriate versions. Express ˜4.x and bodyParser ˜1.18.x. That should do it. With that in place the following should work

app.use(bodyParser.text());

answered Jan 23 '18 at 01:58

crazyDiamond

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How to force parse request body as plain text instead of json in Express?

8 Answers8

EDIT:

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