Node.js: How to send headers with form data using request module?

Question

I have code like the following:

var req = require('request');

req.post('someUrl',
   { form: { username: 'user', password: '', opaque: 'someValue', logintype: '1'}, },
   function (e, r, body) {
      console.log(body);
});

How can I set headers for this? I need user-agent, content-type and probably something else to be in the headers:

headers = { 
   'User-Agent': 'Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/27.0.1453.110 Safari/537.36',
   'Content-Type' : 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded' 
};

I've tried in multiple ways but I can either send header or form-data, failed to send both.

score 210 · Accepted Answer · edited Mar 09 '16 at 11:12

210

I've finally managed to do it. Answer in code snippet below:

var querystring = require('querystring');
var request = require('request');

var form = {
    username: 'usr',
    password: 'pwd',
    opaque: 'opaque',
    logintype: '1'
};

var formData = querystring.stringify(form);
var contentLength = formData.length;

request({
    headers: {
      'Content-Length': contentLength,
      'Content-Type': 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded'
    },
    uri: 'http://myUrl',
    body: formData,
    method: 'POST'
  }, function (err, res, body) {
    //it works!
  });

edited Mar 09 '16 at 11:12

c24w

7,421
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answered Jul 09 '14 at 10:14

Mike G.

3,860
3
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throw new Error('undefined is not a valid uri or options object.') ^ Error: undefined is not a valid uri or options object. at request (C:\Users\pjt\node_modules\request\index.js:44:11) at Request._callback (C:\Users\pjt\routes\payment.js:170:11) at Request.self.callback (C:\Users\pjt\node_modules\request\request.js:186:22) at emitTwo (events.js:106:13) at Request.emit (events.js:194:7) at Request. (C:\Users\pjt\node_modules\request\request.js:1163:10) at emitOne (events.js:96:13) at Request.emit (events.js:191:7) – Tamilselvan K Mar 25 '18 at 08:33
This didn't work for me where the answer below which just sets an object to form did. – ozzieisaacs Jun 11 '18 at 15:35
1

its deprecated https://www.npmjs.com/package/request – Andriy Antonov Jan 15 '21 at 11:42

score 55 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 15 '13 at 19:15

55

This should work.

var url = 'http://<your_url_here>';
var headers = { 
    'User-Agent': 'Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.8; rv:24.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/24.0',
    'Content-Type' : 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded' 
};
var form = { username: 'user', password: '', opaque: 'someValue', logintype: '1'};

request.post({ url: url, form: form, headers: headers }, function (e, r, body) {
    // your callback body
});

answered Jun 15 '13 at 19:15

user606521

14,486
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204

Thanks, but seems in this case form data is not sent in a proper way. I have almost the same code in .Net and in case form data is sent I should not have login form in body and should have token. I'll post it here soon, probably it will help – Mike G. Jun 17 '13 at 06:32
2

`request` is deprecated... https://www.npmjs.com/package/request – Andriy Antonov Jan 15 '21 at 11:42

score 21 · Answer 3 · answered Oct 06 '16 at 21:47

I think it's just because you have forgot HTTP METHOD. The default HTTP method of request is GET.

You should add method: 'POST' and your code will work if your backend receive the post method.

var req = require('request');

req.post({
   url: 'someUrl',
   form: { username: 'user', password: '', opaque: 'someValue', logintype: '1'},
   headers: { 
      'User-Agent': 'Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/27.0.1453.110 Safari/537.36',
      'Content-Type' : 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded' 
   },
   method: 'POST'
  },

  function (e, r, body) {
      console.log(body);
  });

This is a better answer as it does not rely on stringify which makes it easier to read. — Keith John Hutchison, Nov 23 '16 at 23:55

score 10 · Answer 4 · edited Mar 27 '21 at 08:05

10

I found the solution to this problem and It should work. I'm sure about this because I also faced the same problem

here is my solution----->

var request = require('request');

//set url
var url = 'http://localhost:8088/example';

//set header
var headers = {
    'Authorization': 'Your authorization'
};

//set form data
var form = {first_name: first_name, last_name: last_name};

//set request parameter
request.post({headers: headers, url: url, form: form, method: 'POST'}, function (e, r, body) {

    var bodyValues = JSON.parse(body);
    res.send(bodyValues);
});

edited Mar 27 '21 at 08:05

dan1st

12,568
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answered Sep 11 '18 at 05:39

Chetna Joshi

141
1
10

1

i edited my answer please see and then say if any issue in that. thank you – Chetna Joshi Sep 11 '18 at 06:33
your answer is right and helped me too, but try to implement short code which explain the solution only – Amy Aug 12 '19 at 10:51

score 6 · Answer 5 · answered Nov 21 '19 at 18:07

Just remember set method to POST in options. Here is my code

var options = {
    url: 'http://www.example.com',
    method: 'POST', // Don't forget this line
    headers: {
        'Content-Type': 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded',
        'X-MicrosoftAjax': 'Delta=true', // blah, blah, blah...
        'User-Agent': 'Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/78.0.3904.97 Safari/537.36',
    },
    form: {
        'key-1':'value-1',
        'key-2':'value-2',
        ...
    }
};

//console.log('options:', options);

// Create request to get data
request(options, (err, response, body) => {
    if (err) {
        //console.log(err);
    } else {
        console.log('body:', body);
    }
});

Node.js: How to send headers with form data using request module?

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