Can't get POST body from request using Express.js

Question

I'm working on an API with NodeJS and Express (and more stuff like mongo, sockets, etc) but i'm stuck on a very simple step I believe. I'm just trying to get the information from the POST req object, but I get an error when trying to access req.body

Here's what I have:

var express     = require('express'),
    http        = require('http'),
    path        = require('path'),
    fs          = require('fs'),
    io          = require('socket.io');
    dynroute    = require('dynroute');

var app = express();
app.set('port', process.env.PORT || 3999);
app.use(express.favicon());
app.use(express.logger('dev'));
app.use(app.router);
app.use(express.bodyParser());

app.post('/user', function(req, res) {

    console.log(JSON.stringify(req.body));
    res.send(req.body.self);
});

http.createServer(app).listen(app.get('port'), function ()
{
    console.log('App Server is now running at:' + app.get('port'));     
});

On the console.log(JSON.stringify(req.body)); I get undefined and on the res.send(req.body.self); I get TypeError: Cannot read property 'self' of undefined

I've been seaching for this type of error and usually the issue is that people do not include app.use(express.bodyParser()); middleware , so I also tried using app.use(express.urlencoded()); and app.use(express.json());, which didn't work either.

If I do a console.log(req) I can see the entire object but I do not get to see body or any of the content I'm passing when doing the POST request from a client (I'm passing it as JSON).

**I know I could use restify or sails.js to build APIs within Node but i want to do everything myself so I can learn from the experience.*

Thanks

EDIT: I had to put the bodyparser middleware before the app.router middleware, that fixed it!

I would suggest posting information about how you're making the post request. If 'body' isn't being picked up by the req object then my first thought would be that the post request hasn't been successful. — Michael, Dec 04 '13 at 16:49
I'm using a Chrome App called Advanced Rest Client , i'm just doing a POST request to my URL passing `['user':'kevinblanco']` as the content with application/json as the content type header. — kevinblanco, Dec 04 '13 at 16:53
I wish there was a single version number of express, node, whatever indicated in this question (and its answers). I reckon it is now obsolete, because a problem like this hit me today, but only when the remote server returns status code 4xx. Express 4.13.1. BodyParser 1.13.2. And the accepted answer won't help. — Marco Faustinelli, Jan 06 '16 at 20:48

score 41 · Accepted Answer · answered Dec 04 '13 at 17:00

41

Move the bodyParser middleware above the router middleware!

var app = express();
app.set('port', process.env.PORT || 3999);
app.use(express.favicon());
app.use(express.logger('dev'));
app.use(express.bodyParser());
app.use(app.router);

answered Dec 04 '13 at 17:00

Renato Gama

16,431
12
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92

Glad to help you @kevinblanco - if this solves yor problem please accept the answer :)) – Renato Gama Dec 04 '13 at 17:17
6

If you want to avoid the annoying (but temporary) deprecation warning when you use bodyParser as of today, you can do this instead `app.use(express.urlencoded()); app.use(express.json());` which does the same thing. – jsplaine Dec 07 '13 at 04:22
A great thankz to renatoargh...i'm just went mad before i get into ur answer – Pradyumna Swain Feb 17 '14 at 12:43
And don't forget to call your server with `Content-Type: application/json` in the header or there will be no data at all in `req.body`. – Christiaan Westerbeek Mar 21 '14 at 07:59
I ran into this solution two minutes before quit for today. Thanks! – Jobsamuel Jun 09 '14 at 00:44
Finding **express.bodyParser()** was hard! – bmustata Apr 13 '15 at 08:05

score 18 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 14 '15 at 07:36

18

Content-Type = "application/json" should be one of the Request Headers

answered Aug 14 '15 at 07:36

Aakash

21,375
7
100
81

1

I don't know why you had a downvote.. Express 4.0 comes with all of the fixes listed above your comment so they were useless. While using a REST testing extension you MUST assign a Content-Type. Awesome stuff :) – Alex Boisselle Apr 29 '16 at 23:12
2

This turned out to be the case for me as well as using native fetch API in Google Chrome doesn't default content-type header to application/json so no body parsing ever occurred server side as incoming request must have been interpreted as text. – A-Dubb Jul 18 '17 at 14:49

score 5 · Answer 3 · answered May 07 '15 at 00:17

5

BodyParser is no longer bundled with Express

npm install body-parser
var bodyParser = require("body-parser");
app.use(bodyParser.urlencoded({ extended: false }));

answered May 07 '15 at 00:17

Tobias Artz

51
1
2

3

for parsing json bodies, add the following line: `app.use(bodyParser.json())` – Camilo Silva Nov 08 '15 at 02:53
As of jan '16 bug is still somewhere there. I am using Express 4.13.1. BodyParser 1.13.2. Only when status code is 4xx I cannot get the body: rendering of the error page fails and node server explodes. When status code is 2xx, no problem. Tried all solutions proposed in this page. That's weird! – Marco Faustinelli Jan 06 '16 at 20:51
I am using this with express 4.16.4 version this is not working for me app.use(bodyParser.urlencoded({extended: true})) app.use(bodyParser.json()) app.post('/user_create',(req,res)=>{ console.log("trying to create a user"); const firstName = req.body.create_first_name const lastName = req.body.create_last_name console.log("first name is "+firstName+" "+lastName); res.end() }) – Vivek Pratap Singh Feb 20 '19 at 20:01

score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Apr 17 '14 at 22:18

For me @kevinblanco's note of "I had to put the bodyparser middleware before the app.router middleware, that fix it!" did it for me. Putting it in a separate answer since its buried at the bottom.

Your code will need to look something like this:

app.use(favicon());
app.use(logger('dev'));
app.use(bodyParser.json());
app.use(bodyParser.urlencoded());
app.use(cookieParser());
app.use(express.static(path.join(__dirname, 'public')));

// My routing here

score 1 · Answer 5 · answered Jul 27 '20 at 19:17

1

Most of the above-listed answers are right but at present [28-July-2020] the most suitable one is to use inbuilt's of express i.e:

app.use(express.json());

This will act as a middleware to accept the incoming JSON object in your request's

answered Jul 27 '20 at 19:17

vishnu.dev

11
2

score 1 · Answer 6 · answered Jun 05 '21 at 05:23

1

in my case I have to add these two line to read post request body

app.use(express.json());

// add this middleware to read post request body
app.use(express.text());

answered Jun 05 '21 at 05:23

Wisnu Wijokangko

1,482
1
13
15

Yudi Tjhia · Answer 7 · 2020-02-13T05:51:53.880

In Golang, you can set Content-Type as application/json before doing POST http client request to nodejs express router:

//Golang
import (    
    "bytes"
    "encoding/json"
    "errors"    
    "net/http"      
)

//method := "POST"
//url := "http://ip:port/api/router"

func request(method string, url string, data interface{}, pHeader map[string]string) {
    pBody, err := json.Marshal(data)
    if err != nil {
        return []byte{}, err
    }
    request, err = http.NewRequest(method, url, bytes.NewBuffer(pBody))
    if(err!=nil ){
        return []byte{}, err
    }
    request.Header.Set("Content-Type", "application/json")

    //add header params if any
    for key, head := range pHeader {
        request.Header.Add(key, head)
    }

    client := &http.Client{}
    resp, err := client.Do(request)
    if err != nil {
       return []byte{}, err
    }
    defer resp.Body.Close() 
}

//NODEJS

//app.js
var express = require('express');
...

var app = express();
app.use(express.json());


var router= require('path/to/router.js');
//use the router
app.use('/api', router);
...

//router.js    
router.post('/router', function (req, res, next) {
    //log request body to view its values of incoming request
    console.log('req.body', req.body)
})

score 0 · Answer 8 · answered Jul 19 '20 at 19:40

0

Express has an inbuilt method for recognizing JSON objects from POST requests coming from the client end. Instead of using body-parser you can use this in your index.js file:

app.use(express.json());

answered Jul 19 '20 at 19:40

Sebastian Gomes

775
9
12

score 0 · Answer 9 · answered Feb 17 '22 at 18:20

0

You must install bodyParser and then use it on your app like this:

// middlewares
app.use(bodyParser.json());
app.use(sucursalRoutes);
app.use(express.urlencoded({ extended: true }));
app.use(express.json());

Hope this have helped you.

answered Feb 17 '22 at 18:20

Gabriel Bastidas

29
3

score 0 · Answer 10 · answered Apr 10 '23 at 10:00

0

You don't need bodyParser. Simply add the following lines -

app.use(express.urlencoded({ extended: true }));
app.use(express.json());

answered Apr 10 '23 at 10:00

Abhinav Manchanda

6,546
3
39
46

Can't get POST body from request using Express.js

10 Answers10