One of the controller methods in my NestJS application is supposed to take plain text as its body but whenever I try to make a request, the parameter is received as an empty object. Is this even possible or am I going to have to create some sort of DTO to pass that single string?
Example:
@Post()
myFunction(@Body() id: string) {
// do something here
}
I see that this question is pretty old, but it is listed in google among first, so I want to add answer here.
If you don't want to add body-parser middleware (for example, you want plain text only in single controller method), you can use raw-body (which is already exists in your node_modules), something like this:
import * as rawbody from 'raw-body';
import { Controller, Post, Body, Req } from '@nestjs/common';
@Controller('/')
export class IndexController {
@Post()
async index(@Body() data, @Req() req) {
// we have to check req.readable because of raw-body issue #57
// https://github.com/stream-utils/raw-body/issues/57
if (req.readable) {
// body is ignored by NestJS -> get raw body from request
const raw = await rawbody(req);
const text = raw.toString().trim();
console.log('body:', text);
} else {
// body is parsed by NestJS
console.log('data:', data);
}
// ...
}
}
you could also create new parameter decorator
import * as rawbody from 'raw-body';
import { createParamDecorator, HttpException, HttpStatus } from '@nestjs/common';
export const PlainBody = createParamDecorator(async (data, req) => {
if (req.readable) {
return (await rawbody(req)).toString().trim();
}
throw new HttpException('Body aint text/plain', HttpStatus.INTERNAL_SERVER_ERROR);
});
and use it like
@Post()
async index(@PlainBody() text: string) {
// ...
(I didn't check decorator code, wrote it right here in comment)
Adding on @yumaa's post above
Here's the working decorator with NestJS v7.0.8:
import { createParamDecorator, ExecutionContext, BadRequestException } from '@nestjs/common';
import * as rawBody from "raw-body";
export const PlainBody = createParamDecorator(async (_, context: ExecutionContext) => {
const req = context.switchToHttp().getRequest<import("express").Request>();
if (!req.readable) { throw new BadRequestException("Invalid body"); }
const body = (await rawBody(req)).toString("utf8").trim();
return body;
})
Just register a text parser dynamically in NestJS on the fly.
You can use the rawBody: true option as documented in the FAQ section (https://docs.nestjs.com/faq/raw-body#raw-body). However, please note that by default, only the jsonParser and urlencodedParser are registered. If you want to register a different parser, you will need to do so explicitly.
Example:
main.ts:
import { NestFactory } from '@nestjs/core';
import type { NestExpressApplication } from '@nestjs/platform-express';
const app = await NestFactory.create<NestExpressApplication>(module, {
rawBody: true
});
app.useBodyParser('text')
my.controller.ts:
import { Controller, Post, RawBodyRequest, Req } from '@nestjs/common';
import { Request } from 'express';
@Post()
async post(@Req() req: RawBodyRequest<Request>) {
console.log(req.rawBody?.toString('utf-8') ?? '')
}
The semantics of a post request are determined by the header that indicates the content type. Try making sure the request header has the type 'text/plain' and see of this helps.
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Methods/POST
Nest is not compatible with plain/text and you must pass a bodyparser to your express app instead. Try something like this:
import * as bodyParser from 'body-parser';
async function bootstrap() {
const app = await NestFactory.create(AppModule);
app.use(bodyparser({ ...options })) // for plain/text bodies
await app.listen(3000)
}
bootstrap();
where options is created from https://www.npmjs.com/package/body-parser
Old question but none of the above worked for me but the following did:
The above decorator or controller-method approaches did not work for me as the request body buffer had always already been read.
I was able to get it working using the following middleware. (Note in my case I needed to validate a Xero webhook so the example is geared towards that)
cache-raw-body-on-request.ts:
import { json } from 'body-parser';
import * as cloneBuffer from 'clone-buffer';
export const cachedRawBodyRequestKey = 'rawBodyBuffer';
/**
* Clones the request buffer and stores it on the request object for reading later
*/
export const cacheRawBodyOnRequest = json({
verify: (req: any, res, buf, encoding) => {
// only clone the buffer if we're receiving a Xero webhook request
if (req.headers['x-xero-signature'] && Buffer.isBuffer(buf)) {
req[cachedRawBodyRequestKey] = cloneBuffer(buf);
}
return true;
},
});
main.ts:
app.use(cacheRawBodyOnRequest);
controller:
const textBody = req[cachedRawBodyRequestKey].toString('utf-8');
This is my take on getting the raw(text)body in NestJS's hander:
preserveRawBodyInRequest as shown in JSDoc exampleRawBody decorator in handler to retrieve the raw(text)bodyraw-request.decorator.ts:
import { createParamDecorator, ExecutionContext } from '@nestjs/common';
import { NestExpressApplication } from "@nestjs/platform-express";
import { json, urlencoded } from "express";
import type { Request } from "express";
import type http from "http";
export const HTTP_REQUEST_RAW_BODY = "rawBody";
/**
* make sure you configure the nest app with <code>preserveRawBodyInRequest</code>
* @example
* webhook(@RawBody() rawBody: string): Record<string, unknown> {
* return { received: true };
* }
* @see preserveRawBodyInRequest
*/
export const RawBody = createParamDecorator(
async (data: unknown, context: ExecutionContext) => {
const request = context
.switchToHttp()
.getRequest<Request>()
;
if (!(HTTP_REQUEST_RAW_BODY in request)) {
throw new Error(
`RawBody not preserved for request in handler: ${context.getClass().name}::${context.getHandler().name}`,
);
}
const rawBody = request[HTTP_REQUEST_RAW_BODY];
return rawBody;
},
);
/**
* @example
* const app = await NestFactory.create<NestExpressApplication>(
* AppModule,
* {
* bodyParser: false, // it is prerequisite to disable nest's default body parser
* },
* );
* preserveRawBodyInRequest(
* app,
* "signature-header",
* );
* @param app
* @param ifRequestContainsHeader
*/
export function preserveRawBodyInRequest(
app: NestExpressApplication,
...ifRequestContainsHeader: string[]
): void {
const rawBodyBuffer = (
req: http.IncomingMessage,
res: http.ServerResponse,
buf: Buffer,
): void => {
if (
buf?.length
&& (ifRequestContainsHeader.length === 0
|| ifRequestContainsHeader.some(filterHeader => req.headers[filterHeader])
)
) {
req[HTTP_REQUEST_RAW_BODY] = buf.toString("utf8");
}
};
app.use(
urlencoded(
{
verify: rawBodyBuffer,
extended: true,
},
),
);
app.use(
json(
{
verify: rawBodyBuffer,
},
),
);
}
If you'd prefer to avoid extra 3rd party dependencies, you could also get use of the built-in nodejs approach here:
function readPost(req: IncomingMessage) {
return new Promise<string>((resolve, reject) => {
let body = '';
req.on('data', (data: string) => (body += data));
req.on('error', (error: unknown) => reject(error));
req.on('end', () => resolve(body));
});
}
Usage:
import { Post, Req } from '@nestjs/common';
import { IncomingMessage } from 'http';
...
@Post()
myFunction(@Req() req: IncomingMessage) {
const bodyStr = await readPost(req);
console.log('request body:', bodyStr);
}
For express driver just add an extra body parser:
// main.ts
import { NestExpressApplication } from '@nestjs/platform-express';
// ...
const app = await NestFactory.create<NestExpressApplication>(AppModule);
app.useBodyParser('text');
// ...other code
And as always:
// some.controller.ts
@Post('text')
public async register(@Body() payload: string) {
console.log(payload);
}
Official docs HERE
