req.body empty and or undefined

Hello guys,

I am currently working on an authentication api using express and body-parser. But I ran into problems with the parser.

For example, here is my app.js:

var morgan = require('morgan');
var bodyParser = require('body-parser');
var passport = require('passport');
var express = require('express');


var app = express();


app.use(bodyParser.urlencoded({ extended: false }));
app.use(bodyParser.json({ type: 'application/*+json' }));


app.use(morgan('dev'));



app.use(passport.initialize());
require('./config/passport')(passport);

var routes = require('./routes/index');
var register = require('./routes/register');
var authenticate = require('./routes/authenticate');
var dashboard = require('./routes/dashboard');

app.use('/', routes);
app.use('/register', register);
app.use('/authenticate', authenticate);
app.use('/dashboard', dashboard);



// catch 404 and forward to error handler
app.use(function(req, res, next) {
  var err = new Error('Not Found');
  err.status = 404;
  next(err);
});

// error handlers

// development error handler
// will print stacktrace
if (app.get('env') === 'development') {
  app.use(function(err, req, res, next) {
    res.status(err.status || 500);
    res.render('error', {
      message: err.message,
      error: err
    });
  });
}

// production error handler
// no stacktraces leaked to user
app.use(function(err, req, res, next) {
  res.status(err.status || 500);
  res.render('error', {
    message: err.message,
    error: {}
  });
});


module.exports = app;

Now let’s have a look at the register.js, located in routes/register.js:

var express = require('express');
var router = express.Router();




router.post('/', function (req, res, next) {
    if (!req.body.email || !req.body.password) {
        console.log(req.body);
        console.log(req.body.email);
        res.json({success: false, message: 'Please enter email and password.'});
    } else {
        var newUser = new User({
            email: req.body.email,
            password: req.body.password
        });

        // Attempt to save the user
        newUser.save(function (err) {
            if (err) {
                return res.json({success: false, message: 'That email address already exists.'});
            }
            res.json({success: true, message: 'Successfully created new user.'});
        });
    }
});

module.exports = router;

I am currently sending JSON by using HttpRequester or RESTClient. No matter which one. Both will bring the same bug? I have been printing out “req.body” and “req.body.email” for example.

Case 1: POST http://localhost:3000/register Content-Type: application/json { "email":"[e-mail]", "password":"123456" } Outputs: {} undefined POST /register 200 0.350 ms - 62

Case 2 Same with url-encoded POST http://localhost:3000/register Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded { "email":"[e-mail]", "password":"123456" } Outputs: { '{\n"email":"[e-mail]",\n"password":"123456"\n}': '' } undefined POST /register 200 1.756 ms - 62 But why undefined?

Case 3 Working like normal post parameters POST http://localhost:3000/register Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded email=[e-mail] Outputs: { email: '[e-mail]' } [e-mail] POST /register 200 1.502 ms - 62 I personally don’t know why it is not parsing the json object. Maybe you know an answer?

[dougwilson]

I think the issue is from your type: 'application/*+json' above. What are you trying to achieve with that?

[3HMonkey]

Hello and thank you for your quick answer.

I used type: 'application/*+json' for testing purposes. By the way, it seems that just bodyParser.json() ignores the JSON sent because with the empty bodyParser.json() I am getting an “no view engine error” , so I tried out the different settings which are documented like the setting of the type.

That means: Using:

app.use(bodyParser.urlencoded({ extended: false }));
app.use(bodyParser.json({ type: 'application/*+json' }));

brings: application/x-www-form-urlencoded filled body - undefined body.email application/json empty body - undefined body.email text/plain empty body - undefined body.email text/html empty body - undefined body.email

Using:

app.use(bodyParser.urlencoded({ extended: false }));
app.use(bodyParser.json());

brings: application/x-www-form-urlencoded filled body - undefined body.email application/json empty body - “No default engine” error text/plain empty body - undefined body.email text/html empty body - undefined body.email

It also seems that there is no difference between: app.use(bodyParser.urlencoded({ extended: false })); and app.use(bodyParser.urlencoded({ extended: true})); in my case. Or swapping urlencoded with json.

UPDATE: I found out that if I use x-www-form-urlencoded the body-parser tries to doubleparse that object: { '{\n"email":"[e-mail]",\n"password":"123456",\n"test":"123456"\n}': '' } Here is a small workaround for this:

try{req.body = JSON.parse(Object.keys(req.body)[0])}catch(err){req.body = req.body}

But this is not really what was intended because I want to use the bodyParser.json() and not an use x-www-form-urlencoded workaround to work with json objects.