{"id":2952,"date":"2015-10-28T23:03:43","date_gmt":"2015-10-28T19:03:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nayarweb.com\/blog\/?p=2952"},"modified":"2015-11-05T21:10:37","modified_gmt":"2015-11-05T17:10:37","slug":"wtf-express-just-give-me-my-body-nodejs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nayarweb.com\/blog\/2015\/wtf-express-just-give-me-my-body-nodejs\/","title":{"rendered":"WTF Express! Just give me my body. #NodeJS"},"content":{"rendered":"

Express is a web framework for NodeJS like what Slim Framework, Free Free Framework is to PHP. The idea is simple. Minimalist frameworks don’t do much work except for routing requests.<\/p>\n

For example, if you want when someone access \/ on your website, a text saying “Hello World” appears, you do it this way:<\/p>\n

var http = require('http');\r\nvar express = require('express');\r\nvar app = express();\r\n\r\napp.get('\/', function(req, res) {\r\n  res.send(\"Hello World\");\r\n});\r\n\r\nvar server = app.listen(3000, function () {});\r\n<\/pre>\n
If you want to do \/hello\/{a name here}:<\/p>\n
app.get('\/hello\/:soz', function(req, res) {\r\n  res.send(\"Hello \" + req.params.soz);\r\n});\r\n<\/pre>\n
In the above examples, we have used HTTP GET<\/em> method. There is a limit in the amount of data we can put in an HTTP header. The POST<\/em> method is used to send longer data. I will leave the discussion when to use GET, POST and other HTTP verbs in another blog post. Lemme show you how to make a POST request in AJAX using jQuery and retrieve the data in NodeJS.<\/p>\n
Client-side\/browser-side:<\/p>\n
\r\n$.ajax({\r\n  method: \"post\",\r\n  url: \"\/api\/dimoune\/\",\r\n  data: {\r\n    name: \"Nayar\"\r\n  },\r\n  success: function( data ) {\r\n    console.log(data);\r\n  }\r\n});\r\n<\/pre>\n
Server-side:<\/p>\n
\r\nvar bodyParser = require('body-parser');\r\napp.use(bodyParser.urlencoded({extended: true }));\r\n\r\napp.post('\/api\/dimoune\/', function(req,res){\r\n  \/\/ Logic to save to database or something \r\n  res.send(\"saved \" + req.body.name);\r\n});\r\n<\/pre>\n
Notice I had to add body-parser<\/em> library. Without it, req.body would be not be defined thus you would not be able to access your posted data. Kinda stupid to not include it by default in Express no?<\/p>\n
UPDATE:<\/strong>
\nAnother big headache. For posting data with curl command e.g.<\/p>\n
\r\ncurl -H \"Content-Type:application\/json\" -X POST --data '{\"name\":\"nayar\",\"sex\":\"male\"}' http:\/\/example.com\/api\/dimounes\r\n<\/pre>\n
You need to add the following lines in your nodejs file<\/p>\n
app.use(bodyParser.json());<\/pre>\n
Refs:
\nhttps:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/a\/18808957\/4609496
\nhttp:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/a\/25471936<\/p>\n
jQuery.post()<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n