How to iterate over body of POST request in Express.js?

Question

I'm constructing a generic route handler for POST requests in NodeJS.

I need to iterate over the req.params of the POST request, without knowing beforehand what the parameters are.

I have tried the following without success:

console.log("checking param keys...")
Object.keys(req.param).forEach(function(key){
console.log(key +"is " + req.params(key) )
})

When I run this code, only the "Checking param keys..." gets printed.

Anybody knows how to do this?

Answer 1

I guess you're asking how to iterate form post from a url encoded POST request body, so it is bodyParser() middleware that did your trick.

req.params is an array that contains properties mapped by routing defined express app. see details from req.params , not the request body. Take the follow code for example:

var app = require("express")();

app.use(express.bodyParser());
app.post("/form/:name", function(req, res) {
   console.log(req.params);
   console.log(req.body);
   console.log(req.query);
   res.send("ok");
});

Then test it like this:

$ curl -X POST --data 'foo=bar' http://localhost:3000/form/form1?url=/abc

You will see the console output like this:

[ name: 'form1' ]
{ foo: 'bar' }
{ url: '/abc' }

So req.body is the right way to access request body, req.query is for read query string of all HTTP methods.