Postman post request works but ajax post does not. Have checked client side js over and over

Question

first question ever on stackoverflow and boy do I need an answer. My problem is that I have an endpoint to create an item, and it works when I send a POST request with Postman. I'm using node and express:

router.post("/", jwtAuth, (req, res) => {
  console.log(req.body);
  const requiredFields = ["date", "time", "task", "notes"];
  requiredFields.forEach(field => {
    if (!(field in req.body)) {
      const message = `Missing \`${field}\` in request body`;
      console.error(message);
      return res.status(400).send(message);
    }
  });
  Task.create({
    userId: req.user.id,
    date: req.body.date,
    time: req.body.time,
    task: req.body.task,
    notes: req.body.notes
  })
    .then(task => res.status(201).json(task.serialize()))
    .catch(err => {
      console.error(err);
      res.status(500).json({ message: "Internal server error" });
    });
});

That endpoint works when I send with Postman and the req body logged with the right values.

But when I send my ajax request, my server code logs the req.body as an empty object ('{}'). Because Postman works I believe the problem is with my client side javascript but I just cannot find the problem. I and others have looked over it a million times but just can't find the problem. Here is my client side javascript:

//User submits a new task after timer has run
function handleTaskSubmit() {
  $(".submit-task").click(event => {
    console.log("test");
    const date = $(".new-task-date").text();
    const taskTime = $(".new-task-time").text();
    const task = $(".popup-title").text();
    const notes = $("#task-notes").val();
    $(".task-notes-form").submit(event => {
      event.preventDefault();
      postNewTask(date, taskTime, task, notes);
    });
  });
}

function postNewTask(date, taskTime, task, notes) {
  const data = JSON.stringify({
    date: date,
    time: taskTime,
    task: task,
    notes: notes
  });
//Here I log all the data. The data object and all its key are defined
  console.log(data);
  console.log(date);
  console.log(taskTime);
  console.log(task);
  console.log(notes);
  const token = localStorage.getItem("token");
  const settings = {
    url: "http://localhost:8080/tasks",
    type: "POST",
    dataType: "json",
    data: data,
    contentType: "application/json, charset=utf-8",
    headers: {
      Authorization: `Bearer ${token}`
    },
    success: function() {
      console.log("Now we are cooking with gas");
    },
    error: function(err) {
      console.log(err);
    }
  };
  $.ajax(settings);
}

handleTaskSubmit();

Answer 1

What I would do:

1. Change header 'application/json' to 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded' since official docs have no info on former one.

2. Stop using $.ajax and get comfortable with XHR requests, since jquery from CDN is sometimes a mess when CDN get's laggy and XHR is a native implement and available immediately. Yes it's a code mess, but you always know that it is not the inner library logic thing, but your own problem. You blindly use library, that conceals XHR inside and you do not know how to ask the right question "XHR post method docs" because you are not yet comfortable with basic technology underneath.

Save this and import the variable

var httpClient = {

        get: function( url, data, callback ) {
            var xhr = new XMLHttpRequest();

            xhr.onreadystatechange = function () {
                var readyState = xhr.readyState;

                if (readyState == 4) {
                    callback(xhr);
                }
            };

            var queryString = '';
            if (typeof data === 'object') {
                for (var propertyName in data) {
                    queryString += (queryString.length === 0 ? '' : '&') + propertyName + '=' + encodeURIComponent(data[propertyName]);
                }
            }

            if (queryString.length !== 0) {
                url += (url.indexOf('?') === -1 ? '?' : '&') + queryString;
            }

            xhr.open('GET', url, true);
            xhr.withCredentials = true;
            xhr.send(null);
        },

        post: function(url, data, callback ) {
            var xhr = new XMLHttpRequest();

            xhr.onreadystatechange = function () {
                var readyState = xhr.readyState;

                if (readyState == 4) {
                    callback(xhr);
                }
            };

            var queryString='';
            if (typeof data === 'object') {
                for (var propertyName in data) {
                    queryString += (queryString.length === 0 ? '' : '&') + propertyName + '=' + encodeURIComponent(data[propertyName]);
                }
            } else {
                queryString=data
            }

            xhr.open('POST', url, true);
            xhr.withCredentials = true;
            xhr.setRequestHeader('Content-Type', 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded');
            xhr.send(queryString);
        }
    };

usage is as simple as jquery: httpClient.post(Url, data, (xhr) => {})

3. Check if you have body parser set-up in app.js

   var bodyParser = require('body-parser'); app.use(bodyParser.json()); // get information from html forms app.use(bodyParser.urlencoded({ extended: true })); // get information from html forms

4. if body parser is set-up try changing header to 'multipart/form-data' or 'text/plain'.

5. For just the sake check req.query

Cheers! :)