Node adding braces to request.body parameter

Question

When I pass data to my node application, req.body gets garbled. My client call:

$.post('/posts/#{post._id}/post', {seen_posts: seen_posts}, function(data, status) {

}

My controller function:

exports.item_posts_get = function(req, res, next) {
  console.log("SEEN POSTS");
  console.log(req.body);
  console.log(req.body.seen_posts);
}

Console:

SEEN POSTS
[Object: null prototype] {
  'seen_posts[]': [ '5f6ac9fdae396910b32011c4', '5f6ac9fdae396910b32011c4' ]
}
undefined

Answer 1

In your jQuery code try JSON.stringify({seen_posts: seen_posts}) in place of {seen_posts: seen_posts} .

In your nodejs express code put these lines shortly after where you say const app = express()

/* allow handling json and URL-encoded POST document bodies */
const bodyParser = require( 'body-parser' )
app.use( bodyParser.json() )
app.use( bodyParser.urlencoded( { extended: true } ) )
/* allow handling cookies */
const cookieParser = require( 'cookie-parser' )
app.use( cookieParser() )

This arranges to pass your data from $.post() to your server in JSON format, and parse it into req.body . You can troubleshoot it with the Network tab of your browser devtools.