Parsing Post Form Data Node.js Express

Question

I am getting form data in this form

'------WebKitFormBoundarysw7YYuBGKjAewMhe\r\nContent-Disposition: form-data; name': '"a"\r\n\r\nb\r\n------WebKitFormBoundarysw7YYuBGKjAewMhe--\r\n

I'm trying to find a middleware that will allow me to access the form data like:

req.body.a // -> 'b'

I've tried

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


var bodyParser = require('body-parser');

// parse application/x-www-form-urlencoded 
app.use(bodyParser.urlencoded({ extended: false }))

Is there a problem with my implementation or am I not using the correct middleware?

I think body parser stopped supporting form data parsing. Their github page has alternative form data parsers like busboy. — bspates, Jun 04 '15 at 21:50
I am trying busboy and my onfield event is giving me a fieldname of "------WebKitFormBoundary10WDBTqcGz382i2e ↵Content-Disposition: form-data; name" — Dan Baker, Jun 04 '15 at 21:59
`bodyParser.urlencoded` is used to parse URL encoded form data. You should look into a `multipart/form-data` parser. — OGreeni, Sep 07 '22 at 03:12

score 15 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 06 '15 at 16:43

15

The tool that worked was multiparty

app.post('/endpoint', function (req, res) {
    var form = new multiparty.Form();
    form.parse(req, function(err, fields, files) {
        // fields fields fields
    });
})

answered Jun 06 '15 at 16:43

Dan Baker

1,757
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but this tool is for multipart/data form i am just submiting text/plain form – Adeel Ahmed Baloch Nov 06 '22 at 19:58

score 10 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 23 '17 at 12:49

10

The library which worked for me was express-formidable. Clean, fast and supports multipart requests too. Here is code from their docs

Install with:

npm install -S express-formidable

Here is sample usage:

const express = require('express');
const formidable = require('express-formidable');

var app = express();

app.use(formidable());

app.post('/upload', (req, res) => {
  req.fields; // contains non-file fields 
  req.files; // contains files 
});

answered Sep 23 '17 at 12:49

Chandan Purohit

2,283
1
17
16

1

It can also be used if you are using multer for any file upload/download logic. Such a great tool, thanks for sharing! – Alexander Santos Dec 11 '20 at 19:44

score 8 · Answer 3 · answered Aug 13 '20 at 19:57

8

The above two answers are correct but now those methods are outdated. multer is a better method to access form data. Install it by the following command: npm install multer

some useful body parsers.

Body-type: parser

form-data: multer
x-www-form-urlencoded: express.urlencoded()
raw: express.raw()
json: express.json()
text: express.text()

answered Aug 13 '20 at 19:57

Dhruvin modi

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According to expressjs doc, Multer will not process any form which is not multipart (multipart/form-data). – AmirHossein Rezaei Aug 19 '21 at 12:28

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Jul 01 '22 at 03:53

-better to use multer.
-But if you want to use bodyParser.urlencoded convert it into URLSearchParams data type

demonstration:-
 let fd=new FormData("id_of_form")
let sp=new URLSearchParams()
for(let [k,v]:fd.entries()) sp.append(k,v)

make header 'Content-Type':'application/x-www-form-urlencoded ' and pass sp to body.

-happy coding

score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Jun 07 '23 at 04:54

You can use multer package:

const express = require('express');
const multer = require('multer');
const app = express();
const upload = multer();

app.post('/submit-form', upload.none(), (req, res) => {
  // Access form data here
  const formData = req.body;
  console.log(formData);
  
  // Handle the form data
  // ...
  
  res.send('Form submitted successfully');
});

The parsed form data is available in req.body.

Parsing Post Form Data Node.js Express

5 Answers5

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