$.ajax Where is req.data?

Question

I am using node.js. It's a fairly simple file arrangement on a local server.

<h3>To Do!</h3>
<ol class="pending>
<li><a class="pending_task" href="localhost://nextstep.html">Task Three</a></li>
<li><a class="pending_task" href="localhost://nextstep.html">Task Five</a></li>
<li><a class="pending_task" href="localhost://nextstep.html">Task Six</a></li>
</ol>

and

<h3>Completed!</h3>
<ol class="completed">
<li><a class="completed_task" href="localhost://nextstep.html">Task One</a></li>
<li><a class="completed_task" href="localhost://nextstep.html">Task Two</a></li>
<li><a class="completed_task" href="localhost://nextstep.html">Task Four</a></li>
</ol>

Are lists on the same page. I finally have the ajax call working as desired, and now I am in the newest glitch.

The $.ajax redirects to the proper url and the connect is made, but there is no data when I do a console.log(req.data)

The AJAX call:

var newData = "<ol class=\"pending\">" + $('ol.pending').html() + 
            "</ol>" + "<ol class=\"completed\">" + $('ol.completed').html() + "<\ol>";

        $.ajax({
            method:'POST',
            data: newData,
            url: ajax_url,
            success: function(result, status, jqxhr){
                console.log("Response: " + jqxhr.responseText);
                console.log("POST status: " + status);
            },
            dataType: 'html',
        });

The app.js

http.createServer(function(req, res){
  if ((req.method === 'POST') && (req.url === '/result')){
        console.log("Request Data: " + req.data);
        res.statusCode = 200;
        res.end("Message Received!");
  }
 }).listen(port, serverURL);

My intended result is to rewrite the originating file with the new arrangement of completed/pending, after writing the old arrangement to a new file name (TODO_date_time.html), which I can't do yet because the generated data, passed to the AJAX call is not being transmitted. Or I am not accessing it preoperly.

What I get though is:

[nodemon] starting `node app.js`
Starting Web Server at local:4000
Request Data: undefined

The console.log in the browser is all good:

Not sure what's wrong with my work at this point.

You might wanna check [my answer](http://stackoverflow.com/a/41521743/774086) to the other question. I explained in details. — Farid Nouri Neshat, Jan 07 '17 at 13:37

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Jan 07 '17 at 10:50

0

If you only need functionality, the suggested duplicate question above has a detailed explanation of simplifying a http server with Express.

Otherwise, the problem is that the data is not available yet because it comes in as chunks. To remedy this, event listeners are necessary inside where you detect that it's a POST request to the /result endpoint.

http.createServer(function(req, res) {
    if ((req.method === 'POST') && (req.url === '/result')) {
        console.log("POST request to /result received");

        req.on('data', function(chunk) {
            console.log('Received data: ', chunk.toString());
        });

        req.on('end', function() {
            res.statusCode = 200;
            res.end("Message Received!");
        });

    }
}).listen(port, serverURL);

Also, here's a link to a JSFiddle

answered Jan 07 '17 at 10:50

Patrick Pei

437
4
9

Thanks for the info, however, I don't want to use Express. I want to understand this at a simpler level, not just get results. – Ken Ingram Jan 07 '17 at 11:43
so I need req.on to bind the data? – Ken Ingram Jan 07 '17 at 11:44
I used this from the other question: req.on('data', function(data){ body += data; //console.log(data); }); – Ken Ingram Jan 07 '17 at 11:45
I am taking html as data from the ajax call. Why do I need to stringify it? – Ken Ingram Jan 07 '17 at 11:47
In short, it's because the chunks are buffers of binary data, you need to convert them to a readable representation. See http://stackoverflow.com/a/16542217/6407261 for more detail. – Patrick Pei Jan 08 '17 at 05:59

Ken Ingram · Accepted Answer · 2017-01-10T03:18:37.630

0

I used this

var body = ''     
request.on('data', function (data) {
  body += data;
});

from Casey Chu's answer in the question that I am possibly duplicating.

edited Jan 10 '17 at 03:18

answered Jan 07 '17 at 11:53

Ken Ingram

1,538
5
27
52

Make sure you do use [`request.setEncoding`](https://nodejs.org/api/stream.html#stream_readable_setencoding_encoding) or else you might have problem with multi-byte characters. – Farid Nouri Neshat Jan 07 '17 at 13:38
No. No multibyte characters. I know what the nature of the data is. – Ken Ingram Jan 10 '17 at 03:20

$.ajax Where is req.data?

2 Answers2