Express Parsing Array from POST

user215674 picture user215674 · Sep 7, 2017 · Viewed 13.9k times · Source

Running an Express API, I'm struggling to parse data including an array of objects correctly when hitting a POST route.

A simplified version of the code -

var express = require('express');
var app = express();
var router = express.Router();
var bodyParser = require('body-parser');
var parseUrlencoded = bodyParser.urlencoded({ extended: false });

router.post('/', parseUrlencoded, function(req, res) {
    console.log(req.body);
});

Hitting the API with the following

{ name: "Object name", 
  arrayOfObjects: [
      { name: "Sub Object Name", subType: "Sub Object Type" }, 
      { name: "Sub Object Name 2", subType: "Sub Object Type 2" }
  ] 
}

Logs out

{ name: "Object name", 
  'arrayOfObjects[0][name]': "Sub Object Name",
  'arrayOfObjects[0][subType]': "Sub Object Type",
  'arrayOfObjects[1][name]': "Sub Object Name 2",
  'arrayOfObjects[1][subType]': "Sub Object Name",
}

I would like to receive this as an array, which is the case when using a PUT request.

I'm sure this possible using a configuration of bodyParser or similar, but I'm struggling to find a good solution.

Answer

Bharathvaj Ganesan picture Bharathvaj Ganesan · Sep 7, 2017

Ok, from your question I understand that you want to manipulate the POST Body like a json array then use qs library by making extended true

app.use(bodyParser.urlencoded({ extended: true }));