parse formdata request at nodejs server

Question

How do you parse formdata at nodejs side?

I’m doing http POST requests to a nodejs server. Here is a snippet of the Javascript(angular in it). My aim is to upload a file and add a JSON to it. So I’m uploading a picture and a json that has {account: xx , sitename:xyz, etc..}

$scope.upload[index] = $upload.upload({
                url :  'http://localhost:1215/facility',
                method: $scope.httpMethod,
                headers: {'Content-Type': 'multipart/form-data','X-Requested-With':'XMLHttpRequest'},
                data :  $scope.selectedSite,
                withCredentials:true,
                file: $scope.selectedFiles[index],
                fileFormDataName: 'myFile'
            }).then(function(response) {
                $scope.uploadResult.push(response.data);
            }, null, function(evt) {
                $scope.progress[index] = parseInt(100.0 * evt.loaded / evt.total);
            }).xhr(function(xhr){
                xhr.upload.addEventListener('abort', function(){console.log('aborted complete')}, false);
            });
}

I am using angular-upload-file that allows me to construct the formdata.It combines the selectedSite json with the file and the filename. Found it on github and it is doing the trick. [angular-file-upload][1] https://github.com/danialfarid/angular-file-upload. Fiddler confirms that.

The way that this library angular-file-upload works is that the http with XMLHTTPREQUEST will results in the body referring to the formdata which looks like this

{  
   site:xyz,
   account:xxx,
   etc
   Myfile: somefile.txt: fileContent 
}

At the server side, regardless of what I do I cannot get the value of the json key (e.g. xyz) or the content of the file. I am not yet trying to save the file or manipulate the json yet.

router.post('/', passport_utils.ensureAuthenticated,
    function(req, res)
    {
        var data ,file= {};//reconstruct site from formdata

        console.log("req.body"  + req.body);
        //jsonData = JSON.stringify(data);
        for(var field in req.body){
            console.log(field); //prints all the json elements but not the file or the filename
                if(field.match(‘site’))
                    console.log("HI    username "+ field.site) ;
                if(field.match('account'))
                    console.log("hi data " + field.name);
        res.send(200);
  }

I tried doing field[jsonkey] or field.jsonkey to get the value. The above for loop confirms that i have the keys but not the value. All those result in "undefined" for the value. The key value shows up but not the value

if(field.match(‘site’)) is not valid JavaScript.

Ry-
– Ry- ♦

2014-05-12 00:04:06 +00:00
Commented May 12, 2014 at 0:04 — Ry-
– Ry- ♦, Commented May 12, 2014 at 0:04

Dalorzo · Accepted Answer · 2014-05-12 00:27:59Z

3

It looks like you are using Express 4, if you are, you need to set the body parser in your server:

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

var app            = express();
//...
app.use(bodyParser());  // pull information from html in POST

In earlier version of Express you only needed to add the body parser from the framework itself:

app.use(express.bodyParser());                      // pull information from html in POST

Since version 4 removed support for connect now you need to add your custom support for multipart/form data to parser multi/part POSTs, so you will have to to do something like:

var busboy = require('connect-busboy');    
app.use(busboy());

edited May 12, 2014 at 0:27

answered May 12, 2014 at 0:15

Dalorzo

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3 Comments

mscdex Over a year ago

body-parser does not parse multipart/form-data requests. You have to use another module such as connect-busboy, connect-multiparty, multer, etc.

Dalorzo Over a year ago

@mscdex thanks for highlighting it, it took me a while to type the example but more to come soon

devsahem Over a year ago

Thanks guys. now that i know those lib exist i will look into it. [stackoverflow.com/questions/20228203/…

Muhammad Soliman · Accepted Answer · 2015-05-04 08:17:05Z

1

I have fixed using the below idea

In server side, I have used json middle-ware of body-parser

app.use(bodyParser.json());

in Agular side, send in the headers content type of "application/json"

headers: {'Content-Type': 'application/json' }

answered May 4, 2015 at 8:17

Muhammad Soliman

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