Check if variable is empty not working | NodeJS, Express

Question

I am trying to build a blog API, and right now I have three fields in my schema:

const PostSchema = new Schema({
  timestamp: {
    type: Date,
    default: Date.now
  },
  title: {
    type: String,
    required: [true, "Title is required"]
  },
  content: {
    type: String,
    required: [true, "Content is required"]
  }
})

I also have createPost function, that is supposed to create a post (no shit):

// Create post
const createPost = (req, res, next) => {
  const title = req.body.title
  const content = req.body.content

  console.log('body', req.body) // getting output

  if (!title) {
    res.status(422).json({ error: "Titel saknas!!!" })
  }

  if (!content) {
    res.status(422).json({ error: "Skriv något för fan!" })
  }

  const post = new Post({
    title,
    content
  })

  post.save((err, post) => {
    if (err) {
      res.status(500).json({ err })
    }
      res.status(201).json({ post })
  })
}

I have those two if statements to check if the title or the content is empty, but that is not working. I tried to send a POST request with Postman:

But the error says that my title is missing. But I am passing in my title key.

So I wonder why this is not working, it feels like some obvious stuff, but I just can't get this to work.

Thanks for reading.

it seems to me that req.body is just a string and referring req.body.title gets you then undefined which causes the jump into the if block — Kristianmitk
– Kristianmitk, Commented Sep 1, 2017 at 11:07
Make sure you have installed and enabled the body-parser middleware (or one with similar functionality). EDIT: And set Postman to use application/json for the Content-Type header :) — damd
– damd, Commented Sep 1, 2017 at 11:08

robertklep · Accepted Answer · 2017-09-01 11:07:54Z

3

I don't know Postman too well, but I'm going to guess that setting the body content type to raw uploads the body as text/plain, which means body-parser will not parse it in any way (console.log('body', typeof req.body) will show "body string").

Instead, try setting the content type to application/json (and make sure that your server uses the JSON middleware from body-parser).

answered Sep 1, 2017 at 11:07

robertklep

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1 Comment

Martin Nordström Over a year ago

You're right! This was a silly mistake! I changed it to x-www-form-urlencoded and now I'm seeing my error message! Thanks!

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