CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javascripthtmlnode.jsexpress
Timal Peramune
Timal Peramune

Reputation: 309

how to pass user input from HTML form when using express.Router()

I have a file server.js that looks like so:

var express = require('express');
var app = express();
var mongoose = require('mongoose');
var Bear = require('./models/bear');

mongoose.connect('mongodb://123:[email protected]:53/bears');


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

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

var port = 8080;


var router = express.Router();



router.use(function(req, res, next){

   //console.log("Working....");
   next();

});


router.get('/', function (req, res){

    res.json({ message: "API Works!"});

});


router.route('/bears')

    .post(function(req, res) {
        console.log("hi");

    var bear = new Bear(req.body);      // create a new instance of the Bear model
    console.log(bear);
    // save the bear and check for errors
    bear.save(function(err) {
        if (err)
            return res.send(err);

        res.json({ message: 'Bear created!' });
    });

});



app.use("/", (req, res) =>{
    res.sendFile(__dirname + "/index.html");
});
app.use('/books', router);

app.listen(port);
console.log("Listening on port "+ port);

And my Index.html file looks like so:

<head> 

</head>
<body>

    <form method="POST" action="/bears">
        Enter Book to add
        <input type="text" id="book_name"/>
        <br /><br />

        Enter Quantity
        <input type="number" id="book_quantity"/>
        <br /><br />

        Enter Price

        <input type="text" id="book_price"/>
        <br /><br />

        <button type="submit"> Add Book </button>


    </form>

</body>

I was wondering why it doesn't enter the 

router.route('/bears')
.post(function(req, res){});

when clicking the "Add Book" button even thought I've set the

action="/bears" attribute.

When testing with curl, it works fine, just not with this html form

I test with curl like so:

curl -i -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{ "book_name" : "Android", "book_quantity": 2,"book_price": 580 }' localhost:8080/books

I'm new to Javascript so any help would be appreciated!

Upvotes: 0

Views: 2189

Answers (2)

Patrick Evans
Patrick Evans

Reputation: 42746

app.use("/", (req, res) =>{
    res.sendFile(__dirname + "/index.html");
});

Is being used for all the requests and not just '/. Instead useapp.get()` to handle the index.html page. This should then let your requests go through.

app.get("/", (req, res) =>{
    res.sendFile(__dirname + "/index.html");
});

And the endpoint would be /books/bears and not just /bears since your route use is app.use('/books',router) so your endpoints would need to start with /books

<form method="POST" action="/books/bears">

Upvotes: 1

Shishir Arora
Shishir Arora

Reputation: 5943

For post call through html form, "name" attributes for all input tags are mandatory

<form method="POST" action="/books/bears">
    Enter Book to add
    <input type="text" id="book_name" name="book_name"/>
    <br /><br />

    Enter Quantity
    <input type="number" id="book_quantity" name="book_quantity"/>
    <br /><br />

    Enter Price

    <input type="text" id="book_price" name="book_price"/>
    <br /><br />

    <button type="submit"> Add Book </button>


</form>

Also use 

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

in server code

This is because form sends post data in application/x-www-form-urlencoded format, so access as req.body.book_name in server.

if json format is needed then use javascript on client and make json and then send.

Upvotes: 1

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