Axios data is breaking the request

Question

I have an express API and a ReactJs front-end. I try to make a POST call from my front-end directly to the local API.

For this I'm using axios.

The request is working fine when I set the parameters directly inside the query string but is always getting on timeout if I try to add the parameters through the data attribute of the axios.post() method.

Working

axios.post(`http://localhost:5001/site/authenticate?username=demo&password=demo`)

Not working

const payload = {
    "username":"mh",
    "password":"mh"
}
axios.post(`http://localhost:5001/site/authenticate`, payload)

My express server:

const express = require('express');
const bodyParser = require('body-parser');
const morgan = require('morgan');
const jwt = require('jsonwebtoken'); // used to create, sign, and verify tokens
var cors = require('cors');

const app = express();
const port = process.env.API_PORT || 5001;

app.use(cors());
app.set('secret', process.env.API_SECRET);

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

app.use(morgan('dev'));

app.use((req, res, next) => {
    let data = '';
    req.setEncoding('utf8');
    req.on('data', (chunk) => {
        data += chunk;
    });
    req.on('end', () => {
        req.rawBody = data;
        next();
    });
});

// Allow CORS
app.use(function(req, res, next) {
  res.header("Access-Control-Allow-Origin", "*");
  res.header("Access-Control-Allow-Headers", "Origin, X-Requested-With, Content-Type, Accept");
  next();
});

// SITE ROUTES -------------------
const siteRoutes = express.Router(); 

siteRoutes.post('/authenticate', function(req, res) {
    console.log('auth');
    getDocument(usersBucket, req.query.username)
        .then((doc) => {
            console.log("Authentification... TODO");

            // return the information including token as JSON
            res.json({
                success: true,
                status: 200,
                token: token
            });
        })
        .catch(() => {
            res.status(401).json({ success: false, message: 'Authentification failed. User not found.' });
        });
});

// route middleware to verify a token
siteRoutes.use(function(req, res, next) {
    const token = req.body.token || req.query.token || req.headers['x-access-token'];

    if (token) {
    // verifies secret and checks exp
    jwt.verify(token, app.get('secret'), function(err, decoded) {
            if (err) {
                return res.json({ success: false, message: 'Failed to authenticate token.', status: 401 });       
            } else {
                req.decoded = decoded;
                next();
            }
    });

  } else {
    return res.status(403).send({ 
        success: false, 
        message: 'No token provided.' 
    });
  }
});

siteRoutes.get('/', function(req, res) {
  res.json({ message: 'Welcome!' });
});

app.use('/site', siteRoutes);

app.listen(port, () => {
    logger.log(`Express server listening on port ${port}`);
});

Any idea? Thanks.

Update

I replaced my route just to see if I got in or not (without worrying about parameters):

siteRoutes.post('/authenticate', function(req, res) {
    console.log("go in");
    res.json({
        success: true,
        status: 200,
    });
});

But my console.log is not showing hen I use the payload (it is when I do not).

Answer 1

You should access the payload data via request.body, not the request.query:

// SITE ROUTES -------------------
const siteRoutes = express.Router(); 

siteRoutes.post('/authenticate', function(req, res) {
    console.log('auth');
    getDocument(usersBucket, req.body.username) // <------- HERE
        .then((doc) => {
            console.log("Authentification... TODO");

            // return the information including token as JSON
            res.json({
                success: true,
                status: 200,
                token: token
            });
        })
        .catch(() => {
            res.status(401).json({ success: false, message: 'Authentification failed. User not found.' });
        });
});

request.query are the parameters passed in the URL, like:

protocol://hostname:port/path/to.route?query_param_0=value_0&query_param_1=value_1

on your express endpoint request.query will be:

{ 
  query_param_0: value_0,
  query_param_1: value_1
}

while sending the payload, with the second argument in axios.post(url, payload):

axios.post('/user', {
    firstName: 'Fred',
    lastName: 'Flintstone'
  })

on your express endpoint request.body will be:

{
  firstName: 'Fred',
  lastName: 'Flintstone'
}

when you use app.use(bodyParser.json()); (and you do).

Answer 2

You are using “getDocument(usersBucket, req.query.username)”

This means you express route is expecting username as a request param. That’s why it’s working when you use “?username=xx”

Instead try to get it from json body of request. “req.body.username”

Also you should consider validating the request body or param as required.