POSTing json to express using jQuery

Question

I'm having an issue when sending JSON data from my client to a node server running express.

Here's a simple server that demonstrates my issue:

var express = require('express');

var app = express();

app.configure(function(){   
    app.use(express.bodyParser());
    app.use(app.router);
    app.use(express.logger());
});

app.listen(80);

app.post('/', function(req,res){
    console.log(req.body);
    console.log(req.body.number + 1);
});

This server simply logs all POST data to the console.

If I then paste the following into chrome's development console: $.post('/', {number:1});

The server prints out:

{ number: '1' }
11

How can I stop the number I'm passing being interpreted as a string? Is it something to do with the bodyParser middleware I'm using?

Any help appreciated!!

soulcheck · Accepted Answer · 2013-05-11 15:10:11Z

41

$.post sends url-encoded data, so what is really sent is number=1, which then is parsed as well as it can by bodyParser middleware.

To send json you have to use JSON.stringify({number:1}).

Using $.post unfortunately won't set the appropriate Content-Type header (express will handle it anyway), so it's better to use:

$.ajax({
    url: '/', 
    type: 'POST', 
    contentType: 'application/json', 
    data: JSON.stringify({number:1})}
)

edited May 11, 2013 at 15:10

answered May 11, 2013 at 14:55

soulcheck

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3 Comments

Christiaan Westerbeek Over a year ago

And don't forget to add the contentType: 'application/json' header or there will be no data in req.body at the server at all.

Viet Over a year ago

@soulcheck can you please look at my question here? stackoverflow.com/questions/47085674/… it's similar to this one but i need to send another property with the array

codemonkey Over a year ago

Christiaan Westerbeek's comment on the money. Don't confuse json: true with contentType: 'application/json'. Not the same thing. Add contentType: 'application/json' if you want it to work.

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