Node.js: Object translates to undefined in the response object

Question

Node.js: Object translates to undefined in the response object

I have a simple function as defined below

function upload(response, postData) {
    console.log("Received: " + postData);
    response.writeHead(200,{"Content-Type":"text/plain"});
    response.write("You've sent text: " + querystring.parse(postData).text);
    response.end();
}

When I log the data in to console, it shows properly but on writing into response object shows as "undefined". Why this happens? Is there any mistake in my code?

Whole code

route.js

function route(handle, pathname, response, postData) {
    console.log("About to route a request for " + pathname);
    if(typeof(handle[pathname]) === 'function') {
        console.log(postData);
        handle[pathname](response, postData);
    } else {
        console.log("no request handler found for " + pathname);
        response.writeHead(404, {"Content-Type": "text/plain"});
        response.write("404 Not found");
        response.end();
    }
}

exports.route = route;

requestHandler.js

var exec = require("child_process").exec;
var querystring = require("querystring");

function start(response, postData) {
    console.log("request handler 'start' was called");
    var body = '<html>' +
    '<head>' +
        '<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; ' +
        'charset=UTF-8" />' +
    '</head>'+
    '<body>'+
        '<form action="/upload" method="post">'+
            '<textarea name="text" rows="20" cols="60"></textarea>'+
            '<input type="submit" value="Submit text" />'+
        '</form>'+
    '</body>' + '</html>';

    response.writeHead(200,{"Content-Type": "text/html"});
    response.write(body);
    response.end();
}

function upload(response, postData) {
    console.log("Received: " + querystring.parse(postData).text);
    response.writeHead(200,{"Content-Type":"text/plain"});
    response.write("You've sent text: " + querystring.parse(postData).text);
    response.end();
}

exports.start = start;
exports.upload = upload;

server.js

var http = require("http");
var url = require("url");

function start(route,handle) {

    function onRequest(request,response) {
        var postData = "";
        var pathname = url.parse(request.url).pathname;
        console.log("Request received for " + pathname + " received.");
        request.setEncoding("utf8");
        request.addListener("data", function(postDataChunk) {
            postData += postDataChunk;
            console.log("Received POST data chunk '" + postDataChunk + "'.");
            });
        request.addListener("end", function() {
            console.log(postData);
            route(handle, pathname, response, postData);
            });
        route(handle,pathname,response);
    }

    http.createServer(onRequest).listen(8888);
    console.log("Server has started...");
}

exports.start = start;

javascript
node.js

Answer 1

The code executes twice with and without postData. Thanks Linus G Theil. I should be better clear about the code before posting.

Answer 2

I think it's a typo - use

querystring.parse(postData).undefinedtext

for your upload function in requestHandler.js

I'm working through the same tutorial and got stuck here too.

Answer 3

This is obviously kinda late, but I had the same exact error as you, but I was not executing route twice. My mistake was that my postData variable was undefined and as a result it was giving

undefinedtext=sometext+querttest

This problem is easily fixed my initializing your postData = "". Hope this a helps any future visitor that gets stuck here.