Can't get POST body from request using Express.js

Question

Can't get POST body from request using Express.js

I'm working on an API with NodeJS and Express (and more stuff like mongo, sockets, etc) but i'm stuck on a very simple step i believe, i'm just trying to get the information from the POST req object, but i get an error when trying to access req.body

Here's what i have:

var express     = require('express'),
    http        = require('http'),
    path        = require('path'),
    fs          = require('fs'),
    io          = require('socket.io');
    dynroute    = require('dynroute');

var app = express();
app.set('port', process.env.PORT || 3999);
app.use(express.favicon());
app.use(express.logger('dev'));
app.use(app.router);
app.use(express.bodyParser());

app.post('/user', function(req, res) {

    console.log(JSON.stringify(req.body));
    res.send(req.body.self);
});

http.createServer(app).listen(app.get('port'), function ()
{
    console.log('App Server is now running at:' + app.get('port'));     
});

On the console.log(JSON.stringify(req.body)); i get undefined and on the res.send(req.body.self); i get TypeError: Cannot read property 'self' of undefined

I've been seaching for this type of errors and usually the issue is that people do not include app.use(express.bodyParser()); middleware , i also tryied using app.use(express.urlencoded()); and app.use(express.json());, didn't worked either.

If i do a console.log(req) i can see the entire object but i do not get to see body or any of the content i'm passing when doing the POST request from a client (i'm passing it as JSON).

*I know i could use restify or sails.js to build APIs within Node but i want to do everything by my own so i can learn from the experience.

Thanks

EDIT:

I had to put the bodyparser middleware before the app.router middleware, that fix it!

javascript
json
node.js
express
sails.js

Answer 1

Move the bodyParser middleware above the router middleware!

var app = express();
app.set('port', process.env.PORT || 3999);
app.use(express.favicon());
app.use(express.logger('dev'));
app.use(express.bodyParser());
app.use(app.router);

Answer 2

For me @kevinblanco's note of "I had to put the bodyparser middleware before the app.router middleware, that fix it!" did it for me. Putting it in a separate answer since its buried at the bottom.

Your code will need to look something like this:

app.use(favicon());
app.use(logger('dev'));
app.use(bodyParser.json());
app.use(bodyParser.urlencoded());
app.use(cookieParser());
app.use(express.static(path.join(__dirname, 'public')));

// My routing here

Answer 3

BodyParser is no longer bundled with Express

npm install body-parser
var bodyParser = require("body-parser");
app.use(bodyParser.urlencoded({ extended: false }));

Answer 4

Content-Type = "application/json" should be one of the Request Headers