Using paraType body/form

[hans-d]

can you provide some examples using paramType body and form, pref in combination with express 4?

re the body I can get some to work:

• added app.use(bodyParser.text())
• ran curl <url> -v -d "" -H 'Content-Type: text/plain' -X POST
• results in 'Error: invalid type: object (expected string)' (expected: required body missing)
• using any value in -d like -d " " works fine

the form is where I fail to get it working...

[tlivings]

Can you provide your definition for the param? Also relevant code?

expected: required body missing is because the data you are posting is empty.

[tlivings]

For example, this works for me:

"parameters": [
    {
        "name": "body",
        "description": "some form data",
        "required": true,
        "type": "string",
        "paramType": "body"
    }
]

$ curl --data "hello world" -H "Content-Type:text/plain" <url>

[hans-d]

See also #19 . Try running: curl --data "" -H "Content-Type:text/plain" <url> on your example and you will receive a Error: invalid type: object (expected string).

[tlivings]

Providing an empty value causes express to assign it as an object. The bug, if there is one, is in express:

https://github.com/expressjs/body-parser/blob/master/lib/types/text.js#L51

[hans-d]

yup, see also my issue logged there (https://github.com/expressjs/body-parser/issues/44) and their response. Hence #19 to turn {} into an empty string.

[dougwilson]

Can you post the full verbose output from curl <url> -v -d "" -H 'Content-Type: text/plain' -X POST, please?

[hans-d]

output with -d "":

* Hostname was NOT found in DNS cache
*   Trying 127.0.0.1...
* Connected to 127.0.0.1 (127.0.0.1) port 3000 (#0)
> POST /api/test HTTP/1.1
> User-Agent: curl/7.35.0
> Host: 127.0.0.1:3000
> Accept: */*
> Content-Type: text/plain
> Content-Length: 0
> 
< HTTP/1.1 400 Bad Request
< X-Powered-By: Express
< Content-Type: application/json; charset=utf-8
< Content-Length: 57
< Date: Fri, 05 Sep 2014 16:46:52 GMT
< Connection: keep-alive
* HTTP error before end of send, stop sending
< 
* Closing connection 0
{"error":"Error: invalid type: object (expected string)"}

output with -d "x":

* Hostname was NOT found in DNS cache
*   Trying 127.0.0.1...
* Connected to 127.0.0.1 (127.0.0.1) port 3000 (#0)
> POST /api/test HTTP/1.1
> User-Agent: curl/7.35.0
> Host: 127.0.0.1:3000
> Accept: */*
> Content-Type: text/plain
> Content-Length: 1
> 
* upload completely sent off: 1 out of 1 bytes
< HTTP/1.1 200 OK
< X-Powered-By: Express
< Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8
< Content-Length: 7
< Date: Fri, 05 Sep 2014 16:55:47 GMT
< Connection: keep-alive
< 
* Connection #0 to host 127.0.0.1 left intact
hi post

app.coffee:

express = require 'express'
api = require './api'
bodyParser = require 'body-parser'

apiRouter = api { spec: 'app/api/spec.yaml', docUrl: '/api-docs' }

errorHandler = (err, req, res, next) ->
    if err and res.statusCode
        res.send { error: err.toString() }
    else
        res.status('500').send err || 'oh oh'
        console.log err.stack

app = express()
app.set 'port', process.env.PORT || 3000
app.use bodyParser.text()
app.use apiRouter
app.use errorHandler

app.listen app.get('port'), () ->
    apiRouter.setUrl 'http://localhost:' + app.get 'port'
    console.log 'listening on ' + app.get 'port'

api/index.coffee:

swaggerize = require 'swaggerize-express'
yaml = require 'js-yaml'
fs = require 'fs'
handlers = require './handlers.coffee'

readApi = (file) ->
    raw = fs.readFileSync file
    yaml.safeLoad raw

module.exports = (options) ->
    swaggerize
        api: readApi options.spec
        docspath: options.docUrl
        handlers: handlers

api/handlers.coffee:

module.exports =
    test:
        $post: (req, res) ->
            console.log 'test!', req.params, '['+req.body+']'
            res.send 'hi post'

api/spec.yaml:

---

apiVersion: '0.0.0'
swaggerVersion: '1.2'

basePath: 'http://localhost:8000/'
resourcePath: '/api'

apis:

  - path: "/test"
    operations:
      - nickname: test
        type: string
        method: POST
        parameters:
          - name: body
            required: true
            type: string
            paramType: body

[dougwilson]

Thanks. Looks like the issue is actually deep down within the type-is module.

[dougwilson]

FYI I filed an issue as https://github.com/jshttp/type-is/issues/9 to remind myself about this, and then https://github.com/expressjs/body-parser/issues/44 will track when it makes it's way into body-parser module.

[tlivings]

Fixed in 1.0.0-rc.4

[tlivings]

Thanks @dougwilson !

[dougwilson]

Just wanted to post an update on here that body-parser@1.8.0 should be setting req.body = '' when an empty body is sent to the server now.

[tlivings]

Awesome, thanks!

[jasisk]

We were stung by this (meaning, empty body being an empty plain object) at some point recently in one of the kraken modules. I recall we put in place some sort of workaround. Anyone remember where that was? I can (and will) dig around a bit but wanted to see if anyone knew off the top of their head before I did.