Reading a Body

Part of the Express Basics section of Coddy's Node.js journey. Lesson 13 of 20.

A POST request sends data in its body, and Express does not read the body unless you ask it to.

app.use(express.json());

app.post('/api/loans', (req, res) => {
    const { bookId, member } = req.body;
    res.status(201).json({ bookId, member, due: '2026-11-08' });
});

GET asks for something; POST sends something to be created. express.json() is middleware that reads every JSON body into req.body. Without it req.body is undefined. A route that creates something answers 201 with what it made.

Check the body before you save it. A missing field is the client's mistake, so answer 400 and save nothing.

Challenge

Easy

POST /api/recipes with { "title", "tags" } adds a recipe with a new id and answers 201 with it.
No title: 400 with { "error": "A recipe needs a title" }.

Send a POST with a body, then GET /api/recipes, then a POST without a title.

Try it yourself

import express from 'express';
import { randomUUID } from 'node:crypto';
import { recipes } from './data.js';

const app = express();

app.use((req, res, next) => {
    console.log(`${req.method} ${req.url}`);
    next();
});

app.use((req, res, next) => {
    res.set('X-Request-Id', randomUUID());
    next();
});

app.use(express.static('public'));

const escapeHtml = (text) =>
    text
        .replaceAll('&', '&amp;')
        .replaceAll('<', '&lt;')
        .replaceAll('>', '&gt;')
        .replaceAll('"', '&quot;');

app.get('/', (req, res) => {
    const items = recipes.map((r) => `<li><a href="/recipes/${r.id}">${escapeHtml(r.title)}</a></li>`);
    res.send(`<link rel="stylesheet" href="/style.css"><h1>Recipe Box</h1><ul>${items.join('')}</ul>`);
});

// type('text') sends plain text, so each title shows on its own line.
app.get('/recipes', (req, res) => {
    const { tag } = req.query;
    const list = tag ? recipes.filter((recipe) => recipe.tags.includes(tag)) : recipes;
    res.type('text').send(list.map((recipe) => recipe.title).join('\n'));
});

app.get('/recipes/:id', (req, res) => {
    const recipe = recipes.find((r) => r.id === Number(req.params.id));
    if (!recipe) {
        res.status(404).send('No such recipe');
        return;
    }
    res.send(recipe.title);
});

app.get('/api/recipes', (req, res) => {
    res.json(recipes);
});

app.get('/api/recipes/:id', (req, res) => {
    const recipe = recipes.find((r) => r.id === Number(req.params.id));
    if (!recipe) {
        res.status(404).json({ error: 'No such recipe' });
        return;
    }
    res.json(recipe);
});

app.get('/about', (req, res) => {
    res.send('Recipe Box collects family recipes.');
});

app.get('/menu', (req, res) => {
    res.redirect(301, '/recipes');
});

app.get('/menu/:id', (req, res) => {
    res.redirect(301, `/recipes/${req.params.id}`);
});

app.listen(3000, () => {
    console.log('Recipe Box is running on port 3000');
});