# body-parser
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Node.js body parsing middleware.
Parse incoming request bodies in a middleware before your handlers, available
under the `req.body` property.
**Note** As `req.body`'s shape is based on user-controlled input, all
properties and values in this object are untrusted and should be validated
before trusting. For example, `req.body.foo.toString()` may fail in multiple
ways, for example the `foo` property may not be there or may not be a string,
and `toString` may not be a function and instead a string or other user input.
[Learn about the anatomy of an HTTP transaction in Node.js](https://nodejs.org/en/docs/guides/anatomy-of-an-http-transaction/).
_This does not handle multipart bodies_, due to their complex and typically
large nature. For multipart bodies, you may be interested in the following
modules:
* [busboy](https://www.npmjs.org/package/busboy#readme) and
[connect-busboy](https://www.npmjs.org/package/connect-busboy#readme)
* [multiparty](https://www.npmjs.org/package/multiparty#readme) and
[connect-multiparty](https://www.npmjs.org/package/connect-multiparty#readme)
* [formidable](https://www.npmjs.org/package/formidable#readme)
* [multer](https://www.npmjs.org/package/multer#readme)
This module provides the following parsers:
* [JSON body parser](#bodyparserjsonoptions)
* [Raw body parser](#bodyparserrawoptions)
* [Text body parser](#bodyparsertextoptions)
* [URL-encoded form body parser](#bodyparserurlencodedoptions)
Other body parsers you might be interested in:
- [body](https://www.npmjs.org/package/body#readme)
- [co-body](https://www.npmjs.org/package/co-body#readme)
## Installation
```sh
$ npm install body-parser
```
## API
```js
var bodyParser = require('body-parser')
```
The `bodyParser` object exposes various factories to create middlewares. All
middlewares will populate the `req.body` property with the parsed body when
the `Content-Type` request header matches the `type` option, or an empty
object (`{}`) if there was no body to parse, the `Content-Type` was not matched,
or an error occurred.
The various errors returned by this module are described in the
[errors section](#errors).
### bodyParser.json([options])
Returns middleware that only parses `json` and only looks at requests where
the `Content-Type` header matches the `type` option. This parser accepts any
Unicode encoding of the body and supports automatic inflation of `gzip` and
`deflate` encodings.
A new `body` object containing the parsed data is populated on the `request`
object after the middleware (i.e. `req.body`).
#### Options
The `json` function takes an optional `options` object that may contain any of
the following keys:
##### inflate
When set to `true`, then deflated (compressed) bodies will be inflated; when
`false`, deflated bodies are rejected. Defaults to `true`.
##### limit
Controls the maximum request body size. If this is a number, then the value
specifies the number of bytes; if it is a string, the value is passed to the
[bytes](https://www.npmjs.com/package/bytes) library for parsing. Defaults
to `'100kb'`.
##### reviver
The `reviver` option is passed directly to `JSON.parse` as the second
argument. You can find more information on this argument
[in the MDN documentation about JSON.parse](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/JSON/parse#Example.3A_Using_the_reviver_parameter).
##### strict
When set to `true`, will only accept arrays and objects; when `false` will
accept anything `JSON.parse` accepts. Defaults to `true`.
##### type
The `type` option is used to determine what media type the middleware will
parse. This option can be a string, array of strings, or a function. If not a
function, `type` option is passed directly to the
[type-is](https://www.npmjs.org/package/type-is#readme) library and this can
be an extension name (like `json`), a mime type (like `application/json`), or
a mime type with a wildcard (like `*/*` or `*/json`). If a function, the `type`
option is called as `fn(req)` and the request is parsed if it returns a truthy
value. Defaults to `application/json`.
##### verify
The `verify` option, if supplied, is called as `verify(req, res, buf, encoding)`,
where `buf` is a `Buffer` of the raw request body and `encoding` is the
encoding of the request. The parsing can be aborted by throwing an error.
### bodyParser.raw([options])
Returns middleware that parses all bodies as a `Buffer` and only looks at
requests where the `Content-Type` header matches the `type` option. This
parser supports automatic inflation of `gzip` and `deflate` encodings.
A new `body` object containing the parsed data is populated on the `request`
object after the middleware (i.e. `req.body`). This will be a `Buffer` object
of the body.
#### Options
The `raw` function takes an optional `options` object that may contain any of
the following keys:
##### inflate
When set to `true`, then deflated (compressed) bodies will be inflated; when
`false`, deflated bodies are rejected. Defaults to `true`.
##### limit
Controls the maximum request body size. If this is a number, then the value
specifies the number of bytes; if it is a string, the value is passed to the
[bytes](https://www.npmjs.com/package/bytes) library for parsing. Defaults
to `'100kb'`.
##### type
The `type` option is used to determine what media type the middleware will
parse. This option can be a string, array of strings, or a function.
If not a function, `type` option is passed directly to the
[type-is](https://www.npmjs.org/package/type-is#readme) library and this
can be an extension name (like `bin`), a mime type (like
`application/octet-stream`), or a mime type with a wildcard (like `*/*` or
`application/*`). If a function, the `type` option is called as `fn(req)`
and the request is parsed if it returns a truthy value. Defaults to
`application/octet-stream`.
##### verify
The `verify` option, if supplied, is called as `verify(req, res, buf, encoding)`,
where `buf` is a `Buffer` of the raw request body and `encoding` is the
encoding of the request. The parsing can be aborted by throwing an error.
### bodyParser.text([options])
Returns middleware that parses all bodies as a string and only looks at
requests where the `Content-Type` header matches the `type` option. This
parser supports automatic inflation of `gzip` and `deflate` encodings.
A new `body` string containing the parsed data is populated on the `request`
object after the middleware (i.e. `req.body`). This will be a string of the
body.
#### Options
The `text` function takes an optional `options` object that may contain any of
the following keys:
##### defaultCharset
Specify the default character set for the text content if the charset is not
specified in the `Content-Type` header of the request. Defaults to `utf-8`.
##### inflate
When set to `true`, then deflated (compressed) bodies will be inflated; when
`false`, deflated bodies are rejected. Defaults to `true`.
##### limit
Controls the maximum request body size. If this is a number, then the value
specifies the number of bytes; if it is a string, the value is passed to the
[bytes](https://www.npmjs.com/package/bytes) library for parsing. Defaults
to `'100kb'`.
##### type
The `type` option is used to determine what media type the middleware will
parse. This option can be a string, array of strings, or a function. If not
a function, `type` option is passed directly to the
[type-is](https://www.npmjs.org/package/type-is#readme) library and this can
be an extension name (like `txt`), a mime type (like `text/plain`), or a mime
type with a wildcard (like `*/*` or `text/*`). If a function, the `type`
option is called as `fn(req)` and the request is parsed if it returns a
truthy value. Defaults to `text/plain`.
##### verify
The `verify` option, if supplied, is called as `verify(req, res, buf, encoding)`,
where `buf` is a `Buffer` of the raw request body and `encoding` is the
encoding of the request. The parsing can be aborted by throwing an error.
### bodyParser.urlencoded([options])
Returns middleware that only parses `urlencoded` bodies and only looks at
requests where the `Content-Type` header matches the `type` option. This
parser accepts only UTF-8 encoding of the body and supports automatic
inflation of `gzip` and `deflate` encodings.
A new `body` object containing the parsed data is populated on the `request`
object after the middleware (i.e. `req.body`). This object will contain
key-value pairs, where the value can be a string or array (when `extended` is
`false`), or any type (when `extended` is `true`).
#### Options
The `urlencoded` function takes an optional `options` object that may contain
any of the following keys:
##### extended
The `extended` option allows to choose between parsing the URL-encoded data
with the `querystring` library (when `false`) or the `qs` library (when
`true`). The "extended" syntax allows for rich objects and arrays to be
encoded into the URL-encoded format, allowing for a JSON-like experience
with URL-encoded. For more information, please
[see the qs library](https://www.npmjs.org/package/qs#readme).
Defaults to `true`, but using the default has been deprecated. Please
research into the difference between `qs` and `querystring` and choose the
appropriate setting.
##### inflate
When set to `true`, then deflated (compressed) bodies will be inflated; when
`false`, deflated bodies are rejected. Defaults to `true`.
##### limit
Controls the maximum request body size. If this is a number, then the value
specifies the number of bytes; if it is a string, the value is passed to the
[bytes](https://www.npmjs.com/package/bytes) library for parsing. Defaults
to `'100kb'`.
##### parameterLimit
The `parameterLimit` option controls the maximum number of parameters that
are allowed in the URL-encoded data. If a request contains more parameters
than this value, a 413 will be returned to the client. Defaults to `1000`.
##### type
The `type` option is used to determine what media type the middleware will
parse. This option can be a string, array of strings, or a function. If not
a function, `type` option is passed directly to the
[type-is](https://www.npmjs.org/package/type-is#readme) library and this can
be an extension name (like `urlencoded`), a mime type (like
`application/x-www-form-urlencoded`), or a mime type with a wildcard (like
`*/x-www-form-urlencoded`). If a function, the `type` option is called as
`fn(req)` and the request is parsed if it returns a truthy value. Defaults
to `application/x-www-form-urlencoded`.
##### verify
The `verify` option, if supplied, is called as `verify(req, res, buf, encoding)`,
where `buf` is a `Buffer` of the raw request body and `encoding` is the
encoding of the request. The parsing can be aborted by throwing an error.
## Errors
The middlewares provided by this module create errors using the
[`http-errors` module](https://www.npmjs.com/package/http-errors). The errors
will typically have a `status`/`statusCode` property that contains the suggested
HTTP response code, an `expose` property to determine if the `message` property
should be displayed to the client, a `type` property to determine the type of
error without matching against the `message`, and a `body` property containing
the read body, if available.
The following are the common errors created, though any error can come through
for various reasons.
### content encoding unsupported
This error will occur when the request had a `Content-Encoding` header that
contained an encoding but the "inflation" option was set to `false`. The
`status` property is set to `415`, the `type` property is set to
`'encoding.unsupported'`, and the `charset` property will be set to the
encoding that is unsupported.
### entity parse failed
This error will occur when the request contained an entity that could not be
parsed by the middleware. The `status` property is set to `400`, the `type`
property is set to `'entity.parse.failed'`, and the `body` property is set to
the entity value that failed parsing.
### entity verify failed
This error will occur when the request contained an entity that could not be
failed verification by the defined `verify` option. The `status` property is
set to `403`, the `type` property is set to `'entity.verify.failed'`, and the
`body` property is set to the entity value that failed verification.
### request aborted
This error will occur when the request is aborted by the client before reading
the body has finished. The `received` property will be set to the number of
bytes received before the request was aborted and the `expected` property is
set to the number of expected bytes. The `status` property is set to `400`
and `type` property is set to `'request.aborted'`.
### request entity too large
This error will occur when the request body's size is larger than the "limit"
option. The `limit` property will be set to the byte limit and the `length`
property will be set to the request body's length. The `status` property is
set to `413` and the `type` property is set to `'entity.too.large'`.
### request size did not match content length
This error will occur when the request's length did not match the length from
the `Content-Length` header. This typically occurs when the request is malformed,
typically when the `Content-Length` header was calculated based on characters
instead of bytes. The `status` property is set to `400` and the `type` property
is set to `'request.size.invalid'`.
### stream encoding should not be set
This error will occur when something called the `req.setEncoding` method prior
to this middleware. This module operates directly on bytes only and you cannot
call `req.setEncoding` when using this module. The `status` property is set to
`500` and the `type` property is set to `'stream.encoding.set'`.
### stream is not readable
This error will occur when the request is no longer readable when this middleware
attempts to read it. This typically means something other than a middleware from
this module read the request body already and the middleware was also configured to
read the same request. The `status` property is set to `500` and the `type`
property is set to `'stream.not.readable'`.
### too many parameters
This error will occur when the content of the request exceeds the configured
`parameterLimit` for the `urlencoded` parser. The `status` property is set to
`413` and the `type` property is set to `'parameters.too.many'`.
### unsupported charset "BOGUS"
This error will occur when the request had a charset parameter in the
`Content-Type` header, but the `iconv-lite` module does not support it OR the
parser does not support it. The charset is contained in the message as well
as in the `charset` property. The `status` property is set to `415`, the
`type` property is set to `'charset.unsupported'`, and the `charset` property
is set to the charset that is unsupported.
### unsupported content encoding "bogus"
This error will occur when the request had a `Content-Encoding` header that
contained an unsupported encoding. The encoding is contained in the message
as well as in the `encoding` property. The `status` property is set to `415`,
the `type` property is set to `'encoding.unsupported'`, and the `encoding`
property is set to the encoding that is unsupported.
## Examples
### Express/Connect top-level generic
This example demonstrates adding a generic JSON and URL-encoded parser as a
top-level middleware, which will parse the bodies of all incoming requests.
This is the simplest setup.
```js
var express = require('express')
var bodyParser = require('body-parser')
var app = express()
// parse application/x-www-form-urlencoded
app.use(bodyParser.urlencoded({ extended: false }))
// parse application/json
app.use(bodyParser.json())
app.use(function (req, res) {
res.setHeader('Content-Type', 'text/plain')
res.write('you posted:\n')
res.end(JSON.stringify(req.body, null, 2))
})
```
### Express route-specific
This example demonstrates adding body parsers specifically to the routes that
need them. In general, this is the most recommended way to use body-parser with
Express.
```js
var express = require('express')
var bodyParser = require('body-parser')
var app = express()
// create application/json parser
var jsonParser = bodyParser.json()
// create application/x-www-form-urlencoded parser
var urlencodedParser = bodyParser.urlencoded({ extended: false })
// POST /login gets urlencoded bodies
app.post('/login', urlencodedParser, function (req, res) {
res.send('welcome, ' + req.body.username)
})
// POST /api/users gets JSON bodies
app.post('/api/users', jsonParser, function (req, res) {
// create user in req.body
})
```
### Change accepted type for parsers
All the parsers accept a `type` option which allows you to change the
`Content-Type` that the middleware will parse.
```js
var express = require('express')
var bodyParser = require('body-parser')
var app = express()
// parse various different custom JSON types as JSON
app.use(bodyParser.json({ type: 'application/*+json' }))
// parse some custom thing into a Buffer
app.use(bodyParser.raw({ type: 'application/vnd.custom-type' }))
// parse an HTML body into a string
app.use(bodyParser.text({ type: 'text/html' }))
```
## License
[MIT](LICENSE)
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