How to Access POST Form Fields in Express

Better Stack Team

Updated on April 4, 2024

In Express.js, you can access POST form fields using the req.body object. To do this, you need to use a middleware called body-parser (for Express versions 4.16.0 and below) or the built-in express.urlencoded() middleware (for Express versions 4.16.1 and above).

Here's an example using the express.urlencoded() middleware:

Install express (if not already installed) and body-parser (if your Express version is 4.16.0 or below):
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```
npm install express
```

Create an Express application:

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const express = require('express');
const app = express();

// Middleware to parse urlencoded data
app.use(express.urlencoded({ extended: true }));

// Route handling POST form submission
app.post('/submit-form', (req, res) => {
  // Access form fields from req.body
  const username = req.body.username;
  const password = req.body.password;

  // Process the form data
  console.log('Username:', username);
  console.log('Password:', password);

  // Send a response
  res.send('Form submitted successfully!');
});

// Start the server
const PORT = 3000;
app.listen(PORT, () => {
  console.log(`Server is listening on port ${PORT}`);
});

Create an HTML form:

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<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
  <meta charset="UTF-8">
  <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
  <title>Form Submission</title>
</head>
<body>
  <form action="/submit-form" method="post">
    <label for="username">Username:</label>
    <input type="text" id="username" name="username" required>

    <label for="password">Password:</label>
    <input type="password" id="password" name="password" required>

    <button type="submit">Submit</button>
  </form>
</body>
</html>

Submit the form:
- Open the HTML file in a browser.
- Enter values in the form fields and submit the form.

The Express server will receive the POST request, and you can access the form fields using req.body in the route handler. Make sure to use the express.urlencoded() middleware to parse the form data. If your Express version is 4.16.1 or above, this middleware is included by default. Otherwise, you might need to install and use the body-parser middleware as shown in step 1.

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