How to access the POST query parameters in Express

In this tutorial, we are going to learn about how to retrieve the POST query parameters using express which is sent by the HTML forms.

Getting started

First, we are creating a simple HTML form that contains two input fields (email, password) and we are sending that data to the express /login route.

<form action="http://localhost:3000/login" method="post">    <div>
        <label for="email">Email: </label>
        <input type="email" id="email" name="email"></input>    </div>
    <div>
        <label for="password">Password: </label>
        <input type="password" id="password" name="password"></input>    </div>
    <button type="submit">Login</button>
</form>

Accessing Data

To access the data in express /login route handler, first we need to enable the express.urlencoded() middleware then we can access that data using req.body object.

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

app.use(express.urlencoded()); // middleware
app.post("/login", (req, res) => {
  const email = req.body.email;  const password = req.body.password;
  console.log(email, password);
});

app.listen(3000, () => console.log("Server is running!!"));

In the above code, we have used email and password properties on req.body object to access the data because we defined the same names inside the input field name attributes.

Similarly, if you are sending a form data using HTTP clients for example Axios or Fetch API, you need to enable the express.json() middleware and use req.body object for accessing the data.

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

app.use(express.urlencoded());
app.use(express.json());