How do I POST urlencoded form data with $http without jQuery?

Question

I think you need to do is to transform your data from object not to JSON string, but to url params.

From Ben Nadel's blog.

By default, the $http service will transform the outgoing request by serializing the data as JSON and then posting it with the content- type, "application/json". When we want to post the value as a FORM post, we need to change the serialization algorithm and post the data with the content-type, "application/x-www-form-urlencoded".

Example from here.

$http({
    method: 'POST',
    url: url,
    headers: {'Content-Type': 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded'},
    transformRequest: function(obj) {
        var str = [];
        for(var p in obj)
        str.push(encodeURIComponent(p) + "=" + encodeURIComponent(obj[p]));
        return str.join("&");
    },
    data: {username: $scope.userName, password: $scope.password}
}).then(function () {});

UPDATE

To use new services added with AngularJS V1.4, see

• URL-encoding variables using only AngularJS services

URL-encoding variables using only AngularJS services

With AngularJS 1.4 and up, two services can handle the process of url-encoding data for POST requests, eliminating the need to manipulate the data with transformRequest or using external dependencies like jQuery:

1. $httpParamSerializerJQLike - a serializer inspired by jQuery's .param() (recommended)

2. $httpParamSerializer - a serializer used by Angular itself for GET requests

Example with $http()

$http({
  url: 'some/api/endpoint',
  method: 'POST',
  data: $httpParamSerializerJQLike($scope.appForm.data), // Make sure to inject the service you choose to the controller
  headers: {
    'Content-Type': 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded' // Note the appropriate header
  }
}).then(function(response) { /* do something here */ });

See a more verbose Plunker demo

---

Example with $http.post()

$http.post(
    'some/api/endpoint',
    data: $httpParamSerializerJQLike($scope.appForm.data), // Make sure to inject the service you choose to the controller
    {
       headers: {
         'Content-Type': 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded' // Note the appropriate header
      }
    }
).then(function

---

How are $httpParamSerializerJQLike and $httpParamSerializer different

In general, it seems $httpParamSerializer uses less "traditional" url-encoding format than $httpParamSerializerJQLike when it comes to complex data structures.

For example (ignoring percent encoding of brackets):

• Encoding an array

{sites:['google', 'Facebook']} // Object with array property

sites[]=google&sites[]=facebook // Result with $httpParamSerializerJQLike

sites=google&sites=facebook // Result with $httpParamSerializer

• Encoding an object

{address: {city: 'LA', country: 'USA'}} // Object with object property

address[city]=LA&address[country]=USA // Result with $httpParamSerializerJQLike

address={"city": "LA", country: "USA"} // Result with $httpParamSerializer

All of these look like overkill (or don't work)... just do this:

$http.post(loginUrl, `username=${ encodeURIComponent(username) }` +
                     `&password=${ encodeURIComponent(password) }` +
                     '&grant_type=password'
).success(function (data) {

The problem is the JSON string format, You can use a simple URL string in data:

$http({
    method: 'POST',
    url: url,
    headers: {'Content-Type': 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded'},
    data: 'username='+$scope.userName+'&password='+$scope.password
}).success(function () {});

Here is the way it should be (and please no backend changes ... certainly not ... if your front stack does not support application/x-www-form-urlencoded, then throw it away ... hopefully AngularJS does !

$http({
     method: 'POST',
     url: 'api_endpoint',
     headers: {'Content-Type': 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded'},
     data: 'username='+$scope.username+'&password='+$scope.password
 }).then(function(response) {
    // on success
 }, function(response) {
    // on error
 });

Works like a charm with AngularJS 1.5

People, let give u some advice:

• use promises .then(success, error) when dealing with $http, forget about .sucess and .error callbacks (as they are being deprecated)

• From the angularjs site here "You can no longer use the JSON_CALLBACK string as a placeholder for specifying where the callback parameter value should go."

If your data model is more complex that just a username and a password, you can still do that (as suggested above)

$http({
     method: 'POST',
     url: 'api_endpoint',
     headers: {'Content-Type': 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded'},
     data: json_formatted_data,
     transformRequest: function(data, headers) {
          return transform_json_to_urlcoded(data); // iterate over fields and chain key=value separated with &, using encodeURIComponent javascript function
     }
}).then(function(response) {
  // on succes
}, function(response) {
  // on error
});

Document for the encodeURIComponent can be found here

If it is a form try changing the header to:

headers[ "Content-type" ] = "application/x-www-form-urlencoded; charset=utf-8";

and if it is not a form and a simple json then try this header:

headers[ "Content-type" ] = "application/json";

From the $http docs this should work..

  $http.post(url, data,{headers: {'Content-Type': 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded'}})
    .success(function(response) {
         // your code...
     });