Receive form data in an array in node.js using Express?

Question

I want to create a form which makes a request of type POST and send the data to the node.js server (using express).

How can the form sent and received as an array in the server?

Answer 1

PHP introduced an extension to the application/x-www-form-urlencoded data format that allows complex data structures to be encoded. Express has support for that format via the body-parser module.

Name the fields with [] at the end of the name.

<fieldset>
    <legend>What animals do you like?</legend>
    <label><input type="checkbox" name="animals[]" value="Cats"> Cats</label>
    <label><input type="checkbox" name="animals[]" value="Dogs"> Dogs</label>
    <label><input type="checkbox" name="animals[]" value="Tortoises"> Tortoises</label>
</fieldset>

Then, in express, use the body-parser middleware and turn on extended support.

app.use(bodyParser.urlencoded({ extended: true }))

When you read the request body, animals will be an array (or unset if none of the checkboxes were checked).