koa-body

What is koa-body?

koa-body is a middleware for Koa that parses incoming request bodies in various formats, including JSON, URL-encoded, and multipart forms. It simplifies handling file uploads and form submissions in Koa applications.

What are koa-body's main functionalities?

JSON Body Parsing

This feature allows you to parse JSON bodies from incoming requests. The middleware automatically parses the JSON and makes it available in `ctx.request.body`.

const Koa = require('koa');
const koaBody = require('koa-body');
const app = new Koa();

app.use(koaBody());

app.use(async ctx => {
  if (ctx.method === 'POST') {
    ctx.body = `Received JSON data: ${JSON.stringify(ctx.request.body)}`;
  } else {
    ctx.body = 'Send a POST request with JSON data';
  }
});

app.listen(3000);

URL-encoded Body Parsing

This feature allows you to parse URL-encoded bodies from incoming requests. The middleware automatically parses the URL-encoded data and makes it available in `ctx.request.body`.

const Koa = require('koa');
const koaBody = require('koa-body');
const app = new Koa();

app.use(koaBody({ urlencoded: true }));

app.use(async ctx => {
  if (ctx.method === 'POST') {
    ctx.body = `Received URL-encoded data: ${JSON.stringify(ctx.request.body)}`;
  } else {
    ctx.body = 'Send a POST request with URL-encoded data';
  }
});

app.listen(3000);

Multipart Form Parsing

This feature allows you to parse multipart form data, which is commonly used for file uploads. The middleware automatically parses the multipart data and makes it available in `ctx.request.files`.

const Koa = require('koa');
const koaBody = require('koa-body');
const app = new Koa();

app.use(koaBody({ multipart: true }));

app.use(async ctx => {
  if (ctx.method === 'POST') {
    const files = ctx.request.files;
    ctx.body = `Received files: ${JSON.stringify(files)}`;
  } else {
    ctx.body = 'Send a POST request with multipart form data';
  }
});

app.listen(3000);

Other packages similar to koa-body

koa-bodyparser

koa-bodyparser is a middleware for Koa that parses JSON and URL-encoded request bodies. It is simpler and more lightweight compared to koa-body, but it does not support multipart form data parsing.

koa-multer

koa-multer is a middleware for handling multipart/form-data, which is primarily used for uploading files. It is similar to koa-body in terms of file upload capabilities but does not handle JSON or URL-encoded bodies.

koa-better-body

koa-better-body is a more feature-rich alternative to koa-body, supporting JSON, URL-encoded, and multipart form data parsing. It also offers additional features like custom body parsers and file renaming.

README

koa-body

A full-featured koa body parser middleware. Supports multipart, urlencoded, and json request bodies. Provides the same functionality as Express's bodyParser - multer.

Install

Install with npm

npm install koa-body

Features

• can handle requests such as:
  • multipart/form-data
  • application/x-www-urlencoded
  • application/json
  • application/json-patch+json
  • application/vnd.api+json
  • application/csp-report
  • text/xml
• option for patch to Koa or Node, or either
• file uploads
• body, fields and files size limiting

Hello World - Quickstart

npm install koa koa-body # Note that Koa requires Node.js 7.6.0+ for async/await support

index.js:

const Koa = require('koa');
const koaBody = require('koa-body');

const app = new Koa();

app.use(koaBody());
app.use(ctx => {
  ctx.body = `Request Body: ${JSON.stringify(ctx.request.body)}`;
});

app.listen(3000);

node index.js
curl -i http://localhost:3000/users -d "name=test"

Output:

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8
Content-Length: 29
Date: Wed, 03 May 2017 02:09:44 GMT
Connection: keep-alive

Request Body: {"name":"test"}%

For a more comprehensive example, see examples/multipart.js

Usage with koa-router

It's generally better to only parse the body as needed, if using a router that supports middleware composition, we can inject it only for certain routes.

const Koa = require('koa');
const app = new Koa();
const router = require('koa-router')();
const koaBody = require('koa-body');

router.post('/users', koaBody(),
  (ctx) => {
    console.log(ctx.request.body);
    // => POST body
    ctx.body = JSON.stringify(ctx.request.body);
  }
);

app.use(router.routes());

app.listen(3000);
console.log('curl -i http://localhost:3000/users -d "name=test"');

Usage with unsupported text body type

For unsupported text body type, for example, text/xml, you can use the unparsed request body at ctx.request.body. For the text content type, the includeUnparsed setting is not required.

// xml-parse.js:
const Koa = require('koa');
const koaBody = require('koa-body');
const convert = require('xml-js');

const app = new Koa();

app.use(koaBody());
app.use(ctx => {
  const obj = convert.xml2js(ctx.request.body)
  ctx.body = `Request Body: ${JSON.stringify(obj)}`;
});

app.listen(3000);

node xml-parse.js
curl -i http://localhost:3000/users -H "Content-Type: text/xml" -d '<?xml version="1.0"?><catalog id="1"></catalog>'

Output:

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8
Content-Length: 135
Date: Tue, 09 Jun 2020 11:17:38 GMT
Connection: keep-alive

Request Body: {"declaration":{"attributes":{"version":"1.0"}},"elements":[{"type":"element","name":"catalog","attributes":{"id":"1"}}]}%

Options

Options available for koa-body. Four custom options, and others are from raw-body and formidable.

• patchNode {Boolean} Patch request body to Node's ctx.req, default false
• patchKoa {Boolean} Patch request body to Koa's ctx.request, default true
• jsonLimit {String|Integer} The byte (if integer) limit of the JSON body, default 1mb
• formLimit {String|Integer} The byte (if integer) limit of the form body, default 56kb
• textLimit {String|Integer} The byte (if integer) limit of the text body, default 56kb
• encoding {String} Sets encoding for incoming form fields, default utf-8
• multipart {Boolean} Parse multipart bodies, default false
• urlencoded {Boolean} Parse urlencoded bodies, default true
• text {Boolean} Parse text bodies, such as XML, default true
• json {Boolean} Parse JSON bodies, default true
• jsonStrict {Boolean} Toggles co-body strict mode; if set to true - only parses arrays or objects, default true
• includeUnparsed {Boolean} Toggles co-body returnRawBody option; if set to true, for form encodedand and JSON requests the raw, unparsed requesty body will be attached to ctx.request.body using a Symbol, default false
• formidable {Object} Options to pass to the formidable multipart parser
• onError {Function} Custom error handle, if throw an error, you can customize the response - onError(error, context), default will throw
• strict {Boolean} DEPRECATED If enabled, don't parse GET, HEAD, DELETE requests, default true
• parsedMethods {String[]} Declares the HTTP methods where bodies will be parsed, default ['POST', 'PUT', 'PATCH']. Replaces strict option.

A note about parsedMethods

see http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-httpbis-p2-semantics-19#section-6.3

• GET, HEAD, and DELETE requests have no defined semantics for the request body, but this doesn't mean they may not be valid in certain use cases.
• koa-body is strict by default, parsing only POST, PUT, and PATCH requests

File Support

Uploaded files are accessible via ctx.request.files.

A note about unparsed request bodies

Some applications require crytopgraphic verification of request bodies, for example webhooks from slack or stripe. The unparsed body can be accessed if includeUnparsed is true in koa-body's options. When enabled, import the symbol for accessing the request body from unparsed = require('koa-body/unparsed.js'), or define your own accessor using unparsed = Symbol.for('unparsedBody'). Then the unparsed body is available using ctx.request.body[unparsed].

Some options for formidable

See node-formidable for a full list of options

• maxFields {Integer} Limits the number of fields that the querystring parser will decode, default 1000
• maxFieldsSize {Integer} Limits the amount of memory all fields together (except files) can allocate in bytes. If this value is exceeded, an 'error' event is emitted, default 2mb (2 * 1024 * 1024)
• uploadDir {String} Sets the directory for placing file uploads in, default os.tmpDir()
• keepExtensions {Boolean} Files written to uploadDir will include the extensions of the original files, default false
• hash {String} If you want checksums calculated for incoming files, set this to either 'sha1' or 'md5', default false
• multiples {Boolean} Multiple file uploads or no, default true
• onFileBegin {Function} Special callback on file begin. The function is executed directly by formidable. It can be used to rename files before saving them to disk. See the docs

Changelog

Please see the Changelog for a summary of changes.

Tests

$ npm test

License

The MIT License, 2014 Charlike Mike Reagent (@tunnckoCore) and Daryl Lau (@daryllau)

Changelog

4.2.0

• support all text content types (#179)
• adds TypeScript integration testing (#177)
• removes testing against EOL Node.js verions