How to use FormData in node.js without Browser?

Question

I want to make a post request in nodejs without browser since it is backend code.

const formdata = new FormData()
formdata.append('chartfile', file);

But above code gives me error as FormData not defined. I am working with ES6.

Anybody, who can let me know how to use the FormData in nodejs?

Radical Edward · Accepted Answer · 2023-06-07T08:28:31.473

107

You can use form-data - npm module.

Use it this way,

var FormData = require('form-data');
var fs = require('fs');
 
var form = new FormData();
form.append('my_field', 'my value');
form.append('my_buffer', new Buffer(10));
form.append('my_file', fs.createReadStream('/foo/bar.jpg'));

edited Jun 07 '23 at 08:28

answered Aug 25 '20 at 10:37

Radical Edward

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2

Thanks for your answer. I am working with ES6 so I imported like this:`import FormData from 'form-data'` But I get error `form_data_1.default is not a contructor` – Josh Thomas Aug 25 '20 at 10:55
If its node js, you only can do `var FormData = require('form-data');` Node JS doesn't support ES6 syntaxt for importing. – Radical Edward Aug 25 '20 at 11:06
I am using esm module to use ES6 syntax. – Josh Thomas Aug 25 '20 at 11:27
1

try `import * as FormData from form-data` – Radical Edward Aug 25 '20 at 11:51
1

Thanks. I get another error `source.on is not a function`. Sorry for my poor question – Josh Thomas Aug 25 '20 at 12:02
dont know, refer document or ask in github repo ? – Radical Edward Aug 25 '20 at 12:22
@AdelinIonut did you found any solution to the `source.on is not a function` error? – Shibbir Ahmed Jul 24 '21 at 18:46
How to pass additional headers which should not be send via post parameters as if i don't use bodyParams.getHeaders() it does not pass post parameters and if i append secret token in headers then it even sends it as post or headers. – insoftservice Sep 01 '21 at 07:33
no need, `new URLSearchParams()` does the same exact thing – sudo soul Jan 01 '22 at 10:24
@AdelinIonut, did you try `import * as FormData from 'form-data'`? – Albino Cordeiro Jan 12 '22 at 05:16
@RadicalEdward I am sending the file from a frontend app and using multer middleware. When I append the `my_file` field for example, do I still need to use `fs.createReadStream` or is there another way that I can pass the file directly? – pdp2 Mar 22 '22 at 07:19
`source.on is not a function` usually means that you have to stringify the content (`JSON.stringify`) – Javi Marzán Mar 23 '22 at 12:31
2

`FormData` is a Node API [starting with Node 18](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/FormData#browser_compatibility) – Boris Verkhovskiy Jun 07 '23 at 02:32

score 57 · Answer 2 · edited Jun 15 '23 at 12:42

57

If you only need to submit string values and not Buffer or ReadStream, then URLSearchParams can work for you!

Original Example

var fs = require('fs');
 
var form = new URLSearchParams();
form.append('my_field', 'my value');
form.append('my_second_field', 'my value 2');
form.append('my_third_field', 'my value 3');

Axios Example

const formData = new URLSearchParams();
formData.append('field1', 'value1');
formData.append('field2', 'value2');
const response = await axios.request({
  url: 'https://example.com',
  method: 'POST',
  headers: {'Content-Type': 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded'},
  data: formData
});

edited Jun 15 '23 at 12:42

Ostap Brehin

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answered Jan 01 '22 at 10:24

sudo soul

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@OMKARAGRAWAL you should have just edited this one or contributed it here, forking when its not needed just adds to noise. like what was the point – sudo soul May 27 '22 at 15:02
6

This does not work as described. URLSearchParams only accepts a string as a value, so a ReadStream or Buffer are not valid. Therefore, this is not equivalent to FormData. – rantao Jul 17 '22 at 22:36
6

This is not going to work if the request is `multipart/form-data`. – Branislav Lazic Aug 11 '22 at 17:51
2

That's totally wrong! URLSearchParams and FormData are two different things and it will not work. – MatixYo Feb 19 '23 at 15:38
The question is for node.js not for web api – Forbidden Mar 20 '23 at 02:33
Is there possible to send array as field ? – J0rdAn May 10 '23 at 10:44

score 22 · Answer 3 · answered Aug 11 '22 at 18:48

22

FormData is now a part of Node 18. They removed the experimental warning they introduced in Node 17: https://github.com/nodejs/node/commit/d33cbabd79

Now you can use it with fetch without any dependencies.

answered Aug 11 '22 at 18:48

Branislav Lazic

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score 9 · Answer 4 · answered Aug 25 '20 at 10:37

9

FormData is a part of JS web API (not included in native NodeJS). You can install the form-data package instead.

answered Aug 25 '20 at 10:37

Daniel

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Thanks. Can you let me know how to use that module in ES6 syntax? – Josh Thomas Aug 25 '20 at 11:57
3

`import * as FormData from "form-data";` – Daniel Aug 25 '20 at 12:00
2

For me this is what worked: `import { default as FormData } from "form-data";` – Dénes Tarján Apr 29 '21 at 14:40
3

@AdelinIonut @DenesTarjan for me it works even simpler `import FormData from "form-data";` – Stanislav Jan 27 '22 at 13:57

score 9 · Answer 5 · answered Jan 20 '22 at 16:06

9

In my opinion the cleanest solution that requires no additional dependencies is:

const formData = new URLSearchParams({
  param1: 'this',
  param2: 'is',
  param3: 'neat',
})

answered Jan 20 '22 at 16:06

omeanwell

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score 6 · Answer 6 · answered Oct 21 '21 at 12:47

6

I would suggest the npm module formdata-node because it's a complete (spec-compliant) FormData implementation for Node.js. It supports both ESM/CJS targets, so EM6 is supported. You can find a few examples at the npm module page.

answered Oct 21 '21 at 12:47

famzah

1,462
18
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score -1 · Answer 7 · edited Jun 16 '23 at 08:05

 let _data = new FormData();
_data.append(`FaceDataRecord', '{"faceLibType":"blackFD","FDID":"1","FPID":"${employeeNo}"}`);
_data.append('img', fs.createReadStream('/C:/Users/ALIENWARE/Downloads/unnamed.jpg'));

let _config = {
    method: 'put',
    maxBodyLength: Infinity,
    url: 'http://192.168.1.3/ISAPI/Intelligent/FDLib/FDSetUp?format=json',
    headers: {
        'Accept': '*/*',
        'Accept-Language': 'en-US,en;q=0.9',
        'Connection': 'keep-alive',
        'Cookie': 'language=en; WebSession_F82FED6D22=' + cookie,
        'Origin': 'http://192.168.1.3',
        'Referer': 'http://192.168.1.3/index.asp',
        'User-Agent': 'Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/114.0.0.0 Safari/537.36',
        'X-Requested-With': 'XMLHttpRequest',
        ..._data.getHeaders()
    },
    data: _data
};

await axios.request(_config)
    .then((response) => {
        console.log(JSON.stringify(response.data));
    })
    .catch((error) => {
        console.log(error);
    });

TypeError: Cannot read property 'name' of undefined

How to use FormData in node.js without Browser?

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