Node.js - How to send data from html to express
forms, html, http-post, node.js, node.js-client
Solution
Using `http.createServer` is very low-level and really not useful for creating web applications as-is.
A good framework to use on top of it is Express, and I would seriously suggest using it. You can install it using `npm install express`.
When you have, you can create a basic application to handle your form:
var express = require('express');
var bodyParser = require('body-parser');
var app = express();
//Note that in version 4 of express, express.bodyParser() was
//deprecated in favor of a separate 'body-parser' module.
app.use(bodyParser.urlencoded({ extended: true }));
//app.use(express.bodyParser());
app.post('/myaction', function(req, res) {
res.send('You sent the name "' + req.body.name + '".');
});
app.listen(8080, function() {
console.log('Server running at http://127.0.0.1:8080/');
});
You can make your form point to it using:
<form action="http://127.0.0.1:8080/myaction" method="post">
The reason you can't run Node on port 80 is because there's already a process running on that port (which is serving your `index.html`). You could use Express to also serve static content, like `index.html`, using the `express.static` middleware.
Problem
this is form example in html: ``` <!DOCTYPE html> <html> <head> <meta charset="utf-8" /> <title>CSS3 Contact Form</title> </head> <body> <div id="contact"> <h1>Send an email</h1> <form action="/myaction" method="post"> <fieldset> <label for="name">Name:</label> <input type="text" id="name" name="name" placeholder="Enter your full name" /> <label for="email">Email:</label> <input type="email" id="email" placeholder="Enter your email address" /> <label for="message">Message:</label> <textarea id="message" placeholder="What's on your mind?"></textarea> <input type="submit" value="Send message" /> </fieldset> </form> </div> </body> </html> ``` and this is node.js function that run on the server: ``` var sys = require('sys'), http = require('http'); http.createServer(function (req, res) { switch (req.url) case '/myaction': res.end(?????); break; } }).listen(8080); sys.puts('Server running at http://127.0.0.1:8080/'); ``` I have 2 questions: - How can I call `myaction` function in the node.js from the html page? Because the html file runs on port 80 and node.js on 8080 (when I try to move the node.js to port 80 it writes "// Unhandled 'error' event") - In the node.js function where I put "?????" how can I get data from the html form. When I type req.html.body.name I don't get the data...