Express 4.17 req.body is empty - node.js

Question

I'm hoping you can help me out here because after trying over a dozen s/o solutions and reading the express docs several times, I'm stumped. I'm building a Node app that will (in the end) accept a POST from the front end app, persist it to Mongo then allow back end users to manipulate the data. I am just getting going, trying to get the POST route working and have this so far:
app.js:
const express = require("express");
const cors = require("cors");
const mongoose = require('mongoose');
const AppData = require("./model/AppData");
const uri = "mongodb://localhost:27017/lunch"
mongoose.connect(uri, { useNewUrlParser: true, useCreateIndex: true, useUnifiedTopology: true });
const connection = mongoose.connection;
const router = require("./routes/index");
const PORT = 3005;
const app = express();
app.use(cors());
app.use("/", router);
app.use(express.raw({type: "application/json"}));
app.use(express.json({strict: false}));
connection.once('open', () => {
console.log('👍Successfully connected to MongoDB👍');
});
app.listen(PORT, function () {
console.log(`🚀The Backend Server is up and running on port ${PORT}🚀`);
});
index.js (routes...plan on changing the name)
const express = require('express');
const router = express.Router();
const appDataController = require('../controllers/appDataController');
router.post('/submit', appDataController.createAppData);
module.exports = router;
and appDataController.js:
const mongoose = require('mongoose');
const AppData = mongoose.model('AppData');
exports.createAppData = (req, res) => {
let reqData = req.body;
console.log(reqData);
res.send(reqData);
}
Simple enough, really, but when I grab Postman and set up a request using body/raw/json and send
{
"name": "John",
"age": "21"
}
I always see that body is undefined. From everything I've seen, I'm not doing anything wrong, but the result clearly indicates otherwise...What is it that I've missed?

Answer 1

Its because your using your express.json middleware after the routes, change this:
const express = require("express");
const cors = require("cors");
const mongoose = require('mongoose');
const AppData = require("./model/AppData");
const uri = "mongodb://localhost:27017/lunch"
mongoose.connect(uri, { useNewUrlParser: true, useCreateIndex: true, useUnifiedTopology: true });
const connection = mongoose.connection;
const router = require("./routes/index");
const PORT = 3005;
const app = express();
app.use(cors());
app.use(express.raw({type: "application/json"}));
app.use(express.json({strict: false}));
app.use("/", router); // this need to be here
connection.once('open', () => {
console.log('👍Successfully connected to MongoDB👍');
});
app.listen(PORT, function () {
console.log(`🚀The Backend Server is up and running on port ${PORT}🚀`);
});
first comes the middlewares and then the routes(depends on the middleware your using ofcurse).

Answer 2

You should also include urlencoded option to get the body on x-www-form-urlencoded body for POST requests.
const app = express();
app.use(cors());
app.use(express.raw({type: "application/json"}));
app.use(express.json({strict: false}));
app.use(express.urlencoded({extended: false})); // include this line
app.use("/", router);