NodeJS Express password reset in MVC - node.js

Question

I am trying to set up a password-reset route inside my node application, which is suppose to send an email to the user with a password reset link.
The issue that I am having is that I keep receiving the error TypeError: cannot read property json of undefined. To my understanding this means that I am not passing the email correctly to my server side code.
I am having troubles locating the exact place of my bug. I've followed this example, however I've changed it to a more of a MVC architecture. Meaning that I've split the Node code into a service and a controller.
Here is my ReactJS code:
class PasswordResetComponent extends Component {
constructor(props){
super(props);
this.state = {
email:'',
showError:false,
messageFromServer:''
}
}
handleChange = name => event => {
this.setState({
[name]: event.target.value
});
}
sendEmail = e => {
e.preventDefault();
if(this.state.email == ' '){
this.setState({
showError: false,
messageFromServer:' ',
});
}else{
(async () => {
const rawResponse = await fetch(process.env.REACT_APP_SERVER_URI + '/user/password-reset', {
method: 'POST',
body: this.state.email
});
const response = await rawResponse.json();
console.log(response)
})();
}
}
render(){
console.log(this.state.email)
const {email, messageFromServer, showError, showNullError} = this.state;
return(
<div className="container-fluid no-gutters page-login">
<div className="row">
<div className="login-wrapper">
<form onSubmit={this.sendEmail} method="POST">
<div className="form-row">
<div className="form-group col-md-12">
<input type="email" name="email" className="form-control" value={email} onChange={this.handleChange('email')} placeholder="Email" required/>
</div>
</div>
<button type="submit" className="btn btn-primary btn-lg btn-block">Send Confirmation</button>
</form>
<Link to="/login"><button className="mt-4 btn btn-info">Back to Login</button></Link>
</div>
</div>
</div>
);
}
}
Inside my React code, I manage to successfully print out the value of this.state.email meaning that it should be passing fine. I also receive a 200 status on the request.
Here is my Service for password reset:
exports.passwordResetService = async function(email,res, req){
try{
User.findOne({
email: email
}).then(user => {
if( user == null){
res.json('email not in db');
}else{
const token = crypto.randomBytes(20).toString('hex');
console.log(token);
user.update({
resetPasswordToken: token,
resetPasswordExpires: Date.now() + 360000,
});
const transporter = nodemailer.createTransport({
service: 'gmx',
host: 'mail.gmx.com',
port: 587,
secure: true,
auth: {
user: `${process.env.EMAIL_ADDRESS}`,
pass: `${process.env.EMAIL_PASSWORD}`,
},
});
const mailOptions = {
from:'testaccount9909#gmx.com',
to: `${user.email}`,
subject: `Password Reset Email Broh'`,
text:
`Please click the following link to reset your account's password:`+
`http://localhost:3003/reset/${token}\n\n`+
`If you simply ignore the link, your password will remain unchanged!`
}
console.log('sending email...');
transporter.sendMail(mailOptions, function(err, response){
if(err){
console.error('there was an error: ', err);
} else {
console.log('here is the resposne:', response);
res.status(200).json('recovery email sent');
}
})
}
}).catch(error =>
console.log(error)
);
}catch(e){
throw Error("And Error occured while resetting the password");
}
}
Here is my Controller for password reset:
exports.passwordReset = async function(req, res, next){
try{
let passwordResetValue = await UserService.passwordResetService(req.body.email);
return res.status(200).json({status:200, data: passwordResetValue, error:"false", message:"Password reset email has been sent!"})
}catch(e){
console.log(e, "Wopsie wopsie email reset error!");
res.status(400);
}
};
The Place where I am getting the error is inside the Service, more specifically:
if( user == null){
res.json('email not in db');
}
Why am I not passing the user email to the NodeJS service?

Answer 1

The reason you're getting cannot read property json of undefined is because res is not available to passwordResetService since you've not passed it from the route callback and since it's not a middleware
Since all that you're doing with passwordResetService is do some validation and send email you can make few changes to your code like:
// Since you want to send the some success message, you can make a promise wrapper
// to return a promise which you can later await to get status or failure
function mailSender(mailOptions) {
return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
transporter.sendMail(mailOptions, function(err, response){
if(err){
// could just reject(err) instead
reject('there was an error: ', err);
} else {
console.log('here is the resposne:', response);
resolve('recovery email sent');
}
});
});
}
exports.passwordResetService = async function(email){
let mailStatus;
try{
const user = User.findOne({ email });
if (user === null) {
return ({ message: "email not in db" });
}
const token = crypto.randomBytes(20).toString('hex');
console.log(token);
user.update({
resetPasswordToken: token,
resetPasswordExpires: Date.now() + 360000,
});
const transporter = nodemailer.createTransport({
service: 'gmx',
host: 'mail.gmx.com',
port: 587,
secure: true,
auth: {
user: `${process.env.EMAIL_ADDRESS}`,
pass: `${process.env.EMAIL_PASSWORD}`,
},
});
const mailOptions = {
from:'testaccount9909#gmx.com',
to: `${user.email}`,
subject: `Password Reset Email Broh'`,
text:
`Please click the following link to reset your account's password:`+
`http://localhost:3003/reset/${token}\n\n`+
`If you simply ignore the link, your password will remain unchanged!`
}
console.log('sending email...');
// wait for promise to resolve, if promise is rejected, catch block will catch the error
mailStatus = await mailSender(mailOptions);
} catch(e) {
throw Error("And Error occured while resetting the password");
}
return mailStatus;
}