Express JS - Network connection was lost - node.js

Question

I am trying to set up an express js server that will be hosting a mongodb database. Everything is pretty standard: I have some routes open that will take in data from the client and then store that in the database.
Here is my query string:
let url = "http://xxx.xxx.xx.xxx:3000/update/data=" + JSON.stringify(params);
What I have noticed is that if params doesn't contain much information, it works fine. However, if params is contains a lot of information, then the client throws this error:
Failed to load resource: The network connection was lost.
Http failure response for (unknown url): 0 Unknown Error
(This same error is happening in both Safari and Chrome.)
For example, if params is as below:
{
"accountId": "12345678910",
"data": [
1, 2, 3, 4
]
}
then there is no issue. However, if params.data is a huge array with a ton of information in it instead of just [1, 2, 3, 4], then the error is thrown.
Also, my express server never even seems to receive the request. No logs; nothing. What I would expect to happen is just a normal response and result, however it seems like the client is just giving up on sending something large. Perhaps it has something to do with sending it as a big string?

Answer 1

You put your data on your URL. But, URLs have limited length.
You need to use POST and put your data in the HTTP request body.
You haven't shown us how you use that URL, so it's hard to make suggestions about altering your code. Using the http request operation is the way to go. Something like this might work...
const payload = JSON.stringify(params);
const url = 'http://xxx.xxx.xx.xxx:3000/update/';
const options = {
method: 'POST', // <--- tell it to POST
headers: {
'Content-Type': 'application/json', // <--- tell it you're posting JSON
'Content-Length': payload.length; // <--- tell it how much data you're posting.
}
};
const req = http.request(url, options, (res) => {
/* handle stuff coming back from request here */
console.log(`STATUS: ${res.statusCode}`);
console.log(`HEADERS: ${JSON.stringify(res.headers)}`);
res.setEncoding('utf8');
let chunks=[];
res.on('data', (chunk) => {
chunks.push(chunk);
console.log(`BODY: ${chunk}`);
});
res.on('end', () => {
const resultingData = chunks.join();
console.log('No more data in response.');
});
});
req.on('error', (e) => {
console.error(`problem with request: ${e.message}`);
});
// write data to request body
req.write(payload);
req.end();