Why can't Restful pass body into database - node.js

Question

I'm creating a RESTful API.
I wanna use GET method to check if lastName exists. If it can find lastName, return "YES", otherwise, call a POST method to create a data with lastName entered.
The problem is that it can create a new data, but the body is empty. Ideally, it should contain a value with lastName, like "lastName": "James",
{
"_id": "58a22c3c3f07b1fc455333a5",
"__v": 0
}
Here is my code.
router.route("/findLastName/:id")
.get(function(req,res){
var response;
mongoOp.findOne({deviceID: req.params.id}, function(err, result){
if (err) {
response = {"error" : true,"message" : "Error fetching data"};
res.json(response);
}
if (result) {
response = "YES";
res.send(response);
} else {
var XMLHttpRequest = require("xmlhttprequest").XMLHttpRequest;
var xhr = new XMLHttpRequest();
var POSTurl = "http://localhost:6002/users";
var params = "lastName=" + req.params.id;
xhr.open("POST", POSTurl, true);
xhr.setRequestHeader("Content-type", "application/x-www-form-urlencoded");
xhr.send(params);
}
});
})
PS: GET method works well, not a issue.

Answer 1

Let me modify a bit of your code and add comments as pointers:
// changed findLastName to find-last-name. It's a common convention,
// urls need to be case insensitive. It doesn't concern lastName, as
// that's a parameter, internal to your app so it's fine.
// even better if you name the route `find-or-create` or something, to better
// reflect what you're doing.
router.route("/find-last-name/:lastName")
.get(function(req,res){
var response;
mongoOp.findOne({deviceID: req.params.lastName}, function(err, result){
if (err) {
response = {"error" : true,"message" : "Error fetching data"};
// Adding a `return statement here. If you don't return, you'll tell
// the user that there was an error, but your code continues running
// potentially calling that res.json twice.
// Also, since it's an internal error, it's common to tell the client
// about it, by setting the status to 500
return res.status(500).json(response);
}
if (result) {
// turning the message to JSON instead. You started that above,
// and for the sake of your clients (your frontend), it's
// better to stick to JSON. Also you can pass useful info, such as
// _id of the document.
// Again adding a `return` here, and then the rest of the code
// is nested one level less. not required, but some people like that.
response = {
message: "Last name exists."
};
return res.json(response);
}
// Here begins the new code. I'm typing what I can infer from your code,
// I don't know if your MongoDB driver looks like that exactly.
mongoOp.insert({
deviceId: req.params.lastName
// add other optional properties here.
}, function (err, response) {
if (err) {
var message = {
error: true,
message: 'Cannot save new entry.'
}
return res.status(500).json(message);
}
// if we're here, everything went ok. You can probably return
// the _id of the given user.
return res.json({
message: 'New user created.',
_id: response._id
});
});
});
})