make a post request with in node.js application - node.js

Question

I've a node.js service with /api/authenticate endpoint. I can call this service successfully from POSTMAN with 'username' and 'password' as input (body parameters). How do I call the same services from another node.js server?
With postman I get,
body: {name: 'xxxxxx', password: 'xxxxxx' }
headers: { 'content-type': 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded',
host: 'xx.xx.xx.xx:xxxx',
connection: 'close',
'content-length': '0' }
POST /api/authenticate 200 1.336 ms - 72
Following is another nodejs application ... which makes a successful request call but doesn't have any body parameters (username and password) when it reaches to the authentication server api.
var my_http = require('http');
app.get('/makeacall', function(req, res) {
var output = '';
var options = {
body: { name: 'xxxxxx', password: 'xxxxxx' },
method: 'POST',
host: 'xx.xx.xx.xx',
port: 'xxxx',
path: '/api/authenticate',
headers: {
'Content-Type': 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded'
}
};
console.log('before request');
var req = my_http.request(options, function(response) {
console.log('response is: ' + response);
console.log('Response status code: ' + response.statusCode);
response.on('data', function(chunk) {
console.log('Data ..');
output += chunk;
});
response.on('end', function(chunk) {
console.log('Whole Data ..' + output);
});
});
req.on('error', function(err) {
console.log('Error: ' + err);
});
req.end();
console.log('444');
res.send({ message: 'View record message'});
});
From this nodejs application I get empty body on the server.
body: {}
headers: { 'content-type': 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded',
host: 'xx.xx.xx.xx:xxxx',
connection: 'close',
'content-length': '0' }
POST /api/authenticate 200 1.336 ms - 72
What am I missing? Any help is appreciated.

Answer 1

Using stock http library of NodeJS doesn't allow you to use that syntax.
Take a look at RequestJS as a much simpler solution. It will make your life a lot easier and allow you to use the syntax you want.
This is the solution to do it with stock Node.
https://nodejs.org/api/http.html#http_http_request_options_callback
Relevant Parts:
var postData = querystring.stringify({
'msg' : 'Hello World!'
});
And then, at the end:
// write data to request body
req.write(postData);
req.end();
But use a library unless you absolutely can't.

Answer 2

Are you trying to get the posted data from a form/etc?
Try using express.
npm install express -save
You can get posted data from a url with the ff:
app.post('*', function(request, response){
var post = {};
if(Object.keys(request.body).length){
for(var key in request.body){
post[key] = request.body[key];
console.log(key+'=>'+post[key];
}
}
});