Parameters in Express

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Express provides several different "parameters" objects:

req.params for path parameters (aka route parameters) signified with a : in the route matcher
req.query for query parameters which appear after the ? in the URL
req.body for post parameters which appear inside the request body

Path Parameters in Express

The special character : means "this is a path parameter"

Example:

Path: /hello/Gandalf
Route: /hello/:name
Params: {name: 'Gandalf'}

Express will grab the value from the path itself, and put it into the request.params object for you to use later.

Query Parameters in Express

For query parameters like ?season=winter&weather=cold

Express will grab the name and value from the query string, and put it into the request.query object for you to use later

LAB: Hello, Query Friend!

Now change your "Hello, Express" server to have the following route:

app.get('/hello', (request, response)=> {
    response.send('Hello, ' + request.query.friend + '!')
});

Prove that it works by visiting http://localhost:5000/hello?friend=Gandalf (or use your own name)

Body Parameters in Express

Since request bodies can appear in several different formats, you need to use the correct middleware to extract them.

express.urlencoded parses incoming requests with URL-encoded payloads
express.json parses incoming requests with JSON payloads

Example (from the express guide):

// POST /login gets urlencoded bodies
app.post('/login', express.urlencoded(), function (req, res) {
  res.send('welcome, ' + req.body.username)
})

// POST /api/users gets JSON bodies
app.post('/api/users', express.json(), function (req, res) {
  // create user in req.body
})

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