node.js - What does body-parser do with express?

Question

I don't understand why we need body-parser in an Express application, as we can get data without using body-parser. And what does it do actually and how?

Answer 1

To handle HTTP POST requests in Express.js version 4 and above, you need to install the middleware module called body-parser.

body-parser extracts the entire body portion of an incoming request stream and exposes it on req.body.

The middleware was a part of Express.js earlier but now you have to install it separately.

This body-parser module parses the JSON, buffer, string and URL encoded data submitted using HTTP POST request. Install body-parser using NPM as shown below.

npm install body-parser --save

edit in 2019-april-2: in [email protected] the body-parser middleware bundled with express. for more details see this