How do I POST urlencoded form data with $http with

Question

I am new to AngularJS, and for a start, I thought to develop a new application using only AngularJS.

I am trying to make an AJAX call to the server side, using $http from my Angular App.

For sending the parameters, I tried the following:

$http({
    method: "post",
    url: URL,
    headers: {'Content-Type': 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded'},
    data: $.param({username: $scope.userName, password: $scope.password})
}).success(function(result){
    console.log(result);
});

This is working, but it is using jQuery as well at $.param. For removing the dependency on jQuery, I tried:

data: {username: $scope.userName, password: $scope.password}

but this seemed to fail. Then I tried params:

params: {username: $scope.userName, password: $scope.password}

but this also seemed to fail. Then I tried JSON.stringify:

data: JSON.stringify({username: $scope.userName, password: $scope.password})

I found these possible answers to my quest, but was unsuccessful. Am I doing something wrong? I am sure, AngularJS would provide this functionality, but how?

Answer 1

URL-encoding variables using only AngularJS services

With AngularJS 1.4 and up, two services can handle the process of url-encoding data for POST requests, eliminating the need to manipulate the data with transformRequest or using external dependencies like jQuery:

1. $httpParamSerializerJQLike - a serializer inspired by jQuery's .param() (recommended)

2. $httpParamSerializer - a serializer used by Angular itself for GET requests

Example usage

$http({
  url: 'some/api/endpoint',
  method: 'POST',
  data: $httpParamSerializerJQLike($scope.appForm.data), // Make sure to inject the service you choose to the controller
  headers: {
    'Content-Type': 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded' // Note the appropriate header
  }
}).then(function(response) { /* do something here */ });

See a more verbose Plunker demo

---

How are $httpParamSerializerJQLike and $httpParamSerializer different

In general, it seems $httpParamSerializer uses less "traditional" url-encoding format than $httpParamSerializerJQLike when it comes to complex data structures.

For example (ignoring percent encoding of brackets):

• Encoding an array

{sites:['google', 'Facebook']} // Object with array property

sites[]=google&sites[]=facebook // Result with $httpParamSerializerJQLike

sites=google&sites=facebook // Result with $httpParamSerializer

• Encoding an object

{address: {city: 'LA', country: 'USA'}} // Object with object property

address[city]=LA&address[country]=USA // Result with $httpParamSerializerJQLike

address={"city": "LA", country: "USA"} // Result with $httpParamSerializer

Answer 2

I think you need to do is to transform your data from object not to JSON string, but to url params.

From Ben Nadel's blog.

By default, the $http service will transform the outgoing request by serializing the data as JSON and then posting it with the content- type, "application/json". When we want to post the value as a FORM post, we need to change the serialization algorithm and post the data with the content-type, "application/x-www-form-urlencoded".

Example from here.

$http({
    method: 'POST',
    url: url,
    headers: {'Content-Type': 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded'},
    transformRequest: function(obj) {
        var str = [];
        for(var p in obj)
        str.push(encodeURIComponent(p) + "=" + encodeURIComponent(obj[p]));
        return str.join("&");
    },
    data: {username: $scope.userName, password: $scope.password}
}).then(function () {});

UPDATE

To use new services added with AngularJS V1.4, see

• URL-encoding variables using only AngularJS services

Answer 3

Though a late answer, I found angular UrlSearchParams worked very well for me, it takes care of the encoding of parameters as well.

let params = new URLSearchParams();
params.set("abc", "def");

let headers = new Headers({ 'Content-Type': 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded'});
let options = new RequestOptions({ headers: headers, withCredentials: true });
this.http
.post(UrlUtil.getOptionSubmitUrl(parentSubcatId), params, options)
.catch();

Answer 4

From the $http docs this should work..

  $http.post(url, data,{headers: {'Content-Type': 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded'}})
    .success(function(response) {
         // your code...
     });

Answer 5

This worked for me. I use angular for front-end and laravel php for back-end. In my project, angular web sends json data to laravel back-end.

This is my angular controller.

var angularJsApp= angular.module('angularJsApp',[]);
angularJsApp.controller('MainCtrl', function ($scope ,$http) {

    $scope.userName ="Victoria";
    $scope.password ="password"


       $http({
            method :'POST',
            url:'http://api.mywebsite.com.localhost/httpTest?callback=JSON_CALLBACK',
            data: { username :  $scope.userName , password: $scope.password},
            headers: {'Content-Type': 'application/json'}
        }).success(function (data, status, headers, config) {
            console.log('status',status);
            console.log('data',status);
            console.log('headers',status);
        });

});

This is my php back-end laravel controller.

public function httpTest(){
        if (Input::has('username')) {
            $user =Input::all();
            return  Response::json($user)->setCallback(Input::get('callback'));
        }
    }

This is my laravel routing

Route::post('httpTest','HttpTestController@httpTest');

The result in browser is

status 200
data JSON_CALLBACK({"username":"Victoria","password":"password","callback":"JSON_CALLBACK"}); httpTesting.js:18 headers function (c){a||(a=sc(b));return c?a[K(c)]||null:a}

There is chrome extension called postman. You can use to test your back-end url whether it is working or not. https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/postman-rest-client/fdmmgilgnpjigdojojpjoooidkmcomcm?hl=en

hopefully, my answer will help you.

Answer 6

All of these look like overkill (or don't work)... just do this:

$http.post(loginUrl, "userName=" + encodeURIComponent(email) +
                     "&password=" + encodeURIComponent(password) +
                     "&grant_type=password"
).success(function (data) {