How to read the body of the request in Azure App Service? - ios

Question

I am trying to create an EasyAPI in Azure App Service (migrated from Azure Mobiles Services). The message is sent from an iOS app using the following command in swift:
let query: Dictionary<String, AnyObject> = ["name": theName]
let param: Dictionary<String, AnyObject> = ["collectionName": theCollectionName, "query": query]
AOAppDelegate.client!.invokeAPI("FMDataAPI", body: param, HTTPMethod: "POST", parameters: nil, headers: nil, completion: {(objects, httpResponse, error) in
if error == nil {
//Process response
} else {
print(error!.userInfo)
}
})
In the API I have the following Javascript code within the EasyAPI MyEasyAPI:
module.exports = {
"post": function (req, res, next) {
console.log("---------------------------------------")
console.log(req.body)
},
But body stays undefined.
Any suggestions?
Thanks,
GA

Answer 1

You need to adjust the app before the easy API gets called. By the time you are adding the middleware, it's too late. Fortunately, bodyparser is already implemented for you. Note that generally, you need to be doing something that expects a body - like a POST - to do this.
Since this is a migrated mobile service, you need to follow the instructions for mobile services - things that are documented for App Service are generally only available for upgraded sites (that is, sites running on App Service that have not been migrated).
Good news is that we have some help there if you need it. Check out the node module: https://github.com/Azure/azure-mobile-apps-node-compatibility for more information.

Answer 2

Thanks for your suggestions.
I reported an issue in the github project of the Azure Mobile Apps iOS client and they suggested that the problem could be in the version of the node package azure-mobile-apps and this was the case.
The azure-mobile-apps package was in version 2.0.0. After I updated to 2.1.0 req.body started to receive data.
Here you have the link to the Gihub issue discussion.
Thanks again for your suggestions.
GA

Answer 3

I had a similar use case with my custom API and fetched the parameter data via the query statement - I used a GET call, but that shouldn't make any difference here:
module.exports = {
get: function (req, res, next) {
var param = req.query.completed;
console.log(param);
}
};
The call with the attached parameter dictionary on the iOS side looked as follows:
[self.client invokeAPI:#"resetMyItems"
body:nil
HTTPMethod:#"GET"
parameters:#{#"completed": #(self.completed)}
headers:nil
completion:^(id result, NSHTTPURLResponse * _Nullable response, NSError * _Nullable error) {
if (error == nil) {
NSLog(#"Got answer from my own API: %#", result);
}
else {
NSLog(#"Something went wrong with POST api call: %#", error);
}
}
];
I searched quite a long time to find out, that the parameter you attach on your API call on the iOS side is called EXACTLY the same as on the query statement on your request.
Hope that helps :)