textParser returns an object when body is empty

[hans-d]

See https://github.com/expressjs/body-parser/blob/master/lib/types/text.js#L51

Would expect it to read req.body = req.body || '' instead of req.body = req.body || {}

With this line, req.body will return an object when no body is provided

[dougwilson]

Yes. The reason is historical that req.body is always set to {} unless there was actually a matching body. The main reason is stacking the parsers. In the next major, req.body really shouldn't even get set unless there was a body. At least setting it to {} allows you to differentiate between no body and a body of an empty string.

[tlivings]

I'd think that in the case of bodyParser.text() you'd likely prefer the empty string to an object. The expectation is that it's text, not an object. If it gets automatically assigned to {} then !req.body will never pass, and the developer will have no idea why.

[aredridel]

Yeah, definitely should be an empty string in that case!

I'd expect undef if there was no body.

[dougwilson]

Right. I'm not disagreeing, but I was just saying the reason it's set to {} when the body was not a text body was because of backwards-compatibility reasons. In the next major, req.body will just be undefined if there was no parsed body on the request.

[dougwilson]

Anyway, if you post a body that is plain text and the body is empty (so Content-Length: 0), then req.body is set to an empty string ('') by this module. It's only set to {} if the request didn't actually have a text body at all.

[dougwilson]

The test https://github.com/expressjs/body-parser/blob/1.7.0/test/text.js#L33-L42 shows that the empty body comes through as req.body === '' if you are in doubt.

[dougwilson]

Verified the behavior is a bug within type-is and how it is interpreting the HTTP spec.

[hans-d]

thanks for the help!