Problem with inserting data from a form on the site into the database using bodyparser, Node.js and sqlite3

Question

I'm new to Node.js and SQLite, and now I'm trying to make a form to send data from the site and transfer it to the database, but I get the following error:

TypeError: Cannot read property 'ghostName' of undefined
at /home/user/server/index.js:23:29
at Layer.handle [as handle_request] (/home/user/server/node_modules/express/lib/router/layer.js:95:5)
at next (/home/user/server/node_modules/express/lib/router/route.js:137:13)
at /home/user/server/node_modules/body-parser/lib/read.js:130:5
at invokeCallback (/home/user/server/node_modules/raw-body/index.js:224:16)
at done (/home/user/server/node_modules/raw-body/index.js:213:7)
at IncomingMessage.onEnd (/home/user/server/node_modules/raw-body/index.js:273:7)
at IncomingMessage.emit (events.js:327:22)
at endReadableNT (_stream_readable.js:1220:12)
at processTicksAndRejections (internal/process/task_queues.js:84:21)

And here is the code itself:

index.js

    const express      = require('express');
const Parser       = require('body-parser');
const { request } = require('express');
const sqlite3      = require('sqlite3').verbose();

const server       = express();

let path_services  = (   __dirname   +   '/public/static/img/services/'   );
let path_html      = (   __dirname   +   '/public/index.html'             );
let path_font      = (   __dirname   +   '/public/static/font/'           );
let path_css       = (   __dirname   +   '/public/static/css/'            );
let path_img       = (   __dirname   +   '/public/static/img/'            );
let path_js        = (   __dirname   +   '/public/static/js/'             );
let path_db        = (   __dirname   +   '/data.db'                       );

const Body_Parser = Parser.urlencoded({extended: false});

server.get('/', Body_Parser , function(req, res) {
    res.sendFile(path_html);
});

server.post('/', Body_Parser, function(req, res) {
    let name = request.body.ghostName;
    console.log(name);
    let surname = request.body.ghostSurname;
    let email = request.body.ghostEmail;
    let phone = request.body.ghostPhone;
    let message = request.body.ghostMessage;
    let db = new sqlite3.Database(path_db, sqlite3.OPEN_READWRITE, (err) => {
        if(err) {
            console.error(err.message);
        }
        console.log('Connected to Database!');
    });
    db.run('INSERT INTO client(name) VALUES(?)', [name, surname, email, phone, message], function(err) {
        if(err) {
            console.log(err.message);
        }
        console.log('Good!');
    });
    db.close();
});



server.use(express.static  (path_services) );
server.use(express.static  (path_font)     );
server.use(express.static  (path_css)      );
server.use(express.static  (path_img)      );
server.use(express.static  (path_js)       );

server.listen(8000);

Html-from:

<form action="/" method="post">
            <input type="text"   name="ghostName"    class="contacts__name">
            <input type="text"   name="ghostSurname" class="contacts__surname">
            <input type="email"  name="ghostEmail"   class="contacts__email">
            <input type="text"   name="ghostPhone"   class="contacts__phone">
            <input type="text"   name="ghostMessage" class="contacts_message">
            <input type="submit" value=""    class="contacts_button">
        </form>

I would be very grateful if someone explains the reason for the error. Now I'm trying to understand SQLite, but the process is moving slowly due to this error.

Answer 1

server.post('/', Body_Parser, function(req, res) {
    let name = request.body.ghostName;

You're accessing a variable named request here (which does exist), but you should access req, which is the request object associated with the request ("page load") by the user currently being handled.

request is a variable outside of the route handler which doesn't change in your example and doesn't have a .body attribute and even if it had, it wouldn't contain form values.

req, one of the parameters of the function, is unique for every request (just like res is) and because you've added a body parser, contains a .body attribute (in addition to the regular .query, .header, etc).