Convert JS Object to form data

Question

How can I can convert my JS Object to FormData?

The reason why I want to do this is, I have an object that I constructed out of the ~100 form field valu

Answer 1

Maybe you're looking for this, a code that receive your javascript object, create a FormData object from it and then POST it to your server using new Fetch API:

    let myJsObj = {'someIndex': 'a value'};

    let datos = new FormData();
    for (let i in myJsObj){
        datos.append( i, myJsObj[i] );
    }

    fetch('your.php', {
        method: 'POST',
        body: datos
    }).then(response => response.json())
        .then(objson => {
            console.log('Success:', objson);
        })
        .catch((error) => {
            console.error('Error:', error);
        });

Answer 2

In my case my object also had property which was array of files. Since they are binary they should be dealt differently - index doesn't need to be part of the key. So i modified @Vladimir Novopashin's and @developer033's answer:

export function convertToFormData(data, formData, parentKey) {
  if(data === null || data === undefined) return null;

  formData = formData || new FormData();

  if (typeof data === 'object' && !(data instanceof Date) && !(data instanceof File)) {
    Object.keys(data).forEach(key => 
      convertToFormData(data[key], formData, (!parentKey ? key : (data[key] instanceof File ? parentKey : `${parentKey}[${key}]`)))
    );
  } else {
    formData.append(parentKey, data);
  }

  return formData;
}

Answer 3

Here is a short and sweet solution using Object.entries() that will take care of even your nested objects.

// If this is the object you want to convert to FormData...
const item = {
    description: 'First item',
    price: 13,
    photo: File
};

const formData = new FormData();

Object.entries(item).forEach(([key, value]) => {
    formData.append(key, value);
});

// At this point, you can then pass formData to your handler method

Read more about Object.entries() over here - https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/Object/entries

Answer 4

Try obj2fd => https://www.npmjs.com/package/obj2fd

import obj2fd from 'obj2fd'

let data = {a:1, b:2, c:{ca:1}};
let dataWithFormData = obj2fd(data);
//result => [a=>1, b=>2, c=>[ca=>1]]

Answer 5

I reference this from Gudradain's answer. I edit it a little in Typescript format.

class UtilityService {
    private appendFormData(formData, data, rootName) {

        let root = rootName || '';
        if (data instanceof File) {
            formData.append(root, data);
        } else if (Array.isArray(data)) {
            for (var i = 0; i < data.length; i++) {
                this.appendFormData(formData, data[i], root + '[' + i + ']');
            }
        } else if (typeof data === 'object' && data) {
            for (var key in data) {
                if (data.hasOwnProperty(key)) {
                    if (root === '') {
                        this.appendFormData(formData, data[key], key);
                    } else {
                        this.appendFormData(formData, data[key], root + '.' + key);
                    }
                }
            }
        } else {
            if (data !== null && typeof data !== 'undefined') {
                formData.append(root, data);
            }
        }
    }

    getFormDataFromObj(data) {
        var formData = new FormData();

        this.appendFormData(formData, data, '');

        return formData;
    }
}

export let UtilityMan = new UtilityService();

Answer 6

I had a scenario where nested JSON had to be serialised in a linear fashion while form data is constructed, since this is how server expects values. So, I wrote a small recursive function which translates the JSON which is like this:

{
   "orderPrice":"11",
   "cardNumber":"************1234",
   "id":"8796191359018",
   "accountHolderName":"Raj Pawan",
   "expiryMonth":"02",
   "expiryYear":"2019",
   "issueNumber":null,
   "billingAddress":{
      "city":"Wonderland",
      "code":"8796682911767",
      "firstname":"Raj Pawan",
      "lastname":"Gumdal",
      "line1":"Addr Line 1",
      "line2":null,
      "state":"US-AS",
      "region":{
         "isocode":"US-AS"
      },
      "zip":"76767-6776"
   }
}

Into something like this:

{
   "orderPrice":"11",
   "cardNumber":"************1234",
   "id":"8796191359018",
   "accountHolderName":"Raj Pawan",
   "expiryMonth":"02",
   "expiryYear":"2019",
   "issueNumber":null,
   "billingAddress.city":"Wonderland",
   "billingAddress.code":"8796682911767",
   "billingAddress.firstname":"Raj Pawan",
   "billingAddress.lastname":"Gumdal",
   "billingAddress.line1":"Addr Line 1",
   "billingAddress.line2":null,
   "billingAddress.state":"US-AS",
   "billingAddress.region.isocode":"US-AS",
   "billingAddress.zip":"76767-6776"
}

The server would accept form data which is in this converted format.

Here is the function:

function jsonToFormData (inJSON, inTestJSON, inFormData, parentKey) {
    // http://stackoverflow.com/a/22783314/260665
    // Raj: Converts any nested JSON to formData.
    var form_data = inFormData || new FormData();
    var testJSON = inTestJSON || {};
    for ( var key in inJSON ) {
        // 1. If it is a recursion, then key has to be constructed like "parent.child" where parent JSON contains a child JSON
        // 2. Perform append data only if the value for key is not a JSON, recurse otherwise!
        var constructedKey = key;
        if (parentKey) {
            constructedKey = parentKey + "." + key;
        }

        var value = inJSON[key];
        if (value && value.constructor === {}.constructor) {
            // This is a JSON, we now need to recurse!
            jsonToFormData (value, testJSON, form_data, constructedKey);
        } else {
            form_data.append(constructedKey, inJSON[key]);
            testJSON[constructedKey] = inJSON[key];
        }
    }
    return form_data;
}

Invocation:

        var testJSON = {};
        var form_data = jsonToFormData (jsonForPost, testJSON);

I am using testJSON just to see the converted results since I would not be able to extract the contents of form_data. AJAX post call:

        $.ajax({
            type: "POST",
            url: somePostURL,
            data: form_data,
            processData : false,
            contentType : false,
            success: function (data) {
            },
            error: function (e) {
            }
        });