Can't access params sent in POST request from React client to Rails api

Question

I have a React Login component running on localhost:3000. It returns a form which, on submit, uses JS fetch() to post its information to SessionsController in a rails api which runs on localhost:3001. I've alternated between using a FormData object and custom json; I run into the same problems either way. I've gotten rid of CORS errors in the console by using 'rack-cors', but I'm still having problems accessing the posted information in my SessionController's create action. This is all I have in params when I throw a binding.pry into it:

[1] pry(#<SessionsController>)> params
=> <ActionController::Parameters {"controller"=>"sessions", 
"action"=>"create"} permitted: false>

------- How do I get hold of my username and password? ----------

Login Component:

import React from 'react'
const Login = () => {
  return(
    <div>
      <h1>Login</h1>
      <form id="login-form" onSubmit={(event) => postSession(event)}>
        <label htmlFor="username">Username </label><br/>
        <input type="text" id="username"/><br/>
        <label htmlFor="password">Password </label><br/>
        <input type="password" id="password"/><br/>
        <input type="submit" value="Login"/>
      </form>
    </div>
    )
}

const postSession = (event) => {
  event.preventDefault()
  fetch('http://localhost:3001/sessions', 
    {
      header: {
        'Accept': 'application/json',
        'Content-Type': 'application/json'
    },
    method: 'post',
    body: new FormData(document.getElementById("login-form"))
    }
  )
    .then((response) => {console.log("Post Session Response: ", response)})
    .catch((error) => {console.log("Error in the Post Session fetch: ", error)})    
}

export default Login

config/application.js:

module Geohunter2
  class Application < Rails::Application
    config.middleware.insert_before 0, "Rack::Cors" do
      allow do
        origins '*'
        resource '*', :headers => :any, :methods => [:get, :post, :patch, :options]
      end
    end
  end
end

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 06 '17 at 20:08

You need name attributes on your form inputs:

<input type="text" id="username" name="user[username]"/><br/>
...
<input type="text" id="password" name="user[password]"/><br/>

Then you'll have access to params[:user][:username] params[:user][:password] in your controller.

Assuming you're using strong_params in a newer version of Rails (4+), you'll also need something like this in your controller action.

def new # or whatever action you're posting
  Session.create(user_params)
end

private
def user_params
  params.require(:user).permit(:username, :password)
end

Can't access params sent in POST request from React client to Rails api

1 Answers1