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Created November 1, 2023 19:17
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curl POST examples
Raw
curl.md

When sending data via a POST or PUT request, two common formats (specified via the Content-Type header) are:

  • application/json
  • application/x-www-form-urlencoded

Many APIs will accept both formats, so if you're using curl at the command line, it can be a bit easier to use the form urlencoded format instead of json because

  • the json format requires a bunch of extra quoting
  • curl will send form urlencoded by default, so for json the Content-Type header must be explicitly set

This gist provides examples for using both formats, including how to use sample data files in either format with your curl requests.

curl usage

For sending data with POST and PUT requests, these are common curl options:

  • request type

    • -X POST
    • -X PUT

  • content type header

  • -H "Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded"

  • -H "Content-Type: application/json"

  • data

    • form urlencoded: -d "param1=value1&param2=value2" or -d @data.txt
    • json: -d '{"key1":"value1", "key2":"value2"}' or -d @data.json
POST application/x-www-form-urlencoded

application/x-www-form-urlencoded is the default:

curl -d "param1=value1&param2=value2" -X POST http://localhost:3000/data

explicit:

curl -d "param1=value1&param2=value2" -H "Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded" -X POST http://localhost:3000/data

with a data file

curl -d "@data.txt" -X POST http://localhost:3000/data
POST application/json
curl -d '{"key1":"value1", "key2":"value2"}' -H "Content-Type: application/json" -X POST http://localhost:3000/data

with a data file

curl -d "@data.json" -X POST http://localhost:3000/data
Raw
data.json
{
"key1":"value1",
"key2":"value2"
}
Raw
data.txt
param1=value1&param2=value2
Raw
package.json
{
"name": "postdemo",
"version": "1.0.0",
"scripts": {
"start": "node server.js"
},
"dependencies": {
"body-parser": "^1.15.0",
"express": "^4.13.4"
}
}
Raw
server.js
var app = require('express')();
var bodyParser = require('body-parser');
app.use(bodyParser.json()); // for parsing application/json
app.use(bodyParser.urlencoded({ extended: true })); // for parsing application/x-www-form-urlencoded
app.post('/data', function (req, res) {
console.log(req.body);
res.end();
});
app.listen(3000);
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