npm package: @javivelasco/formdata-node
Description: Spec-compliant FormData implementation for Node.js
Author: Nick K.
Latest version: 4.2.4

# FormData

Spec-compliant [`FormData`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/FormData) implementation for Node.js

[![Code Coverage](https://codecov.io/github/octet-stream/form-data/coverage.svg?branch=master)](https://codecov.io/github/octet-stream/form-data?branch=master)
[![CI](https://github.com/octet-stream/form-data/workflows/CI/badge.svg)](https://github.com/octet-stream/form-data/actions/workflows/ci.yml)
[![ESLint](https://github.com/octet-stream/form-data/workflows/ESLint/badge.svg)](https://github.com/octet-stream/form-data/actions/workflows/eslint.yml)

## Highlights

1. Spec-compliant: implements every method of the [`FormData interface`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/FormData).
2. Supports Blobs and Files sourced from anywhere: you can use builtin [`fileFromPath`](#filefrompathpath-filename-options---promisefile) and [`fileFromPathSync`](#filefrompathsyncpath-filename-options---file) helpers to create a File from FS, or you can implement your `BlobDataItem` object to use a different source of data.
3. Supports both ESM and CJS targets. See [`ESM/CJS support`](#esmcjs-support) section for details.
4. Written on TypeScript and ships with TS typings.
5. Isomorphic, but only re-exports native FormData object for browsers. If you need a polyfill for browsers, use [`formdata-polyfill`](https://github.com/jimmywarting/FormData)
6. It's a [`ponyfill`](https://ponyfill.com/)! Which means, no effect has been caused on `globalThis` or native `FormData` implementation.

## Installation

You can install this package with npm:

```
npm install formdata-node
```

Or yarn:

```
yarn add formdata-node
```

Or pnpm

```
pnpm add formdata-node
```

## ESM/CJS support

This package is targeting ESM and CJS for backwards compatibility reasons and smoothen transition period while you convert your projects to ESM only. Note that CJS support will be removed as [Node.js v12 will reach its EOL](https://github.com/nodejs/release#release-schedule). This change will be released as major version update, so you won't miss it.

## Usage

1. Let's take a look at minimal example with [got](https://github.com/sindresorhus/got):

```js
import {FormData} from "formdata-node"

// I assume Got >= 12.x is used for this example
import got from "got"

const form = new FormData()

form.set("greeting", "Hello, World!")

const data = await got.post("https://httpbin.org/post", {body: form}).json()

console.log(data.form.greeting) // => Hello, World!
```

2. If your HTTP client does not support spec-compliant FormData, you can use [`form-data-encoder`](https://github.com/octet-stream/form-data-encoder) to encode entries:

```js
import {Readable} from "stream"

import {FormDataEncoder} from "form-data-encoder"
import {FormData} from "formdata-node"

// Note that `node-fetch` >= 3.x have builtin support for spec-compliant FormData, sou you'll only need the `form-data-encoder` if you use `node-fetch` <= 2.x.
import fetch from "node-fetch"

const form = new FormData()

form.set("field", "Some value")

const encoder = new FormDataEncoder(form)

const options = {
  method: "post",
  headers: encoder.headers,
  body: Readable.from(encoder)
}

await fetch("https://httpbin.org/post", options)
```

3. Sending files over form-data:

```js
import {FormData, File} from "formdata-node" // You can use `File` from fetch-blob >= 3.x

import fetch from "node-fetch"

const form = new FormData()
const file = new File(["My hovercraft is full of eels"], "file.txt")

form.set("file", file)

await fetch("https://httpbin.org/post", {method: "post", body: form})
```

4. Blobs as field's values allowed too:

```js
import {FormData, Blob} from "formdata-node" // You can use `Blob` from fetch-blob

const form = new FormData()
const blob = new Blob(["Some content"], {type: "text/plain"})

form.set("blob", blob)

// Will always be returned as `File`
let file = form.get("blob")

// The created file has "blob" as the name by default
console.log(file.name) // -> blob

// To change that, you need to set filename argument manually
form.set("file", blob, "some-file.txt")

file = form.get("file")

console.log(file.name) // -> some-file.txt
```

5. You can also append files using `fileFromPath` or `fileFromPathSync` helpers. It does the same thing as [`fetch-blob/from`](https://github.com/node-fetch/fetch-blob#blob-part-backed-up-by-filesystem), but returns a `File` instead of `Blob`:

```js
import {fileFromPath} from "formdata-node/file-from-path"
import {FormData} from "formdata-node"

import fetch from "node-fetch"

const form = new FormData()

form.set("file", await fileFromPath("/path/to/a/file"))

await fetch("https://httpbin.org/post", {method: "post", body: form})
```

6. You can still use files sourced from any stream, but unlike in v2 you'll need some extra work to achieve that:

```js
import {Readable} from "stream"

import {FormData} from "formdata-node"

class BlobFromStream {
  #stream

  constructor(stream, size) {
    this.#stream = stream
    this.size = size
  }

  stream() {
    return this.#stream
  }

  get [Symbol.toStringTag]() {
    return "Blob"
  }
}

const content = Buffer.from("Stream content")

const stream = new Readable({
  read() {
    this.push(content)
    this.push(null)
  }
})

const form = new FormData()

form.set("stream", new BlobFromStream(stream, content.length), "file.txt")

await fetch("https://httpbin.org/post", {method: "post", body: form})
```

7. Note that if you don't know the length of that stream, you'll also need to handle form-data encoding manually or use [`form-data-encoder`](https://github.com/octet-stream/form-data-encoder) package. This is necessary to control which headers will be sent with your HTTP request:

```js
import {Readable} from "stream"

import {Encoder} from "form-data-encoder"
import {FormData} from "formdata-node"

const form = new FormData()

// You can use file-shaped or blob-shaped objects as FormData value instead of creating separate class
form.set("stream", {
  type: "text/plain",
  name: "file.txt",
  [Symbol.toStringTag]: "File",
  stream() {
    return getStreamFromSomewhere()
  }
})

const encoder = new Encoder(form)

const options = {
  method: "post",
  headers: {
    "content-type": encoder.contentType
  },
  body: Readable.from(encoder)
}

await fetch("https://httpbin.org/post", {method: "post", body: form})
```

## Comparison

|                  | formdata-node | formdata-polyfill | undici FormData | form-data            |
| ---------------- | ------------- | ----------------- | --------------- | -------------------- |
| .append()        | ✔️             | ✔️                 | ✔️               | ✔️<sup>1</sup>        |
| .set()           | ✔️             | ✔️                 | ✔️               | ❌                   |
| .get()           | ✔️             | ✔️                 | ✔️               | ❌                   |
| .getAll()        | ✔️             | ✔️                 | ✔️               | ❌                   |
| .forEach()       | ✔️             | ✔️                 | ✔️               | ❌                   |
| .keys()          | ✔️             | ✔️                 | ✔️               | ❌                   |
| .values()        | ✔️             | ✔️                 | ✔️               | ❌                   |
| .entries()       | ✔️             | ✔️                 | ✔️               | ❌                   |
| .forEach()       | ✔️             | ✔️                 | ✔️               | ❌                   |
| Symbol.iterator  | ✔️             | ✔️                 | ✔️               | ❌                   |
| CommonJS         | ✔️             | ❌                | ✔️               | ✔️                    |
| ESM              | ✔️             | ✔️                 | ✔️<sup>2</sup>   | ✔️<sup>2</sup>        |
| Blob             | ✔️<sup>3</sup> | ✔️<sup>4</sup>     | ✔️<sup>3</sup>   | ❌                   |
| Browser polyfill | ❌            | ✔️                 | ✔️               | ❌                   |
| Builtin encoder  | ❌            | ✔️                 | ✔️<sup>5</sup>   | ✔️                    |

<sup>1</sup> Does not support Blob and File in entry value, but allows streams and Buffer (which is not spec-compiant, however).

<sup>2</sup> Can be imported in ESM, because Node.js support for CJS modules in ESM context, but it does not have ESM entry point.

<sup>3</sup> Have builtin implementations of Blob and/or File, allows native Blob and File as entry value.

<sup>4</sup> Support Blob and File via fetch-blob package, allows native Blob and File as entry value.

<sup>5</sup> Have `multipart/form-data` encoder as part of their `fetch` implementation.

✔️ - For FormData methods, indicates that the method is present and spec-compliant. For features, shows its presence.

❌ - Indicates that method or feature is not implemented.

## API

### `class FormData`

##### `constructor([entries]) -> {FormData}`

Creates a new FormData instance

  - **{array}** [entries = null] – an optional FormData initial entries.
    Each initial field should be passed as a collection of the objects
    with "name", "value" and "filename" props.
    See the [FormData#append()](#appendname-value-filename---void) for more info about the available format.

#### Instance methods

##### `set(name, value[, filename]) -> {void}`

Set a new value for an existing key inside **FormData**,
or add the new field if it does not already exist.

  - **{string}** name – The name of the field whose data is contained in `value`.
  - **{unknown}** value – The field's value. This can be [`Blob`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Blob)
    or [`File`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/File). If none of these are specified the value is converted to a string.
  - **{string}** [filename = undefined] – The filename reported to the server, when a Blob or File is passed as the second parameter. The default filename for Blob objects is "blob". The default filename for File objects is the file's filename.

##### `append(name, value[, filename]) -> {void}`

Appends a new value onto an existing key inside a FormData object,
or adds the key if it does not already exist.

The difference between `set()` and `append()` is that if the specified key already exists, `set()` will overwrite all existing values with the new one, whereas `append()` will append the new value onto the end of the existing set of values.

  - **{string}** name – The name of the field whose data is contained in `value`.
  - **{unknown}** value – The field's value. This can be [`Blob`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Blob)
    or [`File`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/File). If none of these are specified the value is converted to a string.
  - **{string}** [filename = undefined] – The filename reported to the server, when a Blob or File is passed as the second parameter. The default filename for Blob objects is "blob". The default filename for File objects is the file's filename.

##### `get(name) -> {FormDataValue}`

Returns the first value associated with a given key from within a `FormData` object.
If you expect multiple values and want all of them, use the `getAll()` method instead.

  - **{string}** name – A name of the value you want to retrieve.

##### `getAll(name) -> {Array<FormDataValue>}`

Returns all the values associated with a given key from within a `FormData` object.

  - **{string}** name – A name of the value you want to retrieve.

##### `has(name) -> {boolean}`

Returns a boolean stating whether a `FormData` object contains a certain key.

  - **{string}** – A string representing the name of the key you want to test for.

##### `delete(name) -> {void}`

Deletes a key and its value(s) from a `FormData` object.

  - **{string}** name – The name of the key you want to delete.

##### `forEach(callback[, thisArg]) -> {void}`

Executes a given **callback** for each field of the FormData instance

  - **{function}** callback – Function to execute for each element, taking three arguments:
    + **{FormDataValue}** value – A value(s) of the current field.
    + **{string}** name – Name of the current field.
    + **{FormData}** form – The FormData instance that **forEach** is being applied to
  - **{unknown}** [thisArg = null] – Value to use as **this** context when executing the given **callback**

##### `keys() -> {Generator<string>}`

Returns an [`iterator`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Iteration_protocols) allowing to go through all keys contained in this `FormData` object.
Each key is a `string`.

##### `values() -> {Generator<FormDataValue>}`

Returns an [`iterator`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Iteration_protocols) allowing to go through all values contained in this object `FormData` object.
Each value is a [`FormDataValue`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/FormDataEntryValue).

##### `entries() -> {Generator<[string, FormDataValue]>}`

Returns an [`iterator`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Iteration_protocols) allowing to go through key/value pairs contained in this `FormData` object.
The key of each pair is a string; the value is a [`FormDataValue`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/FormDataEntryValue).

##### `[Symbol.iterator]() -> {Generator<[string, FormDataValue]>}`

An alias for [`FormData#entries()`](#entries---iterator)

### `class Blob`

The `Blob` object represents a blob, which is a file-like object of immutable, raw data;
they can be read as text or binary data, or converted into a ReadableStream
so its methods can be used for processing the data.

##### `constructor(blobParts[, options]) -> {Blob}`

Creates a new `Blob` instance. The `Blob` constructor accepts following arguments:

  - **{(ArrayBufferLike | ArrayBufferView | File | Blob | string)[]}** blobParts – An `Array` strings, or [`ArrayBuffer`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/ArrayBuffer), [`ArrayBufferView`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/ArrayBufferView), [`Blob`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Blob) objects, or a mix of any of such objects, that will be put inside the [`Blob`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Blob);
  - **{object}** [options = {}] - An options object containing optional attributes for the file. Available options are as follows;
  - **{string}** [options.type = ""] - Returns the media type ([`MIME`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Basics_of_HTTP/MIME_types)) of the blob represented by a `Blob` object.

#### Instance properties

##### `type -> {string}`

Returns the [`MIME type`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Glossary/MIME_type) of the [`Blob`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Blob) or [`File`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/File).

##### `size -> {number}`

Returns the size of the [`Blob`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Blob) or [`File`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/File) in bytes.

#### Instance methods

##### `slice([start, end, contentType]) -> {Blob}`

Creates and returns a new [`Blob`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Blob) object which contains data from a subset of the blob on which it's called.

- **{number}** [start = 0] An index into the `Blob` indicating the first byte to include in the new `Blob`. If you specify a negative value, it's treated as an offset from the end of the `Blob` toward the beginning. For example, -10 would be the 10th from last byte in the `Blob`. The default value is 0. If you specify a value for start that is larger than the size of the source `Blob`, the returned `Blob` has size 0 and contains no data.

- **{number}** [end = `blob`.size] An index into the `Blob` indicating the first byte that will *not* be included in the new `Blob` (i.e. the byte exactly at this index is not included). If you specify a negative value, it's treated as an offset from the end of the `Blob` toward the beginning. For example, -10 would be the 10th from last byte in the `Blob`. The default value is size.

- **{string}** [contentType = ""] The content type to assign to the new ``Blob``; this will be the value of its type property. The default value is an empty string.

##### `stream() -> {ReadableStream<Uint8Array>}`

Returns a [`ReadableStream`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/ReadableStream) which upon reading returns the data contained within the [`Blob`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Blob).

##### `arrayBuffer() -> {Promise<ArrayBuffer>}`

Returns a [`Promise`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/Promise) that resolves with the contents of the blob as binary data contained in an [`ArrayBuffer`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/ArrayBuffer).

##### `text() -> {Promise<string>}`

Returns a [`Promise`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/Promise) that resolves with a string containing the contents of the blob, interpreted as UTF-8.

### `class File extends Blob`

The `File` class provides information about files. The `File` class inherits `Blob`.

##### `constructor(fileBits, filename[, options]) -> {File}`

Creates a new `File` instance. The `File` constructor accepts following arguments:

  - **{(ArrayBufferLike | ArrayBufferView | File | Blob | string)[]}** fileBits – An `Array` strings, or [`ArrayBuffer`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/ArrayBuffer), [`ArrayBufferView`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/ArrayBufferView), [`Blob`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Blob) objects, or a mix of any of such objects, that will be put inside the [`File`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/File);
  - **{string}** filename – Representing the file name.
  - **{object}** [options = {}] - An options object containing optional attributes for the file. Available options are as follows;
  - **{number}** [options.lastModified = Date.now()] – provides the last modified date of the file as the number of milliseconds since the Unix epoch (January 1, 1970 at midnight). Files without a known last modified date return the current date;
  - **{string}** [options.type = ""] - Returns the media type ([`MIME`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Basics_of_HTTP/MIME_types)) of the file represented by a `File` object.

### `fileFromPath(path[, filename, options]) -> {Promise<File>}`

Available from `formdata-node/file-from-path` subpath.

Creates a `File` referencing the one on a disk by given path.

  - **{string}** path - Path to a file
  - **{string}** [filename] - Name of the file. Will be passed as second argument in `File` constructor. If not presented, the file path will be used to get it.
  - **{object}** [options = {}] - File options.
  - **{string}** [options.type = ""] - Returns the media type ([`MIME`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Basics_of_HTTP/MIME_types)) of the file represented by a `File` object.

### `fileFromPathSync(path[, filename, options]) -> {File}`

Available from `formdata-node/file-from-path` subpath.

Creates a `File` referencing the one on a disk by given path. Synchronous version of the `fileFromPath`.

  - **{string}** path - Path to a file
  - **{string}** [filename] - Name of the file. Will be passed as second argument in `File` constructor. If not presented, the file path will be used to get it.
  - **{object}** [options = {}] - File options.
  - **{string}** [options.type = ""] - Returns the media type ([`MIME`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Basics_of_HTTP/MIME_types)) of the file represented by a `File` object.

### `isFile(value) -> {boolean}`

Available from `formdata-node/file-from-path` subpath.

Checks if given value is a File, Blob or file-look-a-like object.

  - **{unknown}** value - A value to test

## Related links

- [`FormData`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/FormData) documentation on MDN
- [`File`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/File) documentation on MDN
- [`Blob`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Blob) documentation on MDN
- [`FormDataValue`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/FormDataEntryValue) documentation on MDN.
- [`formdata-polyfill`](https://github.com/jimmywarting/FormData) HTML5 `FormData` for Browsers & NodeJS.
- [`node-fetch`](https://github.com/node-fetch/node-fetch) a light-weight module that brings the Fetch API to Node.js
- [`fetch-blob`](https://github.com/node-fetch/fetch-blob) a Blob implementation on node.js, originally from `node-fetch`.
- [`form-data-encoder`](https://github.com/octet-stream/form-data-encoder) spec-compliant `multipart/form-data` encoder implementation.
- [`then-busboy`](https://github.com/octet-stream/then-busboy) a promise-based wrapper around Busboy. Process multipart/form-data content and returns it as a single object. Will be helpful to handle your data on the server-side applications.
- [`@octetstream/object-to-form-data`](https://github.com/octet-stream/object-to-form-data) converts JavaScript object to FormData.