form-encode-object

Convert a deep object structure to be sent as urlencoded or form data (PHP style).

Install

npm install form-encode-object

Example

Say you have an arbitrarily deep object:

const obj = {
  somekey: 'value',
  children: [
    {
      foo: 'bar',
      bar: 'foo',
    },
    {
      foo: 'bar2',
      bar: 'foo2',
    },
  ],
};

...and you need to send it to an API that accepts x-www-form-urlencoded or form data (multipart/form-data) for instance using the FormData object, or a query string. In particular, PHP expects this format.

Plain Example

const formEncodeObject = require('form-encode-object');

formEncodeObject(obj);

Returns an object like this:

{
  'somekey': 'value',
  'children[0][foo]': 'bar',
  'children[0][bar]': 'foo',
  'children[1][foo]': 'bar2',
  'children[1][bar]': 'foo2',
}

Example urlencoded

const formEncodeObject = require('form-encode-object');

const formEncoded = formEncodeObject(obj);
Object.keys(formEncoded).map(key => `${encodeURIComponent(key)}=${encodeURIComponent(formEncoded[key])}`).join('&');

Returns: somekey=value&children%5B0%5D%5Bfoo%5D=bar&children%5B0%5D%5Bbar%5D=foo&children%5B1%5D%5Bfoo%5D=bar2&children%5B1%5D%5Bbar%5D=foo2

Example FormData

const formEncodeObject = require('form-encode-object');

const formEncoded = formEncodeObject(obj);

const formData = new FormData();

Object.keys(formEncoded)
  .forEach(key => formData.append(key, formEncoded[key]));

Now you have a formData object populated to send to the server