JSON.parse issue in Node.js

Question

I am performing a get request to a url that returns a simple JSON object.

Here is the URL: http://live.albiononline.com/status.txt

As you can see it is a text file and it's content-type header is text/plain. When I receive the body log it, it is:

{ "status": "online", "message": "All good." }

But when I try to log, body.status it is undefined. When I do var data = JSON.parse(body); then console.log(data.status); I get:

undefined:1
{ "status": "online", "message": "All good." }
^

SyntaxError: Unexpected token  in JSON at position 0

Any idea what's happening? I assume it has something to do with the fact it's pulling from a .txt file?

UPDATE:

request('http://live.albiononline.com/status.txt', function (error, response, body) {
            if (!error && response.statusCode == 200) {
                console.log(body); // { "status": "online", "message": "All good." }
                console.log(body.status); // undefined
            }
        });

In my question I said, 'But when I try to log, body.status it is undefined.' — user3271960
– user3271960, Commented Feb 16, 2017 at 6:42

Soubhik Mondal · Accepted Answer · 2017-02-16 07:13:34Z

1

The reason is because the output is not a stringified JSON object, it's just a normal string.

The output I got while working on your example code:

'{ "status": "online", "message": "All good." }\r\n'

A real JSON string wouldn't have extra spaces and escape characters at the end.

Solution:

x=x.trim(); // trimming off the \r\n
var output = JSON.parse(x); // parsing the JSON

edited Feb 16, 2017 at 7:13

answered Feb 16, 2017 at 7:00

Soubhik Mondal

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3 Comments

user3271960 Over a year ago

Hmm. So how do I parse it as an object?

Eugene Song Over a year ago

This is the answer, trim off the \r\n before JSON.parse()

user3271960 Over a year ago

You're a life saver. Thank you very much!

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