There are a few different formats of the body we can use while sending post requests. In this article, we tried to send post requests to different endpoints of our hello world Django application from the postman. Let's see what is the difference between discussed body formats.

The code used in this article is available on GitHub. Clone the repository, checkout the branch post_request_examples and set up the project as explained in READ.ME file.

In each section below, first, we have a name or type of body format used in post request via postman, then we have a postman screenshot. After that, we have an equivalent curl code which can be useful for sending requests from the terminal. 

After that, the code in view.py file and then the output of the print statements used in views.

Form Data:

This is just like submitting an HTML form. 

When sending a post request from the postman, we select the "form-data" body type. Put the parameter name and values in KEY and VALUE columns.

Equivalent CURL request code:

curl --location --request POST 'localhost:8000/post-example/form-data/' \
--form 'name=pythoncircle' \
--form 'url=https://www.pythoncircle.com'

Accessing request in view.py file:

@csrf_exempt
def post_example_form_data(request):
    print('POST', request.POST)
    return render(request, 'hw/home.html', {})

The output of print statements:

POST <QueryDict: {'url': ['https://www.pythoncircle.com'], 'name': ['pythoncircle']}>

post_data = request.POST.copy()
name = post_data.get("name")

Raw Body:

curl --location --request POST 'localhost:8000/post-example/raw/' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--data-raw '{
	"name": "pythoncircle",
	"url": "https://www.pythoncircle.com"
}'

@csrf_exempt
def post_example_raw(request):
    print('POST', request.POST)
    print('BODY', request.body)
    print('JSON', json.loads(request.body.decode('utf-8')))
    return render(request, 'hw/home.html', {})

POST <QueryDict: {}>
BODY b'{\n\t"name": "pythoncircle",\n\t"url": "https://www.pythoncircle.com"\n}'
JSON {'url': 'https://www.pythoncircle.com', 'name': 'pythoncircle'}

Form Data URL Encoded:

curl --location --request POST 'localhost:8000/post-example/form-urlencoded/' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded' \
--data-urlencode 'name=pythoncircle' \
--data-urlencode 'name_spaced=python circle' \
--data-urlencode 'url=https://www.pythoncircle.com'

@csrf_exempt
def post_example_form_urlencoded(request):
    print('POST', request.POST)
    print('BODY', request.body)
    print(parse_qs(request.body.decode('utf-8')))
    return render(request, 'hw/home.html', {})

POST <QueryDict: {'name': ['pythoncircle'], 'name_spaced': ['python circle'], 'url': ['https://www.pythoncircle.com']}>
BODY b'name=pythoncircle&name_spaced=python%20circle&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.pythoncircle.com'
{'name': ['pythoncircle'], 'name_spaced': ['python circle'], 'url': ['https://www.pythoncircle.com']}

Binary:

helloworld
next line
this is third line

curl --location --request POST 'localhost:8000/post-example/binary/' \
--header 'Content-Type: text/plain' \
--data-binary '@/home/rana/helloworld.txt'

@csrf_exempt
def post_example_binary(request):
    print('POST', request.POST)
    print('BODY', request.body)
    return render(request, 'hw/home.html', {})

POST <QueryDict: {}>
BODY b'helloworld\nnext line\nthis is third line\n'

Uploading file with form data:

curl --location --request POST 'localhost:8000/post-example/file-upload/' \
--form 'file=@/home/rana/helloworld.txt' \
--form 'name=pythoncircle'

@csrf_exempt
def post_example_file_upload(request):
    print('POST', request.POST)
    print('FILES', request.FILES)
    return render(request, 'hw/home.html', {})

POST <QueryDict: {'name': ['pythoncircle']}>
FILES <MultiValueDict: {'file': [<InMemoryUploadedFile: helloworld.txt (text/plain)>]}>

curl --location --request POST 'localhost:8000/post-example/none/'

@csrf_exempt
def post_example_none(request):
    print('POST', request.POST)
    print('BODY', request.body)
    print('FILES', request.FILES)
    return render(request, 'hw/home.html', {})

POST <QueryDict: {}>
BODY b''
FILES <MultiValueDict: {}>