How do I POST urlencoded form data with $http without jQuery?

I am new to AngularJS, and for a start, I thought to develop a new application using only AngularJS.

I am trying to make an AJAX call to the server side, using $http from my Angular App.

For sending the parameters, I tried the following:

$http({
    method: "post",
    url: URL,
    headers: {'Content-Type': 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded'},
    data: $.param({username: $scope.userName, password: $scope.password})
}).success(function(result){
    console.log(result);
});

This is working, but it is using jQuery as well at $.param. For removing the dependency on jQuery, I tried:

data: {username: $scope.userName, password: $scope.password}

but this seemed to fail. Then I tried params:

params: {username: $scope.userName, password: $scope.password}

but this also seemed to fail. Then I tried JSON.stringify:

data: JSON.stringify({username: $scope.userName, password: $scope.password})

I found these possible answers to my quest, but was unsuccessful. Am I doing something wrong? I am sure, AngularJS would provide this functionality, but how?

I think you need to do is to transform your data from object not to JSON string, but to url params.

From Ben Nadel's blog.

By default, the $http service will transform the outgoing request by serializing the data as JSON and then posting it with the content- type, "application/json". When we want to post the value as a FORM post, we need to change the serialization algorithm and post the data with the content-type, "application/x-www-form-urlencoded".

Example from here.

$http({
    method: 'POST',
    url: url,
    headers: {'Content-Type': 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded'},
    transformRequest: function(obj) {
        var str = [];
        for(var p in obj)
        str.push(encodeURIComponent(p) + "=" + encodeURIComponent(obj[p]));
        return str.join("&");
    },
    data: {username: $scope.userName, password: $scope.password}
}).then(function () {});

UPDATE

To use new services added with AngularJS V1.4, see

• URL-encoding variables using only AngularJS services

URL-encoding variables using only AngularJS services

With AngularJS 1.4 and up, two services can handle the process of url-encoding data for POST requests, eliminating the need to manipulate the data with transformRequest or using external dependencies like jQuery:

1. $httpParamSerializerJQLike - a serializer inspired by jQuery's .param() (recommended)

2. $httpParamSerializer - a serializer used by Angular itself for GET requests

Example with $http()

$http({
  url: 'some/api/endpoint',
  method: 'POST',
  data: $httpParamSerializerJQLike($scope.appForm.data), // Make sure to inject the service you choose to the controller
  headers: {
    'Content-Type': 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded' // Note the appropriate header
  }
}).then(function(response) { /* do something here */ });

See a more verbose Plunker demo

Example with $http.post()

$http.post(
    'some/api/endpoint',
    data: $httpParamSerializerJQLike($scope.appForm.data), // Make sure to inject the service you choose to the controller
    {
       headers: {
         'Content-Type': 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded' // Note the appropriate header
      }
    }
).then(function

How are $httpParamSerializerJQLike and $httpParamSerializer different

In general, it seems $httpParamSerializer uses less "traditional" url-encoding format than $httpParamSerializerJQLike when it comes to complex data structures.

For example (ignoring percent encoding of brackets):

• Encoding an array

{sites:['google', 'Facebook']} // Object with array property

sites[]=google&sites[]=facebook // Result with $httpParamSerializerJQLike

sites=google&sites=facebook // Result with $httpParamSerializer

• Encoding an object

{address: {city: 'LA', country: 'USA'}} // Object with object property

address[city]=LA&address[country]=USA // Result with $httpParamSerializerJQLike

address={"city": "LA", country: "USA"} // Result with $httpParamSerializer