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post request only posting [object Object]

So I'm new to post/get requests and this is really my first time touching it. I'm having issues where while data is posted from my client side to server side and saved to my database, no matter what it just posts: "[object Object]"
Server side code:
//Recieve new help message
app.post("/postNewHelp", function(data){
var newHelp = data;
console.log(newHelp);
//Upload to database
pingdb.all(`UPDATE userHelp SET privateMessage = "${newHelp}"`);
});
Client side:
//send new help message
function sendNewHelp() {
var newHelpMessage = document.getElementById("userHelpSetting").innerHTML;
console.log (newHelpMessage);
//Send to serverside
$.post("/postNewHelp", newHelpMessage), function(data){
console.log(data);
}
alert("Done! your changes should now be in effect.");
}
Any help is appreciated, thanks!

Try to name your data like that.
$.post("/postNewHelp", {helpText:JSON.stringify(newHelpMessage)}), function(data){
console.log(data);
}
And in your server side you can find your date like that.
var helpText = data.helpText
But, while you are using jQuery, don't hesitate to use that in your client side.
var newHelpMessage = $("#userHelpSetting").text();
Please feel free to read about JSON Stringify and JSON parse

Check the client side code. If possible send the parameter as json object as below
function sendNewHelp() {
var newHelpMessage = document.getElementById("userHelpSetting").innerHTML;
console.log (newHelpMessage);
//Send to serverside
$.post("/postNewHelp", {"help": newHelpMessage}, function(data){
console.log(data);
alert("Done! your changes should now be in effect.");
});
}
Now on the server side
//use the body parser
var bodyParser = require("body-parser");
app.use(bodyParser.urlencoded({
extended: true
}));
app.post("/postNewHelp", function(req, res){
var newHelp = req.body.help;
console.log(newHelp);
//Upload to database
pingdb.all(`UPDATE userHelp SET privateMessage = "${newHelp}"`);
});

Get request from client to Node server with objects

How do I send an object from the client to the Node server.
My Object looks like this:
var myobj = {};
myobj.title = "title1";
myobj.message = "message1";
I simply want to send it to the server to save it to the database with mongoDB. But when I try to send it and look at the request, only unreadable text comes out.
This is the code on the client:
$.get( '/createA',myobj, function(data) {
console.log(JSON.parse(data));
});
This is my server code:
router.get('/createA', function(req, res, next) {
let gelp = req._parsedOriginalUrl.query;
let res1 = gelp.replace(/%22/g, "'");
var test = JSON.parse(res1);
});
I tried to format the string with the .replace() function and parse it back to JSON but it doesn't work.
Is there any other way I can get an object from client side JavaScript to Node and work with that object there?

see: https://api.jquery.com/jquery.post/
also just console.log or do res.send('it worked!') to test these things out for the first time instead of trying to modify things before you know the backend is receiving it.
$.post("/createA", myobj, function( data ) {
console.log( data.title );
console.log( data.message );
}, "json");
and try this first.
router.post('/createA', function(req, res) {
res.send('it worked!')
});
after that works, you can try to modify and send back the object. like so
router.post('/createA', function(req, res) {
var data = {}
data.title = req.body.title.toUpperCase()
data.message = req.body.message.toUpperCase()
res.send(data)
});

Sending data from NodeJS to the client by using Ajax calls

I increase a value at the server by running an Ajax call and want to update my UI after doing this
function increaseHitpoints(){
$.ajax({
type: 'GET',
url: 'http://localhost:8888/incHp/2312'
}).done(function (data) {
$("#txtHitpoints").html(data);
});
}
In my app.js I read a JSON file, manipulate the value, write it back to the file and return it to the client
app.get('/incHp/:id', function (req, res) {
var database = './database.json';
fs.readFile(database, 'utf8', function (err, data) { // read the data
var json = JSON.parse(data);
var users = json.users;
var hitpoints;
users.find(u => {
if (u.id === Number(req.params.id)) { // get the user by id
u.hitpoints++;
hitpoints = u.hitpoints;
}
});
json = JSON.stringify(json);
fs.writeFile(database, json, (err) => { // update the JSON file
// -> missing part here <-
});
});
});
what do I have to pass into the missing part if I want to return the new value? The new value would be hitpoints
I tried res.send(hitpoints); but it seems this function wants to return a status code, not a value.

If you send a numerical value, it will be observed as an HTTP response code
https://expressjs.com/en/api.html#res
But you can send your hitpoints as a string res.send(hitpoints.toString())or as json res.send({hits: hitpoints});

Depends on what format you want your response to be. I prefer using JSON. So in JSON case you would do this:
fs.writeFile(database, json, (err) => {
res.status(200).json({yourKey: yourValue});
});
Then you can access the JSON object in your frontend:
$("#txtHitpoints").html(data.yourKey);

Transfer cookies across domains in express

I've got a proxy set up in nodejs that goes to one of our backend servers for data; some of that data (such as session id) is stored as cookies. what I want to do is have the proxy get the remote cookies, push then into the header of the response to the original request, then send the response back. I'm close, but hit a snag:
app.get(/\/json\/(.+)/, getJson);
var getJson = function(req, response1) {
response1.setHeader('Content-Type', 'application/json; charset=utf-8');
var before1stWrite = true;
utils.setCookies(response1, ["floo=flum"]) // this works
var options = {
host : config.scraperUrl.replace('http://', ''),
path : '/rwd/' + req.params[0] + '?' + querystring.stringify(req.query),
method : "GET",
rejectUnauthorized : false
};
var request = https.request(options, function(response2) {
response2.setEncoding('utf8');
// utils.setCookies(response1, ["flib=flah"]) // this fails, too
response2.on('data', function(d) {
if (before1stWrite) {
console.log(response2.headers['set-cookie']); // remote's cookies
utils.setCookies(response1, ["flib=flah"]) // this fails
before1stWrite = false;
}
response1.write(d);
});
response2.on('end', function() {
response1.end()
});
});
request.end();
request.on('error', function(e) {
console.error("error occurred: " + e.message);
response1.end();
});
}
setCookies(response1, cookies) just loops thru the cookies and does
res.setHeader('Set-Cookie', cookie)
The problem is that it looks like the headers have been baked by the time the second setCookies is called; moving the method to the 'data' event handler does not help. The error I get is:
http.js:689
throw new Error('Can\'t set headers after they are sent.');
Any way to add headers to response1 that I receive from the response2?
UPDATE
I fixed the code to be sure that the attempt to write to headers of response1 was done before any other writes; it is not a fix, however.

Yes, you cannot send headers after data has started flowing. Did you try setting the header after this line?
response.setEncoding('utf8');
Also, did you consider using streams rather than transferring in chunks? http://nodejs.org/api/stream.html

You'll need to buffer the data.
Doing this is pretty much like piping:
response.on('data', function(d) {
res.write(d);
});
so you're sending the response straight away. Haven't tried it but this should work:
var data = "";
response.on('data', function(d) {
data += d;
});
response.on('end', function() {
console.log(response.headersSent);
console.log(response.headers['set-cookie']);
utils.setCookies(res, ["flib=flah"])
res.write(data);
res.end();
});
Just remember you're buffering all that data into memory, not recommended for large responses.

Parsing JSON url with NODE.JS and keeping it up to date with SOCKET.IO

I am very new to node.js and socket.io and I am trying to figure out how to read a JSON array from an external url, then parse it and display on the main page. Then I believe I use socket.io to keep that connection open and keep the JSON object up to date when a change occurs.
This is what I have so far for node.js.
var http = require("http");
var fs = require('fs');
var options = 'http://api.trakt.tv/user/watching.json/APIKEY/USERNAME';
var server = http.createServer(function(request, response){
console.log('Connection');
http.get(options, function(res){
var data = '';
res.on('data', function (chunk){
data += chunk;
});
res.on('end',function(){
var obj = JSON.parse(data);
console.log( obj );
})
});
response.end();
});
server.listen(8888);
When I connect to localhost:8888 I see the console show up with "connection" and then the console logs the contents of the JSON object. This is as far as I have managed to get. I would appreciate and help and pointers on how to get that JSON object displayed and styled on my index page and keep it up to date
TIA
Mark

Okay, now that I understand the problem, here is my answer. It's going to be a bit advice laden, as there is no true "right way" to do what you want. All we can be assured if is that yes, you are going to want to use WebSockets (or in this case socket.io, which can emulate websockets on older browsers).
Your current pull code is probably fine, though you're going to want to tweak that code to run on a timeout so that the latest JSON is pulled every so often. In addition, we want to keep the various moving parts of this seperate: Reading from the API/writing the cache, listening to the cache, and then feeding the cache out to connected clients:
var http = require("http");
var fs = require('fs');
var url = 'http://api.trakt.tv/user/watching.json/APIKEY/USERNAME';
var cacheFile = '/path/to/cachefile';
var connectedSockets = [];
function fetchJson() {
http.get(url, function(res) {
body = '';
res.on('data', function(data) {
body += data;
});
res.on('end', function() {
fs.writeFileSync(cacheFile, body);
setTimeout(fetchJson, 1000); // Fetch it again in a second
});
})
}
fetchJson(); // Start fetching to our JSON cache
// Start watching our cache file
fs.watch(cacheFile, function(event, filename) {
if(event == 'change') {
fs.readFile(cacheFile, function(data) {
connectedSockets.forEach(function(socket) {
socket.emit('data', JSON.parse(data));
});
});
}
});
// Now setup our socket server
var io = require('socket.io').listen(8888);
io.sockets.on('connection', function(socket) {
connectedSockets.push(socket);
});
I don't handle disconnected here (you'll want to remove disconnected or err'ed sockets from the connectedSockets list), and I didn't actually run this...but it should give you an idea of where to head.
On the client, it should be a matter of simply:
var socket = io.connect('http://localhost:8888');
socket.on('data', function (data) {
// Data will contain your JSON object, do your DOM manip here
});