Node (Express) request body empty
You mention that you post JSON data ({"name": "foobar"}). Make sure that you send Content-Type: application/json with that, or bodyParser will not parse it.
E.g.:
$ curl -d 'user[name]=tj' http://local/$ curl -d '{"user":{"name":"tj"}}' -H "Content-Type: application/json" http://local/This is because bodyParser parses application/json, application/x-www-form-encoded and multipart/form-data, and it selects which parser to use based on the Content-Type.