frag.js

var zlib = require("zlib");
var rawParser = bodyParser.raw({type: '*/*'});

app.post('/zipped', rawParser, function(req, res) {

    // console.log('here we go');
    // console.log('body',         req.body);
    // console.log('body',         req.headers);
    // console.log('body type',    typeof req.body);
    // console.log('req body len', req.body.length);

    if(req.headers["content-type"]){
        if(req.headers["content-type"] === "application/octet-stream"){
            zlib.gunzip(req.body, function(err, buf) {
                if(err){
                    console.log("err:", err );
                    res.status(666).send("failed to unzip");
                } else{
                    console.log("in the inflate callback:", buf);
                    console.log("to string:", buf.toString("utf8") );
                    res.status(200).send({"message":"rad, it worked zipped","data":buf.toString("utf8")});
                }
            });
        } else if(req.headers["content-type"] === "application/json"){
            console.log(req.body);
            res.status(200).send({"message":"rad, it worked as json","data":req.body});
        }
    } else {
        res.status(666).send("failed. No headers?");
    }
});

minimal_gzip.py

import json
import requests
import logging
from httplib import HTTPConnection
import StringIO
import gzip

HTTPConnection.debuglevel = 1

logging.basicConfig()
logging.getLogger().setLevel(logging.DEBUG)
requests_log = logging.getLogger("requests.packages.urllib3")
requests_log.setLevel(logging.DEBUG)
requests_log.propagate = True


url = "http://localhost:3000"
headers = {"Content-Type":"application/octet-stream"}
data = [{"key": 1,"otherKey": "2"},{"key": 3,"otherKey": "4"}]

payload = json.dumps(data)

out = StringIO.StringIO()
with gzip.GzipFile(fileobj=out, mode="w") as f:
  f.write(json.dumps(data))
out.getvalue()


print "\ntry a zipped body"
rZipped = requests.post(url+"/zipped",
                        data=out.getvalue(),
                        headers=headers)
print rZipped.status_code, rZipped.text

print "\ntry a plain body"
headers = {"Content-Type":"application/json"}
rNotZipped = requests.post(url+"/zipped",
                           data=payload,
                           headers=headers)
print rNotZipped.status_code, rNotZipped.text

print "\ntry a plain body"
rNotZipped = requests.post(url+"/zipped",
                           data=payload,
                           headers={})
print rNotZipped.status_code, rNotZipped.text