CODEWITHSUNDEEP
phpcakephp
Cameron
Cameron

Reputation: 28803

Sending correct JSON content type for CakePHP

In my CakePHP app I return JSON and exit for certain requests. An example of this would be trying to access the API for a login as a GET request:

header('Content-Type: application/json');
echo json_encode(array('message'=>'GET request not allowed!'));
exit;

However I am having to prefix the echo with the content type in order for it to be sent as JSON. Otherwise my code at the other end interprets it different.

Any ideas on how to get around this? Or at least improve it.

Update: Cake version 2.3.0

Upvotes: 3

Views: 20131

Answers (1)

mark
mark

Reputation: 21743

You can leverage the new 2.x response object:

public function youraction() {
    // no view to render
    $this->autoRender = false;
    $this->response->type('json');

    $json = json_encode(array('message'=>'GET request not allowed!'));
    $this->response->body($json);
}

See http://book.cakephp.org/2.0/en/controllers/request-response.html#cakeresponse

Also you could use the powerful rest features and RequestHandlerComponent to achieve this automatically as documented: http://book.cakephp.org/2.0/en/views/json-and-xml-views.html

You just need to allow the extension json and call your action as /controller/action.json. Then cake will automatically use the JsonView and you can just pass your array in. It will be made to JSON and a valid response by the view class.

Both ways are cleaner than your "exit" solution - try to unit-test code that contains die()/exit(). This will end miserably. So better never use it in your code in the first place.

Upvotes: 38

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