CODEWITHSUNDEEP
ajaxjsonnode.jsexpress
Brad Ross
Brad Ross

Reputation: 461

Invalid JSON GET Request Express.js

While writing an API, I have come across a very thorny error: when I try to do a res.send(INSERT JSON) with a Content-Type header application/json (a default for most AJAX), I get an invalid json error. When I set the content-type to anything else (eg. text/plain), I get the correct response, but in order to use some front-end frameworks, I need to support application/json. Here is the actual error message:

Error: invalid json
    at Object.exports.error (/Users/Brad/node_modules/express/node_modules/connect/lib/utils.js:44:13)
    at IncomingMessage.module.exports (/Users/Brad/node_modules/express/node_modules/connect/lib/middleware/json.js:68:73)
    at IncomingMessage.EventEmitter.emit (events.js:85:17)
    at IncomingMessage._emitEnd (http.js:366:10)
    at HTTPParser.parserOnMessageComplete [as onMessageComplete] (http.js:149:23)
    at Socket.socket.ondata (http.js:1680:22)
    at TCP.onread (net.js:410:27)

My server code is below:

app.configure(function () {
  app.use(express.bodyParser());
  app.use(express.cookieParser('SALT'));
  app.use(express.static(__dirname + '/static/'));
  app.use(express.session());
});

app.get('/users', function(req, res) {
  res.send({'test': 'test'});
});

Here is an picture of my Postman setup--I am using the Postman Chrome extension to test my API: enter image description here

Upvotes: 4

Views: 4361

Answers (1)

Nick Mitchinson
Nick Mitchinson

Reputation: 5480

I believe the problem is that you want to be using Content-Type header in your servers response; not in your request Content-Type header.

When you use the Content-Type header in your request, Express will read the Content-Type and attempt to interpret the provided information as that Content-Type, in this case, as JSON. Because this is a GET request and thus has no body, Express is trying to interpret an empty string as JSON, which is giving you the error.

Upvotes: 4

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