CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javascriptjqueryajaxjson
Sean Anderson
Sean Anderson

Reputation: 29291

Is explicitly setting the contentType for jQuery ajax necessary when posting JSON?

$.ajax({
    url: Settings.get('serverURL') + 'PlaylistItem/CreateMultiple',
    type: 'POST',
    contentType: 'application/json; charset=utf-8',
    data: JSON.stringify(newItems)
});

I'm explicitly setting the contentType of the AJAX request to indicate JSON is being sent across the wire. However, I seem to be inconsistent in my application of contentType across my code and all AJAX requests are working properly.

Is it necessary or beneficial to be explicit with the JSON contentType or should I omit it?

Upvotes: 0

Views: 847

Answers (1)

Sico
Sico

Reputation: 1183

According to the JQuery documentation

contentType (default: 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded; charset=UTF-8') Type: String When sending data to the server, use this content type. Default is "application/x-www-form-urlencoded; charset=UTF-8", which is fine for most cases. If you explicitly pass in a content-type to $.ajax(), then it is always sent to the server (even if no data is sent). The W3C XMLHttpRequest specification dictates that the charset is always UTF-8; specifying another charset will not force the browser to change the encoding.

In practice I have found it beneficial to explicitly state it either in $.ajax or through 

$.ajaxSetup({
   contentType: "application/json; charset=utf-8"
});

as application/x-www-form-urlencoded has caused me the occasional null value in MVC action parameters as per this article

http://haacked.com/archive/2010/04/15/sending-json-to-an-asp-net-mvc-action-method-argument.aspx/

Upvotes: 1

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