Rails - Apr 2013 - Request with Content-Type: "application/json" add extra parameter.

Howdy,

I am making a few AJAX endpoints using rails, and noticed the following 
inconsistent behavior when setting the Content-Type to application/json. 
 Here are four different requests to show the problem I am having.

1. First, when I make the following example request:

curl -X GET 
"http://localhost:3000/api/v1/events?counts=true&order%5Bcolumn%5D=occurs_at&order%5Bdirection%5D=asc&page%5Bnumber%5D=1&page%5Blimit%5D=100"

Rails shows the following in the log:

Started GET 
"/api/v1/events?counts=true&order%5Bcolumn%5D=occurs_at&order%5Bdirection%5D=asc&page%5Bnumber%5D=1&page%5Blimit%5D=100"
for 127.0.0.1 at 2013-04-18 03:57:49 +0000
Processing by Api::V1::EventsController#index as JSON
  Parameters: {"counts"=>"true",
"order"=>{"column"=>"occurs_at",
"direction"=>"asc"},
"page"=>{"number"=>"1",
"limit"=>"100"}}

2. However, if I change the Content-Type to be "application/json":

curl -X GET -H "Content-Type: application/json" 
"http://localhost:3000/api/v1/events?counts=true&order%5Bcolumn%5D=occurs_at&order%5Bdirection%5D=asc&page%5Bnumber%5D=1&page%5Blimit%5D=100"

I get the following:

Started GET 
"/api/v1/events?counts=true&order%5Bcolumn%5D=occurs_at&order%5Bdirection%5D=asc&page%5Bnumber%5D=1&page%5Blimit%5D=100"
for 127.0.0.1 at 2013-04-18 03:57:33 +0000
Processing by Api::V1::EventsController#index as JSON
  Parameters: {"counts"=>"true",
"order"=>{"column"=>"occurs_at",
"direction"=>"asc"},
"page"=>{"number"=>"1",
"limit"=>"100"}, *"event"=>{}*}

The bold part is the extra parameter (in this case "event") that gets
added
by making this a JSON request.

3. The problem, is that this event parameter will clobber any parameter I 
send over also called event.  For example:

curl -X GET -H "Content-Type: application/json" 
"http://localhost:3000/api/v1/events?counts=true&order%5Bcolumn%5D=occurs_at&order%5Bdirection%5D=asc&page%5Bnumber%5D=1&page%5Blimit%5D=100&
*event=Super%20Important%20Info*"

And it is not parsed from the params:

Started GET 
"/api/v1/events?counts=true&order%5Bcolumn%5D=occurs_at&order%5Bdirection%5D=asc&page%5Bnumber%5D=1&page%5Blimit%5D=100&
*event=Super%20Important%20Info*" for 127.0.0.1 at 2013-04-18 04:02:56
+0000
Processing by Api::V1::EventsController#index as JSON
  Parameters: {"counts"=>"true",
"order"=>{"column"=>"occurs_at",
"direction"=>"asc"},
"page"=>{"number"=>"1",
"limit"=>"100"}, *"event"=>{}*}

4. But, if I dont pass the JSON content type:

curl -X GET 
"http://localhost:3000/api/v1/events?counts=true&order%5Bcolumn%5D=occurs_at&order%5Bdirection%5D=asc&page%5Bnumber%5D=1&page%5Blimit%5D=100&
*event=Super%20Important%20Info*"

It works just fine:

Started GET 
"/api/v1/events?counts=true&order%5Bcolumn%5D=occurs_at&order%5Bdirection%5D=asc&page%5Bnumber%5D=1&page%5Blimit%5D=100&
*event=Super%20Important%20Info*" for 127.0.0.1 at 2013-04-18 04:02:22
+0000
Processing by Api::V1::EventsController#index as JSON
  Parameters: {"counts"=>"true",
"order"=>{"column"=>"occurs_at",
"direction"=>"asc"},
"page"=>{"number"=>"1",
"limit"=>"100"}, *"event"=>"Super
Important Info"*}

Is there any way I can just turn off this functionality?  I think it might 
be because this is an EventsController, and Rails is trying to give me 
something for free, but I just want to send over whatever I want, 
especially as I will have situations like an OrdersController, that I want 
to pass an order to (such as id asc, etc..).

Thanks for any help,

Robert

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On Thursday, April 18, 2013 5:10:14 AM UTC+1,
rob...-yl+m5YwNjbdWk0Htik3J/w@public.gmane.org wrote:
> Howdy,
> 
> 
> 
> Is there any way I can just turn off this functionality?  I think it might
be because this is an EventsController, and Rails is trying to give me something
for free, but I just want to send over whatever I want, especially as I will
have situations like an OrdersController, that I want to pass an order to (such
as id asc, etc..).
> 
> 
There are 2 things happening. First, by default if the content type is json then
rails assumes that the request body (in your case the empty string) is json, and
will parse it and add it to params.

The second is something called wrap_parameters.
This wraps the parameters from the body in a hash, so if you posted the document

{"name": "bob"}

To a users controller, instead of polluting the top level parameter namespace it
would set params[:user] to the result of parsing that.

There is an initializer that turns on wrap parameters. You could remove it
and/or only enable it for some controllers.

By default this only happens if the content type is json.

Lastly why are you setting the content type if you''re not submitting
the request body (if you''re trying to control the format of the
response I find that it''s easiest not to mess around with headers and
requests events.json instead)

Fred
> Thanks for any help,
> 
> 
> Robert
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Hi Frederick,

Thanks for the help, disabling wrap_parameters in my initializer fixed my 
problem.  Reason why I am setting the content type for the GET is just 
because I have jQuery to always ask for JSON.  I could probably set it to 
only send the header on POST/PUT requests, but I would still have the 
problem were params would get clobbered in my post body anyway.

Really appreciate the help!

On Thursday, April 18, 2013 3:24:13 AM UTC-4, Frederick Cheung
wrote:
>
> On Thursday, April 18, 2013 5:10:14 AM UTC+1,
rob...-yl+m5YwNjbdWk0Htik3J/w@public.gmane.org wrote:
> > Howdy, 
> > 
> > 
>
> > 
> > Is there any way I can just turn off this functionality?  I think it 
> might be because this is an EventsController, and Rails is trying to give 
> me something for free, but I just want to send over whatever I want, 
> especially as I will have situations like an OrdersController, that I want 
> to pass an order to (such as id asc, etc..). 
> > 
> > 
>
> There are 2 things happening. First, by default if the content type is 
> json then rails assumes that the request body (in your case the empty 
> string) is json, and will parse it and add it to params. 
>
> The second is something called wrap_parameters. 
> This wraps the parameters from the body in a hash, so if you posted the 
> document 
>
> {"name": "bob"} 
>
> To a users controller, instead of polluting the top level parameter 
> namespace it would set params[:user] to the result of parsing that. 
>
> There is an initializer that turns on wrap parameters. You could remove it 
> and/or only enable it for some controllers. 
>
> By default this only happens if the content type is json. 
>
> Lastly why are you setting the content type if you''re not
submitting the
> request body (if you''re trying to control the format of the
response I find
> that it''s easiest not to mess around with headers and requests
events.json
> instead) 
>
> Fred 
> > Thanks for any help, 
> > 
> > 
> > Robert 
>
>
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