How to send POST requests with array properties (Ionic 2 HTTP plugin)?

Question

In one of my Ionic 2 projects I need to send a POST request to a server with a JSON body that looks like this:

var body = { "prop" : 1, 
  "prop2" : "Test", 
  "prop3": [{ "id" : "1", "qty": 1, "details": "Test" }] 
}

I am using the following code to call the server using the native HTTP plugin (1.2.0) in Android:

http.post(url, body, {}).then(function() { ... })

But my server is receiving the following:

{ "prop" : 1, 
  "prop2" : "Test", 
  "prop3": "[{ \"id\" : \"1\", \"qty\": 1, \"details\": \"Test\" }]"
}

As you can see, the array property "prop3" is being turned into a string, so my server is failing to parse it because it's expecting an array, not a string.

One of the things I could do is to change the server side code to parse this string back into an array (but that would be far from ideal). The other thing I could do is to parse the JSON object manually with JSON.stringify.

So, is this just a bug in the plugin or am I missing something here?

Native HTTP plugin

Flatout · Accepted Answer · 2018-03-31 15:02:00Z

4

Try set http.setDataSerializer("json"); And send data as usual: http.post(url, body, {})

Then http plugin will send data with application/json content type and support deep structure of json, as stated in the documentation: https://github.com/silkimen/cordova-plugin-advanced-http#setdataserializer

answered Mar 31, 2018 at 15:02

Flatout

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Raúl Bojalil · Accepted Answer · 2017-03-24 20:52:52Z

1

So, after taking a look at the plugin's source code (the Java one, I'm testing my application in Android) it seems that I won't be able to use the plugin as is (I would need to modify it). What I found was this:

In CordovaHttpPost.java, the body of the request is sent as Form data (simple key-values).

request.form(this.getParams());  //Map<?, ?>

That's why my array property is converted into a string (and any other complex object for that matter)

TL;DR this plugin is only useful to send simple JSON key-value objects (no nesting, no complex objects, no arrays, etc.).

answered Mar 24, 2017 at 20:52

Raúl Bojalil

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4 Comments

Sampath Over a year ago

what happen when you use JSON.stringify(body)? did you test that?

Raúl Bojalil Over a year ago

It gives a "JSON Error", the post method expects an Object for the "body" parameter.

Balraj Allam Over a year ago

What is the solution for it? I am facing similar issue.

Raúl Bojalil Over a year ago

@BalrajAllam I ended up not modifying the plugin. What I did was just to parse the JSON values (strings) server-side. I know it's an ugly solution, but it was the quickest way.

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