JSONDecodeError Django

Question

I have an API that is sending me a POST request (JSON) for testing. I was doing a lot with the JSON, but all of a sudden it stopped working and giving me a JSONDecodeError. I tried all sorts of things, like using request.POST but nothing worked correctly like I said this was working at one point. Any assistance is appreciated.

Test that gives the error: In the Windows Command prompt, running:

curl -X POST http://127.0.0.1:8000/webhook/webhook_receiver/ -d '{"foo": "bar"}'

Error: json.decoder.JSONDecodeError: Expecting value: line 1 column 1 (char 0)

View:

def webhook_receiver(request, *args, **kwargs):
    if request.method == 'POST':
        # Get the incoming JSON Data
        data = request.body.decode('utf-8')
        received_json_data = json.loads(data)
        return HttpResponse(received_json_data)
    else:
        return HttpResponse("not Post")

@Zev curl -X POST 127.0.0.1:8000/webhook/webhook_receiver -d '{"foo": "bar"}' is what I was trying — Jiroscopes
– Jiroscopes, Commented Jun 2, 2018 at 1:56

Zev · Accepted Answer · 2018-06-02 16:00:48Z

2

The culprit is the combination of your command quoting syntax and the Windows terminal interpreter (what you posted would have been fine using Bash for example).

See Escaping curl command in Windows for details.

The actual error (which you really ought to have posted) looks like this:

Exception Type: JSONDecodeError at /webhook/webhook_receiver/
Exception Value: Expecting value: line 1 column 1 (char 0)

That says the data you are passing into the decoder does not start with a valid character (such as a "{" if the JSON is supposed to be a dict, or "[" for an array). You can probably work out what the problem is really easily by adding a print() for the start of the data, e.g. like:

print('first few characters=<{}>'.format(data[:4]))

edited Jun 2, 2018 at 16:00

Zev

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answered Jun 1, 2018 at 23:43

Shaheed Haque

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10 Comments

Jiroscopes Over a year ago

I was trying curl -X POST 127.0.0.1:8000 -d '{"Foo":"bar"}' is that not correct?

Shaheed Haque Over a year ago

It looks OK, but there is no substitute for looking at what the Python code is actually getting. After all, you are getting an error!

Jiroscopes Over a year ago

I am not sure where to use this print statement. Do I put it in my views?

Zev Over a year ago

Yes, and you'll see the result in the terminal where you ran the server. I just tested your code and it worked for me (I didn't get an error) so the issue may be in something you haven't put in the question yet.

Jiroscopes Over a year ago

Ok, I get first few characters=<'{fo> which is valid is it not? Seems like maybe the double quotes are being stripped?

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