Grails send request as JSON and parse it in controller

Question

I want to send a request as JSON and in my controller I want to parse this JSON and get the parameters I want. for example this is the request:

{"param1":"val1"}

I want to parse this request and get "param1" value. I used request.JSON but still I got null. Is there any other way to solve this?

Thanks,

Answer 1

You can use one of the following to test your stuff (both options could be re-used as automated tests eventually - unit and integration):

write a unit test for you controller like (no need to start the server):

void testConsume() {
     request.json = '{param1: "val1"}'
 controller.consume()       
 assert response.text == "val1"
}

and let's say your controller.consume() does something like:

def consume() {
    render request.JSON.param1
}

Or you can use for example the Jersey Client to do a call against your controller, deployed this time:

public void testRequest() {
    // init the client
    ClientConfig config = new DefaultClientConfig();
    Client client = Client.create(config);

    // create a resource
WebResource service = client.resource(UriBuilder.fromUri("your request url").build());
    // set content type and do a POST, which will accept a text/plain response as well
    service.type(MediaType.APPLICATION_JSON).accept(MediaType.TEXT_PLAIN).put(Foo.class, foo);
}

, where foo is a Foo like this:

@XmlRootElement
public class Foo {
    @XmlElement(name = "param1")
    String param1;

    public Foo(String val){param1 = val;}      
}

Here are some more examples on how to use the Jersey client for various REST requests: https://github.com/tavibolog/TodaySoftMag/blob/master/src/test/java/com/todaysoftmag/examples/rest/BookServiceTest.java

Answer 2

Set it in your UrlMappings like this:

static mappings = {
    "/rest/myAction" (controller: "myController", action: "myAction", parseRequest: true)
}

Search for parseRequest in latest Grails guide.

Then validate if it works correctly with curl:

curl --data '{"param1":"value1"}' --header "Content-Type: application/json" http://yourhost:8080/rest/myAction