Spring: Ajax call to @ResponseBody param encoding fails in IE

Question

I'm working with Spring and try to make a ajax call to @ResponseBody in my controller.

UPDATE

Okay, I added the changes I got told to to my ajax settings. My param "jtSearchParam" still has the same encoding problem in IE. + I got an other error, 406, the response Header has the wrong content-type.

Here's my new code

Controller:

@RequestMapping(method = RequestMethod.POST, consumes="application/json; charset=utf-8", produces="application/json; charset=utf-8")
    public @ResponseBody JSONObject getUsers(@RequestParam int jtStartIndex, @RequestParam int jtPageSize,
            @RequestParam String jtSorting, @RequestParam String jtSearchParam,
            HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response) throws JSONException{

        Gson gson = new GsonBuilder()
                .setExclusionStrategies(new UserExclusionStrategy())
                .create();

        List<User> users = userService.findUsers(jtStartIndex ,jtPageSize, jtSorting, jtSearchParam);
        Type userListType = new TypeToken<List<User>>() {}.getType();

        String usersJsonString = gson.toJson(users, userListType);
        int totalRecordCount = userDao.getAmountOfRows(jtSearchParam);

        usersJsonString = "{\"Message\":null,\"Result\":\"OK\",\"Records\":" + usersJsonString + ",\"TotalRecordCount\":" + totalRecordCount + "}";

        JSONObject usersJsonObject = new JSONObject(usersJsonString);

        return usersJsonObject;
    }

So as you see I set the content type in produces but that doesn't help. If i debug the response header it looks like this: (That causes an 406 Not Acceptable from the browser)

And my new ajax settings:

...
headers: { 
                 Accept : "application/json; charset=utf-8",
                "Content-Type": "application/json; charset=utf-8"
            },
            contentType: "application/json; charset=utf-8",
            mimeType:"application/json; charset=UTF-8",
            cache:false,
            type: 'POST',
            dataType: 'json'
...

And my parameters still look the same in the IE!

Answer 1

Okay the problem with the json content-type can be solved like this:

With ResponseEntity you're able to change the content-type of the response header, that way ajax can interpret the json object the correct way and you wont get an 406 Http-error.

@RequestMapping(method = RequestMethod.POST)
public ResponseEntity<String> getUsers(@RequestParam int jtStartIndex, @RequestParam int jtPageSize,
        @RequestParam String jtSorting, @RequestParam String jtSearchParam,
        HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response) throws JSONException{

    HttpHeaders responseHeaders = new HttpHeaders();
    responseHeaders.add("Content-Type", "application/json; charset=utf-8");

    Gson gson = new GsonBuilder()
            .setExclusionStrategies(new UserExclusionStrategy())
            .create();

    List<User> users = userService.findUsers(jtStartIndex ,jtPageSize, jtSorting, jtSearchParam);
    Type userListType = new TypeToken<List<User>>() {}.getType();

    String usersJsonString = gson.toJson(users, userListType);
    int totalRecordCount = userDao.getAmountOfRows(jtSearchParam);

    usersJsonString = "{\"Message\":null,\"Result\":\"OK\",\"Records\":" + usersJsonString + ",\"TotalRecordCount\":" + totalRecordCount + "}";

    return new ResponseEntity<String>(usersJsonString, responseHeaders, HttpStatus.OK);
}

The problem with the encoding can be solved like this:

IE won't encode your "ü, ä, etc." correctly, it'll just add it to your URL like this:"jtSearchParam=wü" but it should actually look like that:"jtSearchParam=w%C3%BC" (If it doesn't you'll get the encoding errors on your serverside when you use IE)

So where ever you add certain values to your URL, make sure to use the JavaScript method encodeURI on that value before you actually add it to your URL Example:

encodeURI(jtSearchParam)

Answer 2

I can find conflict in the content type you are using between plain text and json

dataType: 'json'

contentType: "text/html; charset=utf-8"

my recommendation for you to use json for all parts application/json in header and content type also in the messageConverters you can just add jackson jars and it will convert the java object to json for you just you will need to change your return type @ResponseBody String to @ResponseBody User while User is an pojo bean contains getters and setters for your attributes.