Setting Content-Type header for RSpec and Rails-API

Question

I'm using the rails-api gem to build a web service and want to test my API with RSpec. Every request I make, regardless of the HTTP method has the CONTENT_TYPE header set as "application/x-www-form-urlencoded". This isn't really a problem until I try to use wrap_parameters in my controller and it's not have any affect on the params hash:

class ApplicationController < ActionController::API
  include ActionController::ParamsWrapper
end

class ProjectsController < ApplicationController
  wrap_parameters :project, include: [:name]
  # ...
end

This hack no longer works (@request is nil), and none of the other Stack Overflow posts I found work either.

If I make the following request in my RSpec test:

put "/projects/1.json", {name: 'Updated Project 1'}

and put a debugger in my controller I get:

(rdb:1) p params
    { "name"=>"Updated Project 1",
  "action"=>"update",
  "controller"=>"projects",
  "id"=>"5539bbd9-010c-4cfb-88d3-82dadbc99507",
  "format"=>"json"
}

(rdb:1) p request.content_type
"application/x-www-form-urlencoded"

I'm expecting to see something like this for the params hash (note the addition of the project key):

{ "name"=>"Updated Project 1",
  "action"=>"update",
  "controller"=>"projects",
  "id"=>"5539bbd9-010c-4cfb-88d3-82dadbc99507",
  "format"=>"json",
  "project" => {"name" => "Updated Project 1"}
}

Is it possible to set the content type header using just RSpec? Or do I have have to use rack/test for this functionality?

Nimitz

There's a chance that wrap_parameters is still busted with the rails-api project and this has nothing to do with setting the content type. – Nimitz

Confirmed that wrap_parameters works by adding the :url_encoded_form format to method call: wrap_parameters format: [:url_encoded_form, :json] – Nimitz

You can set elements of the rspec request environment in a controller with request.env['HTTP_CONTENT_TYPE'] = 'application/json' or whatever else you need. – Heathenish

Answer 1

A lot of frustration and variations and that's what worked for me. Rails 3.2.12 Rspec 2.10

 @request.env["HTTP_ACCEPT"] = "application/json"
 @request.env["CONTENT_TYPE"] = "application/json"
 put :update, :id => 1, "email" => "[email protected]"

wrap_parameters seems to be working declared this way

wrap_parameters User, format: :json

being used for User model

Selfexcited

This really tripped me up. Setting put :update, :id => 1, :format => :json will not work. You must enter as VelLes has. – Savona

Answer 2

This worked for me Rails 4.0.3 and Rspec 2.14.1 if anyone is looking for more recent versions.

put '/projects/1.json', {name: 'Updated Project 1'}, {
  'HTTP_ACCEPT' => 'application/json',
  'CONTENT_TYPE' => 'application/json'
}

and

wrap_parameters Project, format: :json

Sancho

I removed .to_json of params and it worked: put '/projects/1.json', {name: 'Updated Project 1'}, { 'HTTP_ACCEPT' => 'application/json', 'CONTENT_TYPE' => 'application/json' } – Dibri

Answer 3

Using the new Rails v5.0.x API only settings I found that this problem with rails defaulting everything to "application/x-www-form-urlencoded" is still in issue for testing with RSpec-Rails Requests

Here is what I did to fix the problem:

Create support file at ./spec/support/json_requests.rb

Edit it to be something like this to override the behavior for all of your API only JSON requests:

module JsonRequests
  def get(*args)
    super(*json_args(*args))
  end

  def post(*args)
    super(*json_args(*args))
  end

  def update(*args)
    super(*json_args(*args))
  end

  def patch(*args)
    super(*json_args(*args))
  end

  def put(*args)
    super(*json_args(*args))
  end

  def delete(*args)
    super(*json_args(*args))
  end

  def json_args(path, params = {}, headers = {})
    [path, params.to_json, headers.merge('CONTENT_TYPE' => 'application/json')]
  end
end

RSpec.configure do |config|
  config.include JsonRequests, type: :request
end

Keep in mind that this will override all Specs within ./spec/requests so if you need to use "application/x-www-form-urlencoded" you could also include this module manually as needed in your Describe 'something' do block.

Huey

Using ruby 2.5.0, rails 5.1.5 and rspec 3.7.1, I had to change the above json_args method to this: def json_args(path, params = {}) [path, **params.merge(as: :json)] end See here: github.com/rails/rails/blob/master/actionpack/lib/… – Grunenwald

Answer 4

Rails 5 no hacks:

put(:update,
    params: {project_id: 1},
    body: {name: 'Updated Project 1'}.to_json,
    as: :json)

This sets the content_type correctly. In the controller params will hold both params and body.

Depone

Answer 5

Its 2021, Rails 6.1 and I had to use as: :json to fix this wierd mangling of an array of hashes in the params.

put(:update, params: the_params_hash, as: :json)

Chlorohydrin

Answer 6

If you are using Rails 4 (and rspec ~3.7) and don't want to use the inline syntax:

request.headers["CONTENT_TYPE"] = "application/json"

Scud

Answer 7

Rails 5

headers = { 'CONTENT_TYPE' => 'application/json' }
params = { user_type: 'tester' } 

and after that request like

post '/api/v1/users/test', params.to_json, headers

and also remove .to_json from request route

Etna