Angular JS $http.post method malforms JSON arrays

Question

Hi SO.

I have a weird problem that I've been struggling with all day long.

I have my Angular JS module (App), and a controller. In that controller, I inject a factory, which handles my $http.post method. (Which i call "doSearch"). So far so good.

On the back-end I have a spring-mvc rest api class. It looks like this:

@Controller
@RequestMapping("/api/filesearch")
public class FileSearchAPI {

    @RequestMapping(value = "/search", method = RequestMethod.POST)
    @ResponseBody
    public ResultDTO doSearch(@RequestBody NewPerfectSearchDTO searchDTO) {
          System.out.println(searchDTO.getIdentifier());
          SolrService solrService = new SolrService();
          //return solrService.query(searchDTO);
          return new ResultDTO();
     }
}

And this is the function that sends some JSON, that will be mapped to a JAVA POJO/DTO:

doSearch: function(searchParams) {
        $http.post("/np/api/filesearch/search", JSON.stringify({identifier: "apa", inputRows: []})).success(function(response) {
            console.log(response);
            return response;
        }).error(function(data, status, headers, config) {
                console.log(status, headers, config);
        });
    }

Take note of the payload (Yes, it's static for this example): JSON.stringify({identifier: "apa", inputRows: []})

This maps perfectly fine in my DTO. The fields are correct, and variable inputRows is an empty, initialized array.

HOWEVER when I look at the payload (Using firebug or the chrome inspector) , sent by the client, to the API, it looks like this: {"identifier":"apa","inputRows":"[]"}

Did you notice the "" around my JSON array?

{"identifier":"apa","inputRows":"[]"}
                                ^  ^
                                |  |

Yeah... That's the problem I'm having. When I send that request, the server simply replies with a HTTP 400, malformed syntax (Tomcat/Spring error page), the request doesn't even invoke the APIController on the back-end.

So, what I've tried so far (without success):

• I have tried without using JSON.stringify() on the payload, with the same result
• I have tried specifying the headers in my APIController (No use, it doesn't even execute that code before throwing the error)
• I have tried using a Java.util.List instead of an array in the DTO

So I'm pretty much stuck here. Any help would be appreciated.

Answer 1

It sounds like you have a conflicting prototype.js dependency overriding some functions.

I would try

delete Array.prototype.toJSON

before posting your object.