topic Re: Why aren't REST (JSON) responses using Content-Type: application/json? in ArcGIS REST APIs and Services Questions

Why aren't REST (JSON) responses using Content-Type: application/json?

EricWilliams — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 16:18:18 GMT

Working with the REST API and I noticed that the content-types are not being set correctly.

As an example:
ESRI_Census_USA Sample Service:
http://sampleserver1.arcgisonline.com/ArcGIS/rest/services/Demographics/ESRI_Census_USA/MapServer?f=json

returns:
Content-Type:text/plain;

Is there configuration or URL parameter to fix this?

Re: Why aren't REST (JSON) responses using Content-Type: application/json?

RahulRavikumar — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 07:52:47 GMT

REST (JSON) responses are set to 'text/plain' rather than 'application/json' for a couple of reasons.

a. 'text/plain' is friendlier.
If we used Content-Type = 'application/json', it is not displayed by the browser. The browser forces you to download and save the response, before allowing you to view it. This would not happen if we used 'text/plain'.

b. The ArcGIS Server REST API supports JavaScript callbacks ('callback' parameter) which help us get around the cross domain issues. When JSON is wrapped by a callback, it is no longer JSON in the 'strict' sense.

Therefore we chose to use 'text/plain' rather than 'application/json'

If you absolutely want 'application/json' as the content-type, you can use a proxy that overrides the headers for the JSON requests, and make calls to the REST API using your proxy.

Re: Why aren't REST (JSON) responses using Content-Type: application/json?

PetrDiviš — Tue, 09 May 2017 11:36:34 GMT

Hello,

I think after 7 years of suffering with text\plain, Esri could finally accept the standard What is the correct JSON content type? - Stack Overflow

also when setting the content type in SOE and then calling the request with f=json i always get invalid text\plain instead of my application\json.

So pretty please with sugar on top, fix the bug

Petr

Re: Why aren't REST (JSON) responses using Content-Type: application/json?

MarcGraham1 — Mon, 25 Jun 2018 21:54:37 GMT

Old thread, but for anyone else googling this... At 10.6 the default is application/json:

Server Properties—ArcGIS REST API: Administer your server | ArcGIS for Developers

tldr: "defaultJsonResponseContentType—At 10.6, the default content-type for JSON and JSON with callback responses has been changed from text/plain to application/json and application/javascript, respectively. "

Re: Why aren't REST (JSON) responses using Content-Type: application/json?

LeonAus — Fri, 11 Oct 2019 03:21:51 GMT

Marc,

My ArcGIS server install is 10.6.1 and this change doesn't seem to be working. By default I still get text/plain when requesting a json response. I tried to add "defaultJsonResponseContentType": "application/json" into my system properties as a long shot but that didn't make a difference.

Is there anything else that is needed to get the response in application/json or is this a bug and I should log it with my local distributor?

Re: Why aren't REST (JSON) responses using Content-Type: application/json?

LeonAus — Fri, 11 Oct 2019 04:12:47 GMT

False alarm. The rest directory automatically uses f=pjson as the format which returns text/plain. Changed to f=json returns the application/json needed.

Re: Why aren't REST (JSON) responses using Content-Type: application/json?

MuratAkdogan — Wed, 10 Jul 2024 10:16:36 GMT

we also have the same doubt. please add wfs:outputFormat=application/json?