HTTP POST with Json on Body - Flutter/Dart

This is my code to make a request to an API:

import 'dart:async';
import 'dart:convert';
import 'dart:io';
import 'package:http/http.dart' as http;

Future<http.Response> postRequest () async {
  var url ='https://pae.ipportalegre.pt/testes2/wsjson/api/app/ws-authenticate';
  var body = jsonEncode({ 'data': { 'apikey': '12345678901234567890' } });

  print("Body: " + body);

  http.post(url,
      headers: {"Content-Type": "application/json"},
      body: body
  ).then((http.Response response) {
    print("Response status: ${response.statusCode}");
    print("Response body: ${response.contentLength}");
    print(response.headers);
    print(response.request);

  });
  }

I have a problem with the response from the request, where its suppose to have a body with json, but something went wrong and i think is with the json that i send on the body request, because it is a nested json object, and the value of the key is a json object. i would love to know how i can parse the json right and insert into body of the request.

this is the header response:

 {set-cookie: JSESSIONID=DA65FBCBA2796D173F8C8D78AD87F9AD;path=/testes2/;HttpOnly, last-modified: Thu, 10 May 2018 17:15:13 GMT, cache-control: no-store, no-cache, must-revalidate, max-age=0, post-check=0, pre-check=0, date: Thu, 10 May 2018 17:15:13 GMT, content-length: 0, pragma: no-cache, content-type: text/html, server: Apache-Coyote/1.1, expires: Tue, 03 Jul 2001 06:00:00 GMT}

and this is how is suppose to be:

Server: Apache-Coyote/1.1
Expires: Tue, 03 Jul 2001 06:00:00 GMT
Last-Modified: Thu, 10 May 2018 17:17:07 GMT
Cache-Control: no-store, no-cache, must-revalidate, max-age=0, post-check=0, pre-check=0
Pragma: no-cache
Content-Type: application/json;charset=UTF-8
Vary: Accept-Encoding
Set-Cookie: JSESSIONID=84813CC68E0E8EA6021CB0B4C2F245BC;path=/testes2/;HttpOnly
Keep-Alive: timeout=5, max=100
Connection: Keep-Alive
Transfer-Encoding: chunked

the body response came empty and i think its because the body i sent on the request, can anyone help me with the nested json object in value??

SCREENSHOT OF POSTMAN:

This works!

import 'dart:async';
import 'dart:convert';
import 'dart:io';
import 'package:http/http.dart' as http;

Future<http.Response> postRequest () async {
  var url ='https://pae.ipportalegre.pt/testes2/wsjson/api/app/ws-authenticate';
  
  Map data = {
    'apikey': '12345678901234567890'
  }
  //encode Map to JSON
  var body = json.encode(data);

  var response = await http.post(url,
      headers: {"Content-Type": "application/json"},
      body: body
  );
  print("${response.statusCode}");
  print("${response.body}");
  return response;
}

OK, finally we have an answer...

You are correctly specifying headers: {"Content-Type": "application/json"}, to set your content type. Under the hood either the package http or the lower level dart:io HttpClient is changing this to application/json; charset=utf-8. However, your server web application obviously isn't expecting the suffix.

To prove this I tried it in Java, with the two versions

conn.setRequestProperty("content-type", "application/json; charset=utf-8"); // fails
conn.setRequestProperty("content-type", "application/json"); // works

Are you able to contact the web application owner to explain their bug? I can't see where Dart is adding the suffix, but I'll look later.

EDIT Later investigation shows that it's the http package that, while doing a lot of the grunt work for you, is adding the suffix that your server dislikes. If you can't get them to fix the server then you can by-pass http and use the dart:io HttpClient directly. You end up with a bit of boilerplate which is normally handled for you by http.

Working example below:

import 'dart:convert';
import 'dart:io';
import 'dart:async';

main() async {
  String url =
      'https://pae.ipportalegre.pt/testes2/wsjson/api/app/ws-authenticate';
  Map map = {
    'data': {'apikey': '12345678901234567890'},
  };

  print(await apiRequest(url, map));
}

Future<String> apiRequest(String url, Map jsonMap) async {
  HttpClient httpClient = new HttpClient();
  HttpClientRequest request = await httpClient.postUrl(Uri.parse(url));
  request.headers.set('content-type', 'application/json');
  request.add(utf8.encode(json.encode(jsonMap)));
  HttpClientResponse response = await request.close();
  // todo - you should check the response.statusCode
  String reply = await response.transform(utf8.decoder).join();
  httpClient.close();
  return reply;
}

Depending on your use case, it may be more efficient to re-use the HttpClient, rather than keep creating a new one for each request. Todo - add some error handling ;-)

This would also work :

import 'package:http/http.dart' as http;

  sendRequest() async {

    Map data = {
       'apikey': '12345678901234567890'
    };

    var url = 'https://pae.ipportalegre.pt/testes2/wsjson/api/app/ws-authenticate';
    http.post(url, body: data)
        .then((response) {
      print("Response status: ${response.statusCode}");
      print("Response body: ${response.body}");
    });  
  }

I think many people have problems with Post 'Content-type': 'application / json' The problem here is parse data Map <String, dynamic> to json:

Hope the code below can help someone

Model:

class ConversationReq {
  String name = '';
  String description = '';
  String privacy = '';
  String type = '';
  String status = '';

  String role;
  List<String> members;
  String conversationType = '';

  ConversationReq({this.type, this.name, this.status, this.description, this.privacy, this.conversationType, this.role, this.members});

  Map<String, dynamic> toJson() {
    
    final Map<String, dynamic> data = new Map<String, dynamic>();

    data['name'] = this.name;
    data['description'] = this.description;
    data['privacy'] = this.privacy;
    data['type'] = this.type;

    data['conversations'] = [
      {
        "members": members,
        "conversationType": conversationType,
      }
    ];

    return data;
  }
}

Request:

createNewConversation(ConversationReq param) async {
    HeaderRequestAuth headerAuth = await getAuthHeader();
    var headerRequest = headerAuth.toJson();
/*
{
            'Content-type': 'application/json',
            'x-credential-session-token': xSectionToken,
            'x-user-org-uuid': xOrg,
          }
*/

    var bodyValue = param.toJson();

    var bodydata = json.encode(bodyValue);// important
    print(bodydata);

    final response = await http.post(env.BASE_API_URL + "xxx", headers: headerRequest, body: bodydata);

    print(json.decode(response.body));
    if (response.statusCode == 200) {
      // TODO
    } else {
      // If that response was not OK, throw an error.
      throw Exception('Failed to load ConversationRepo');
    }
  }

this works for me

String body = json.encode(parameters);

http.Response response = await http.post(
  url: 'https://example.com',
  headers: {"Content-Type": "application/json"},
  body: body,
);

I implement like this:

static createUserWithEmail(String username, String email, String password) async{
    var url = 'http://www.yourbackend.com/'+ "users";
    var body = {
        'user' : {
          'username': username,
          'address': email,
          'password': password
       }
    };
       
    return http.post(
      url, 
      body: json.encode(body),
      headers: {
        "Content-Type": "application/json"
      },
      encoding: Encoding.getByName("utf-8")
    );
  }

This one is for using HTTPClient class

 request.headers.add("body", json.encode(map));

I attached the encoded json body data to the header and added to it. It works for me.

In my case POST in the Flutter App is working on the Web, but not on Android devices or the emulator.

Flutter->Server->API

To fix it, I:

1. changed HTTP HEADER on server with:

   $curlArr[CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER] = str_replace("application/x-www-form-urlencoded; charset=utf-8",
     "application/x-www-form-urlencoded",$curlArr[CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER]);
   

2. copied most of the Headers to my App from postman.

String body = json.encode(parameters);

http.Response response = await http.post(
  url: Uri.parse('https://example.com'),
  headers: {"Content-Type": "application/json"},
  body: body,
);

This worked for me!

In my case I forgot to enable

app.use(express.json());

in my NodeJs server.