Delete Response has false Content-Type

[ghost]

I'm doing some testing with supertest:

request(app)
        .delete '/some/' + someId.toString()
        .set headers
        .expect 'Content-Type', headers['Accept']
        .expect 204
        .end done

headers =
        'Content-Type' : 'application/vnd.api+json; charset=utf-8'
        'Accept' : 'application/vnd.api+json; charset=utf-8; supported-ext=bulk'

I get the following error:

Error: expected "Content-Type" of "application/vnd.api+json; charset=utf-8; supported-ext=bulk", got "application/vnd.api+json; supported-ext="bulk""

GET, POST and PATCH work very well

[ethanresnick]

Hi @benno208,

Thanks for reporting this! I just pushed a new version of the library that shouldn't have this problem; can you check?

Here's how it should behave now. First, the server should no longer send, and clients no longer need to indicate that they'll Accept, the supported-ext parameter. This is because extensions have now been marked as experimental and, in fact, the whole extension negotiation system may well change. So, until the extension system is more solid, I've chosen not to support the ext and supported-ext at all.

As for the charset parameter: if a client includes it in the Accept header, JSON API requires that the server respond with a 406 Not Acceptable. The idea is that, by requiring an explicit error, JSON API can add new parameters in the future (like ext) to the base spec, and clients can detect server support for those new parameters by seeing whether they get a 406.

The story with charset in Content-Type is different, though. First, express adds charset automatically, so there's little I can do about that. This is bad behavior on express's part, since JSON API's media type doesn't define a charset parameter, but it's not technically a violation of the media type spec. Nevertheless, if a client encounters charset in Content-Type, it MUST simply ignore it. This comes from JSON API but also from the media type spec, which says that "MIME implementations must ignore any parameters whose names they do not recognize".

So, in the end, here's what this adds up to:

1. Your test client's Accept header should be simply application/vnd.api+json, since supported-ext is gone and including charset will trigger the JSON-API-mandated 406.
2. Your client's Content-Type header should simply be application/vnd.api+json as well, as mandated here.
3. Then, your expect clause should be that the returned Content-Type will be application/vnd.api+json; charset=utf8, even though this doesn't match the Accept header. This is a bit annoying—and it's a consequence of express's insistence on adding the charset parameter automatically, which I'd like to figure out some way to disable. But it's perfectly valid under HTTP, which says that using negotiation is optional ("If...none of the available representations for the response have a media type that is listed as acceptable, the origin server can... disregard the header field by treating the response as if it is not subject to content negotiation"). Moreover, it's consistent with JSON API's restrictions as well.

[ghost]

First thing after updating to 2.3.0:

Cannot find module 'babel-core/polyfill'

[ethanresnick]

Weird.... I just did a fresh install and things appear to be running fine. Can you give me the stack trace for that error?

[ghost]

I did a complete install. Now everything seems to be fine. When I do a POST I get

expected "Content-Type" of "application/vnd.api+json; charset=utf-8", got "application/json; charset=utf-8"

and on PATCH:

Error: expected "Content-Type" of "application/vnd.api+json; charset=utf-8", got "application/vnd.api+json"

[ethanresnick]

What's the Accept header you're sending? For some reason, it's thinking that generic JSON should be used rather than the JSON API media type.

[ghost]

I'm sending the following headers:

headers =
  'Content-Type' : 'application/vnd.api+json'
  'Accept' : 'application/vnd.api+json'

And I'm testing for:

response_headers =
   'Content-Type' : 'application/vnd.api+json; charset=utf-8'

[ghost]

Damn, I clicked the false button...

[ethanresnick]

Very weird...what you posted earlier should have worked (and was working for me). However, I've just pushed a new version of the library that removes the automatically-appended charset parameter all together. So now you should be able to send a request with:

Content-Type: application/vnd.api+json
Accept : application/vnd.api+json

And get back

Content-Type: application/vnd.api+json

There's a test for this behavior and, on my machine at least, it's passing. Let me know if you're still experiencing problems after upgrading to the latest version :)

[ghost]

Now, everything works like expected. Thanks!

[ethanresnick]

Awesome!