[HttpFoundation] Add Request::toArray() for JSON content

[Nyholm]

Q	A
Branch?	master
Bug fix?	ni
New feature?	yes
Deprecations?	no
Tickets
License	MIT
Doc PR

The past few months I've been working more and more with javascript and APIs. I've written controllers that parse json from the request body. I've found myself copying code between projects so I looked at the possibility to add this code to the Request class itself.

Usage

POST /add-user
Content-Type: application/json

{"name": "Tobias", "email": "tobias.nyholm@gmail.com"}

use Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\Exception\JsonException;
use Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\Request;
use Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\JsonResponse;

class MyController
    // ...
    public function addUser(Request $request): JsonResponse
    {
        try {
            $data = $request->toArray();
        } catch (JsonException $e) {
            return new JsonResponse(['message'=>'Request does not contain valid json'], 415);
        }
        
        $command = new AddUser($data['email'] ?? '', $data['name'] ?? '');
        
        try {
            $this->commandBus->dispatch($command);
        } catch (ValidationFailedException $e) {
            return new JsonResponse(['message' => 'Unexpected JSON body'], 400);
        }
        
        return new JsonResponse(['message' => 'User successfully added']);
    }
}

---

I've searched but I have not found that this has been proposed before.. With is strange.. ¯\(ツ)/¯

[ro0NL]

what about using an InputBag for return? That way we're effectively decoding the request body (payload) as done when using $request->request .. but lazy.

Which raises another question, can we provide decoded payload from $request->request in a lazy way? The door was opened with #37327, and then a bit closed with #37265 :)

[ro0NL]

e.g. InputBag::fromString holding the string itself, then lazy decode it.

if ($_POST) {
   $this->request = new InputBag($_POST);
} elseif($this->getContent()) {
  $this->request = InputBag::fromString($this->getContent()[, $contentType]);
}

[ro0NL]

really, we get HTTP 400 for free this way :)

[lyrixx]

I don't have so much to say about the implementation but I have the same use case. I added a trait in my application to solve this issue, but having something native / in core would be really nice.

[Nyholm]

Thank you for the reviews and feedback.

That way we're effectively decoding the request body (payload) as done when using $request->request .. but lazy.

@ro0NL Im not sure what you mean. How is it lazy and what is the benefit?

Note that there is technically a difference between $_POST and the request body. For once, a HTTP GET request can have a body that wont be parsed into the $_POST super global.

[ro0NL]

AFAIK the $_POST vars are obtained from the request content. So this is about providing consistent access, to a decoded request body, using $request->request->get('key').

The lazy part is about decoding JSON only when needed ;)

If $_POST is filled, i think we can assume it always supersedes.

[yceruto]

Tests failures seems related though https://ci.appveyor.com/project/fabpot/symfony/builds/35272847#L1155.

1) Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\Tests\RequestTest::testToArrayNonJson
Failed asserting that exception message 'Syntax error' contains 'Could not decode request body.'.

[OskarStark]

The PR header still uses getContentArray() in the example code, can you please rework this to match toArray() ? Thanks

[Nyholm]

Oops, Sorry.

The code example in the PR header is updated.

[OskarStark]

Thank you! 🙏

[nicolas-grekas]

(rebase needed)

[Nyholm]

Thank you for the ping. The PR is rebased

[lyrixx]

👍🏼

[fabpot]

Thank you @Nyholm.

[Nyholm]

Thank you for merging