REST API - Use the “Accept: application/json” HTTP Header

Question

When I make a request, I get a response in XML, but what I need is JSON. In the doc it is stated in order to get a JSON in return: Use the Accept: application/json

Answer 1

Here's a handy site to test out your headers. You can see your browser headers and also use cURL to reflect back whatever headers you send.

For example, you can validate the content negotiation like this.

This Accept header prefers plain text so returns in that format:-

$ curl -H "Accept: application/json;q=0.9,text/plain" http://gethttp.info/Accept
application/json;q=0.9,text/plain

Whereas this one prefers JSON and so returns in that format:-

$ curl -H "Accept: application/json,text/*;q=0.99" http://gethttp.info/Accept
{
   "Accept": "application/json,text/*;q=0.99"
}