REST API in PHP output to JSON file extension

Question

So I want to write a REST API in PHP for JSON for consumption on the iPhone, but also a lot of websites and devices. I have the below code, when accessed via a GET statemen

Answer 1

The problem is this line:

header("Content-type: application/json");

I know this looks like the right way to do (after all, application/json is the official MIME type for JSON content), but it causes most browsers to present you with a file download dialog, when you just want to see the text. You can use the text/plain encoding to avoid this. Note that your AJAX/iPhone/... app probably doesn't care about the content type, so your API will work in both cases.

Also see this blog post which provides some more context.