问题
Recently I run into some weird issue with http header usage ( Adding multiple custom http request headers mystery) To avoid the problem at that time, I have put the fields into json string and add that json string into header instead of adding those fields into separate http headers.
For example, instead of
request.addHeader("UserName", mUserName);
request.addHeader("AuthToken", mAuthorizationToken);
request.addHeader("clientId","android_client");
I have created a json string and add it to the single header
String jsonStr="{\"UserName\":\"myname\",\"AuthToken\":\"123456\",\"clientId\":\"android_client\"}";
request.addHeader("JSonStr",jsonStr);
Since I am new to writing Rest and dealing with the Http stuff, I don't know if my usage is proper or not. I would appreciate some insight into this.
Some links
http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/ietf-http-wg/2011OctDec/0133.html
回答1:
Yes, you may use JSON in HTTP headers.
According to the HTTP spec, you need only ensure that your header field-body contains only visible ASCII characters, tab, or space, and must not contain CR or LF characters (i.e. new lines, except via obsolete "folding whitespace").
Since almost all JSON encoders will encode both CR and LF characters as "\r" and "\n", and encode invisible or non-ASCII characters (e.g. "é" becomes "\u00e9"), you shouldn't need to worry about this. Check the docs for your particular encoder, or test it.
The original ARPA spec (RFC 822) has a special description of this exact use case, and the spirit of this echoes in later specs such as RFC 7230:
Certain field-bodies of headers may be interpreted according to an internal syntax that some systems may wish to parse.
Also, RFC 822 and RFC 7230 explicitly give no length constraints:
HTTP does not place a predefined limit on the length of each header field or on the length of the header section as a whole, as described in Section 2.5.
回答2:
Generally speaking you do not send data in the header for a REST API. If you need to send a lot of data it best to use an HTTP POST and send the data in the body of the request. But it looks like you are trying to pass credentials in the header, which some REST API's do use. Here is an example for passing the credentials in a REST API for a service called SMSIfied, which allows you to send SMS text message via the Internet. This example is using basic authentication, which is a a common technique for REST API's. But you will need to use SSL with this technique to make it secure. Here is an example on how to implement basic authentication with WCF and REST.
回答3:
Base64encode it before sending. Just like how JSON Web Token do it.
Here's a NodeJs Example:
var myJsonStr = JSON.stringify(myData);
var headerFriendlyStr = Buffer.from(myJsonStr, 'utf8').toString('base64');
res.addHeader('foo', headerFriendlyStr);
Decode it when you need reading:
var myBase64Str = req.headers['foo'];
var myJsonStr = Buffer.from(myBase64Str, 'base64').toString('utf8');
var myData = JSON.parse(myJsonStr);
回答4:
From what I understand using a json string in the header option is not as much of an abuse of usage as using http DELETE for http GET, thus there has even been proposal to use json in http header. Of course more thorough insights are still welcome and the accepted answer is still to be given.
来源：https://stackoverflow.com/questions/9779860/using-json-string-in-the-http-header