// When Go is encoding a particular type to JSON, // it looks to see if the type has a MarshalJSON() // method implemented on it. If it has, then Go will // call this method to determine how to encode it. package main import ( "encoding/json" "errors" "fmt" "io" "net/http" "strings" ) type envelope map[string]any // This was the original function signature without enveloping // func (app *application) writeJSON(w http.ResponseWriter, status int, data any, headers http.Header) error { func (app *application) writeJSON(w http.ResponseWriter, status int, data envelope, headers http.Header) error { // TODO set a flag for wether to indent or not. Indenting cost CPU time, more memory, and more allocs // approximately 65% more time 30% more mem. //js, err := json.Marshal(data) // Use the json.MarshalIndent() function so that whitespace is added to the encoded // JSON. Here we use no line prefix ("") and tab indents ("\t") for each element. js, err := json.MarshalIndent(data, "", "\t") if err != nil { return err } js = append(js, '\n') // At this point, we know that we won't encounter any more errors before writing the // response, so it's safe to add any headers that we want to include. We loop // through the header map and add each header to the http.ResponseWriter header map. // Note that it's OK if the provided header map is nil. Go doesn't throw an error // if you try to range over (or generally, read from) a nil map. for key, value := range headers { w.Header()[key] = value } // Add the "Content-Type: application/json" header, then write the status code and // JSON response. w.Header().Set("Content-Type", "application/json") w.WriteHeader(status) w.Write(js) return nil } func (app *application) readJSON(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request, dst any) error { // Use http.MaxBytesReader() to limit the size of the request body to 1,048,576 // bytes (1MB). r.Body = http.MaxBytesReader(w, r.Body, 1_048_576) decoder := json.NewDecoder(r.Body) // Do not allow unknown fields decoder.DisallowUnknownFields() // Decode the request body into the target destination. err := decoder.Decode(dst) if err != nil { // If there is an error during decoding, start the triage... var syntaxError *json.SyntaxError var unmarshalTypeError *json.UnmarshalTypeError var invalidUnmarshalError *json.InvalidUnmarshalError var maxBytesError *http.MaxBytesError switch { // Use the errors.As() function to check whether the error has the type // *json.SyntaxError. If it does, then return a plain-english error message // which includes the location of the problem. case errors.As(err, &syntaxError): return fmt.Errorf("body contains badly-formed JSON (at character %d)", syntaxError.Offset) // In some circumstances Decode() may also return an io.ErrUnexpectedEOF error // for syntax errors in the JSON. So we check for this using errors.Is() and // return a generic error message. There is an open issue regarding this at // https://github.com/golang/go/issues/25956. case errors.Is(err, io.ErrUnexpectedEOF): return errors.New("body contains badly-formed JSON") // Likewise, catch any *json.UnmarshalTypeError errors. These occur when the // JSON value is the wrong type for the target destination. If the error relates // to a specific field, then we include that in our error message to make it // easier for the client to debug. case errors.As(err, &unmarshalTypeError): if unmarshalTypeError.Field != "" { return fmt.Errorf("body contains incorrect JSON type for field %q", unmarshalTypeError.Field) } return fmt.Errorf("body contains incorrect JSON type (at character %d)", unmarshalTypeError.Offset) // An io.EOF error will be returned by Decode() if the request body is empty. We // check for this with errors.Is() and return a plain-english error message // instead. case errors.Is(err, io.EOF): return errors.New("body must not be empty") // If the JSON contains a field which cannot be mapped to the target destination // then Decode() will now return an error message in the format "json: unknown // field """. We check for this, extract the field name from the error, // and interpolate it into our custom error message. Note that there's an open // issue at https://github.com/golang/go/issues/29035 regarding turning this // into a distinct error type in the future. case strings.HasPrefix(err.Error(), "json: unknown field "): fieldName := strings.TrimPrefix(err.Error(), "json: unknown field ") return fmt.Errorf("body contains unknown key %s", fieldName) // Use the errors.As() function to check whether the error has the type // *http.MaxBytesError. If it does, then it means the request body exceeded our // size limit of 1MB and we return a clear error message. case errors.As(err, &maxBytesError): return fmt.Errorf("body must not be larger than %d bytes", maxBytesError.Limit) // A json.InvalidUnmarshalError error will be returned if we pass something // that is not a non-nil pointer to Decode(). We catch this and panic, // rather than returning an error to our handler. // Panic is used here because the above are "expected errors", while and issue like // the below invalidUnMarshalError really is an unexpected error. If this is raised // it is most likely a developer mistake becayse the developer would be sending an // unsupported value to `Decode()``. case errors.As(err, &invalidUnmarshalError): panic(err) // For anything else, return the error message as-is. default: return err } } // Call Decode() again, using a pointer to an empty anonymous struct as the // destination. If the request body only contained a single JSON value this will // return an io.EOF error. So if we get anything else, we know that there is // additional data in the request body and we return our own custom error message. err = decoder.Decode(&struct{}{}) if !errors.Is(err, io.EOF) { return errors.New("body must only contain a single JSON value") } return nil }