Client submitted invalid JSON: lexical error: invalid string in json text.↵

Question

I have an ajax POST method that, despite what I am sending to the server, is apparently appending a '↵' character to the value field. My code:

$.ajax({
   url: url,
   type: "POST",
   data: {"name" : "lol"},
   dataType : "json",
   contentType : "application/json; charset=utf-8"
});

The error returned is error code 400 "Client submitted invalid JSON: lexical error: invalid string in json text.↵" and the console reports that this name=lol↵ is the data being sent.

Since it is an error on the backend side: what language are you using for the backend? PHP? Java? What frameworks? — lumio, Jun 25 '17 at 23:02
I am making a request to the GroupMe API; as for the server that this site is running on, it's an Nginx on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS. — Postal Peanuts, Jun 25 '17 at 23:05
I see. Even though it might be not needed, but does GroupMe require an API key that you are missing? — lumio, Jun 25 '17 at 23:06
It does and the key is incorporated in the url variable. Hmm. — Postal Peanuts, Jun 25 '17 at 23:10

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 25 '17 at 23:21

I just read the error message again and checked with the docs here.

What you need to do is to send your request in JSON format, not as form-data. You specified the right contentType, but you need to convert your data using JSON.stringify

Look at this answer here for a possible solution. In your case it would be something like this:

$.ajax({
    url: url,
    type: 'POST',
    data: JSON.stringify({
        name: 'lol',
    }),
    contentType: 'application/json; charset=utf-8',
    dataType: 'json',
});

I hope that works for you. If this didn't work either, I would check with the docs at dev.groupme.com. Maybe you have misspelled some of the JSON fields?

Thank you so much!!! :) As a relative beginner, I really appreciate this! — Postal Peanuts, Jun 25 '17 at 23:51

Client submitted invalid JSON: lexical error: invalid string in json text.↵

1 Answers1