Where's my JSON data in my incoming Django request?

If you are posting JSON to Django, I think you want request.body (request.raw_post_data on Django < 1.4). This will give you the raw JSON data sent via the post. From there you can process it further.

Here is an example using JavaScript, jQuery, jquery-json and Django.

JavaScript:

var myEvent = {id: calEvent.id, start: calEvent.start, end: calEvent.end,               allDay: calEvent.allDay };$.ajax({    url: '/event/save-json/',    type: 'POST',    contentType: 'application/json; charset=utf-8',    data: $.toJSON(myEvent),    dataType: 'text',    success: function(result) {        alert(result.Result);    }});

Django:

def save_events_json(request):    if request.is_ajax():        if request.method == 'POST':            print 'Raw Data: "%s"' % request.body       return HttpResponse("OK")

Django < 1.4:

  def save_events_json(request):    if request.is_ajax():        if request.method == 'POST':            print 'Raw Data: "%s"' % request.raw_post_data    return HttpResponse("OK")

I had the same problem. I had been posting a complex JSON response, and I couldn't read my data using the request.POST dictionary.

My JSON POST data was:

//JavaScript code://Requires json2.js and jQuery.var response = {data:[{"a":1, "b":2},{"a":2, "b":2}]}json_response = JSON.stringify(response); // proper serialization method, read                                           // http://ejohn.org/blog/ecmascript-5-strict-mode-json-and-more/$.post('url',json_response);

In this case you need to use method provided by aurealus. Read the request.body and deserialize it with the json stdlib.

#Django code:import jsondef save_data(request):  if request.method == 'POST':    json_data = json.loads(request.body) # request.raw_post_data w/ Django < 1.4    try:      data = json_data['data']    except KeyError:      HttpResponseServerError("Malformed data!")    HttpResponse("Got json data")

Method 1

Client : Send as JSON

$.ajax({    url: 'example.com/ajax/',    type: 'POST',    contentType: 'application/json; charset=utf-8',    processData: false,    data: JSON.stringify({'name':'John', 'age': 42}),    ...});//Sent as a JSON object {'name':'John', 'age': 42}

Server :

data = json.loads(request.body) # {'name':'John', 'age': 42}

Method 2

Client : Send as x-www-form-urlencoded
(Note: contentType & processData have changed, JSON.stringify is not needed)

$.ajax({    url: 'example.com/ajax/',    type: 'POST',        data: {'name':'John', 'age': 42},    contentType: 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded; charset=utf-8',  //Default    processData: true,       });//Sent as a query string name=John&age=42

Server :

data = request.POST # will be <QueryDict: {u'name':u'John', u'age': 42}>

Changed in 1.5+ : https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/releases/1.5/#non-form-data-in-http-requests

Non-form data in HTTP requests :
request.POST will no longer include data posted via HTTP requests with non form-specific content-types in the header. In prior versions, data posted with content-types other than multipart/form-data or application/x-www-form-urlencoded would still end up represented in the request.POST attribute. Developers wishing to access the raw POST data for these cases, should use the request.body attribute instead.

Probably related

• https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/django-developers/s8OZ9yNh-8c/yWeY138TpFEJ
• https://code.djangoproject.com/ticket/17942 . Fixed in 1.7
• http://homakov.blogspot.in/2012/06/x-www-form-urlencoded-vs-json-pros-and.html