Getting the JSON request body as an array with Symfony

Published on 2021-12-04 • Modified on 2021-12-04

In this snippet, we see how to get the JSON request body as an array with Symfony. I still see projects trying to decode $request->getContent(), but you can use the Request::toArray() function. Note that if the content is empty or invalid, it raises a JsonException. This function was introduced in Symfony 5.2.

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<?php

declare(strict_types=1);

namespace App\Controller\Snippet;

use Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\Exception\JsonException;
use Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\Request;

/**
 * I am using a PHP trait to isolate each snippet in a file.
 * This code should be called from a Symfony controller extending AbstractController (as of Symfony 4.2)
 * or Symfony\Bundle\FrameworkBundle\Controller\Controller (Symfony <= 4.1).
 * Services are injected in the main controller constructor.
 */
trait Snippet177Trait
{
    public function snippet177(Request $request): void
    {
        // This throws an exception as we access the run snippet page with GET and
        // without JSON request body.
        try {
            $requestAsArray = $request->toArray();
            var_dump(\count($requestAsArray));
        } catch (JsonException $e) {
            echo $e->getMessage()."\n";
        }

        // Now let's create a new request with valid JSON
        $manualRequest = new Request([], [], [], [], [], [], '{"foo":"bar"}');
        echo "\nNew request body is not empty and valid:\n";
        var_dump($manualRequest->toArray());

        // That's it! 😁
    }
}

 Run this snippet  ≪ this.showUnitTest ? this.trans.hide_unit_test : this.trans.show_unit_test ≫  More on Stackoverflow   Read the doc  More on the web

  Work with me!

<?php

declare(strict_types=1);

namespace App\Tests\Integration\Controller\Snippets;

use PHPUnit\Framework\TestCase;
use Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\Exception\JsonException;
use Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\Request;

/**
 * @see Snippet177Trait
 */
final class Snippet177Test extends TestCase
{
    /**
     * @see Snippet177Trait::snippet177
     */
    public function testSnippet177(): void
    {
        $request = new Request([], [], [], [], [], [], '');
        $this->expectException(JsonException::class);
        $request->toArray();

        $request = new Request([], [], [], [], [], [], '{"foo": bar}');
        $requestArray = $request->toArray();
        self::assertIsArray($requestArray);
        self::assertSame($requestArray['foor'], 'bar');
    }
}

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