Solving JSON Escaping Issues for API Calls in Bubble.io (HTTP 400 Error)

stevenvincentone · 2024-08-04T23:24:55.734Z

Solving JSON Escaping Issues for API Calls in Bubble.io

Hello Bubble community!

I recently encountered a challenge when trying to send user input containing special characters (like quotes and apostrophes) to an API via Bubble. The issue was that these characters were causing problems with JSON parsing, resulting in a HTTP 400 error.

Problem:
When sending user input to an API, special characters were not being properly escaped, leading to JSON parsing errors. The API would respond with a 400 status code, indicating that it could not parse the JSON body of our request. This was particularly problematic for text containing quotes, apostrophes, and other special characters.

Solution:
We implemented a two-step workflow that uses URL encoding to safely transmit the user input:

Encode Component URL:
First, we used the “Encode Component URL” action from a plugin. This action takes the user input and encodes special characters, making it safe for transmission.
API Call:
We then used the encoded result directly in the API call. In the API call configuration, we set the content field (in our case, TopicContent) to “Result of step 1 (Encode Component URL)'s Texto codificado”.

Workflow Setup:

Trigger: Button click
Step 1: Encode Component URL
- Input: User’s text input
Step 2: API Call
- Use the result of Step 1 in the API call parameters

Debugging:
We used Bubble’s debugger to verify that the encoding was working correctly. The debugger showed the encoded text (e.g., “this%20is%20a%20test%20text” for “this is a test text”), confirming that spaces and other special characters were being properly encoded.

Additional Considerations:

Remember that the API response will typically return normal, readable text. You shouldn’t need to decode the response.
When displaying the API response in your app, you may need to handle any special characters in the returned text to ensure proper display in your Bubble interface.
If you’re still encountering issues, double-check your API Connector setup to ensure it’s correctly configured to send JSON .

This solution has worked well for us, effectively solving the issue of sending user input with special characters to our API and eliminating the HTTP 400 error. I hope this helps others who might be facing similar challenges!

Feel free to ask any questions or share your experiences with similar issues.

Jici · 2024-08-05T00:26:06.205Z

Did you tried to use formatted as json-safe?..

tazaum · 2024-09-16T02:19:30.901Z

Estou tendo este mesmo erro, porem não entendi como corrigí-lo. sou meio leigo no assunto estou tentando de forma autonoma a busca por soluções. se tiver algum tutorial ou video que possa me auxiliar, agradeço.

don3 · 2024-10-17T11:49:21.578Z

Jici:

Did you tried to use formatted as json-safe?..

@Jici : how do I format the JSON payload of an API call as JSON-safe?

Jici · 2024-10-17T13:39:20.163Z

:formatted as json-safe is an operator that you can use on a string in action or data call. This is not done in API connector but in expression composer.