Firefox's Firebug giving error of “not-well formed” with JSON on jQuery Ajax response; using jCryption plugin with JavaCryption implementation

Question

I'm using jCryption and JavaCryption, the server-side implementation of the jCryption JavaScript plug-in.

There appears to be an issue with what seems the Java implementation, in that FireFox's firebug is reporting a "not-well formed" error with the JSON that is returned to the client from the server. So, unlike the thread, "not well-formed" error in Firefox when loading JSON file with XMLHttpRequest, this is coming from the response object, NOT the request object.

I tried adding .JSON, application/json as a MIMEtype to my web server, IIS 7.5, but that didn't help. Then I tried .JSON, text/plain and that didn't help, either.

Do I have to edit the Java code to force application/json, when it sends it back to the client? Or, what can I do to resolve this issue?

Thank you for any help.

Here is the raw output for the first one causing the "not-well formed" error:

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Length: 294
Server: Microsoft-IIS/7.5
X-Powered-By: Nothing
Date: Tue, 23 Oct 2012 02:10:24 GMT

{"e":"10001","n":"b3fbbe3d2e3599e840a117be08f72726d8ee643dada3805ab24b9a9150d123a7a0902ae45f2f2e194e5462c4f5c3b91cca91b48d1f07c6cd7fab629a331148f66516df05dfa0bd95cc9f477069e60fa54eab8a5586d08436717758d9706b90c884eded7260af1ce5ff70f507b9c5ddb019b6e1313a77f4eab3b2d04a09934d8d","maxdigits":"131"}

Here is the second one:

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Length: 200
Server: Microsoft-IIS/7.5
X-Powered-By: Nothing
Date: Tue, 23 Oct 2012 02:10:24 GMT

{"challenge":"zf6iI5D8hVDCmMVuHIFy71ikKxcqVzkLplMDKP6Hgz7EPv2STfYjcBlf6ep1wu5OMCCsPKf4dRECpVvr7yIK8kCm0I5c4xTXCkmnyyzBXeHgbvkzGWVmaLzxj5RYajdWLFkvN1waV41FhR+PtK1tOmGe8k57wSZ/yyZUAsvh7NaJf6THc9P9rQ=="}

Answer 1

You need to look at what is in the actual response. You need to look at what the responses content-type header currently says, and what the body of the response contains. Firebug can show you both of those.

There is a good chance that the response body is not JSON at all ... but an HTML error report about some problem with the request (as the server sees it).

Either way, you can't resolve the problem properly until you have worked out what is causing it. Simply assuming that it is content type problem is not a sound strategy.

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Based on the response you posted, the problem is most likely due to the fact that there is no Content-Type header. If this response comes from Java, then you probably do need to modify the Java (or JSP) to set the missing header in the response.

• Set Content-Type to application/json in jsp file
• Setting a Content-type header in a servlet.

(There are other ways to do this if it is impossible to change the servlet or JSP code.)