How to force php to use `application/json` without using the explicit command?

Question

We want to create some kind of api where the json formatted results are generated using .php files.

The web folder looks like

api
├── .htaccess
└── foo
    ├── bar.php
    └── baz.php

Where bar.php and baz.php are php files generating json-formatted replies on the queries.

Such files (bar.php) look like:

<?php
include_once("../../utils.php");

$id = $_GET['id'];

echo json_encode(some_function($id));
?>

Of course one should specify a header header("Content-type: application/json");. We however want to set the .htaccess to do this, such that one never forgets to set the content-type, that if additional headers are required, we can modify this easily, etc. We don't want to write header(...) in every file.

.htaccess look like:

#All php files return JSON formatted text.
AddType application/json json php

But the generated result has still mime-type: text/html.

What can cause this?

try - AddType application/json .php - this is the syntax. Ensure your .htaccess file is being used also. — TheStatehz, Sep 29 '14 at 00:23
@TheStatehz: Tried this as well (together with a lot of variations). According to the *Apache* docs, both were valid. — Willem Van Onsem, Sep 29 '14 at 00:25
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/9234289/verify-if-htaccess-file-is-running — TheStatehz, Sep 29 '14 at 00:29
@TheStatehz: found it, this had something to do with default `.php` values such that the header was overwritten. Many thanks for your help. — Willem Van Onsem, Sep 29 '14 at 00:54

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 29 '14 at 00:53

2

PHP has some values including default_mimetype. When the Apache server generates the .php page, it first sets the application/json mime-type, but when the PHP engine starts, the header is modified back to text/html. You can set this by adding an additional rule to .htaccess:

#All php files return JSON formatted text.
AddType application/json json php
php_value default_mimetype application/json

answered Sep 29 '14 at 00:53

Willem Van Onsem

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The `AddType` was added by the OP, so that can be ignored I think. – Willem Van Onsem Jun 13 '18 at 15:33
it works just by writing php_value default_mimetype application/json – Jun 13 '18 at 15:36
@Ivanzinho: yes correct, but the two other lines originate from the OPs `.httaccess`. – Willem Van Onsem Jun 13 '18 at 15:37

How to force php to use `application/json` without using the explicit command?

1 Answers1