Angular 6: How to set response type as text while making http call

Question

I trying to make http request to the spring rest API.. API returns a string value ("success" or "fail")... but I dont know how to set the response type as string value while making call to the API..its throwing error as Backend returned code 200, body was: [object Object]

My angular code is like below,

order.service.ts

import { Injectable } from '@angular/core';
import { HttpClient, HttpHeaders } from '@angular/common/http';
import { ProductSearch } from '../_models/product-search';
import { ProductView } from '../_models/product-view';
import { Observable } from 'rxjs';
import { catchError } from 'rxjs/operators';
import { ErrorHandlerService } from './error-handler.service';
import { Category } from '../_models/category';


@Injectable({
  providedIn: 'root'
})
export class OrderService {

  constructor(private http: HttpClient, private errorHandlerService: ErrorHandlerService) { }

addToCart(productId: number, quantity: number): Observable<any> {
    const headers = new HttpHeaders().set('Content-Type', 'text/plain; charset=utf-8');
    console.log("--------order.service.ts----------addToCart()-------productId:"+productId+":------quantity:"+quantity);
     return this.http.post<any>('http://localhost:8080/order/addtocart', 
              { dealerId: 13, createdBy: "-1", productId: productId, quantity: quantity}, 
              {headers: headers})
              .pipe(catchError(this.errorHandlerService.handleError));
    }
}

error-handler.service.ts

import { Injectable } from '@angular/core';
import { HttpErrorResponse, HttpResponse } from '@angular/common/http';

import { Observable, throwError } from 'rxjs';
import { catchError, retry } from 'rxjs/operators';

@Injectable({
  providedIn: 'root'
})
export class ErrorHandlerService {

  constructor() { }

  public handleError(error: HttpErrorResponse) {
    if (error.error instanceof ErrorEvent) {
      // A client-side or network error occurred. Handle it accordingly.
      console.error('An error occurred:', error.error.message);
    } else {
      // The backend returned an unsuccessful response code.
      // The response body may contain clues as to what went wrong,
      console.error(
        `Backend returned code ${error.status}, ` +
        `body was: ${error.error}`);
    }
    // return an observable with a user-facing error message
    return throwError(
      'Something bad happened; please try again later.');
  };

}

Answer 1

You should not use those headers, the headers determine what kind of type you are sending, and you are clearly sending an object, which means, JSON.

Instead you should set the option responseType to text:

addToCart(productId: number, quantity: number): Observable<any> {
  const headers = new HttpHeaders().set('Content-Type', 'text/plain; charset=utf-8');

  return this.http.post(
    'http://localhost:8080/order/addtocart', 
    { dealerId: 13, createdBy: "-1", productId, quantity }, 
    { headers, responseType: 'text'}
  ).pipe(catchError(this.errorHandlerService.handleError));
}

Answer 2

To get rid of error:

Type '"text"' is not assignable to type '"json"'.

Read the Angular HTTP guide and use

responseType: 'text' as const

import { HttpClient, HttpHeaders } from '@angular/common/http';
.....
 return this.http
        .post<string>(
            this.baseUrl + '/Tickets/getTicket',
            JSON.stringify(value),
        { headers, responseType: 'text' as const }
        )
        .map(res => {
            return res;
        })
        .catch(this.handleError);

Answer 3

On your backEnd, you should add:

@RequestMapping(value="/blabla",  produces="text/plain" , method = RequestMethod.GET)

On the frontEnd (Service):

methodBlabla() 
{
  const headers = new HttpHeaders().set('Content-Type', 'text/plain; charset=utf-8');
  return this.http.get(this.url,{ headers, responseType: 'text'});
}

Answer 4

To fix the compiler error, remove the generic type argument from the post method call.

Angular doesn't want this generic type argument, because it should always return a string when responseType is "text".

DO THIS

return this.http.post('example', postBody, {
  responseType: 'text'
});

NOT THIS

return this.http.post<any>('example', postBody, {
  responseType: 'text'
});

The error appears because the post method signature does not contain a generic type argument when responseType: 'text.

See the different method signatures below:

With responseType: 'json' (the default)

post<T>(url: string, body: any | null, options?: {
    ...
    responseType?: 'json';
    ...
}): Observable<T>;

With responseType: 'text'

post(url: string, body: any | null, options: {
    ...
    responseType: 'text';
    ...
}): Observable<string>;

Notice the generic type argument only exists for type 'json'. Remove it to fix the error.

Answer 5

Use like below:

yourFunc(input: any):Observable<string> {
 var requestHeader = { headers: new HttpHeaders({ 'Content-Type': 'text/plain', 'No-Auth': 'False' })};
 const headers = new HttpHeaders().set('Content-Type', 'text/plain; charset=utf-8');
 return this.http.post<string>(this.yourBaseApi+ '/do-api', input, { headers, responseType: 'text' as 'json'  });
}

Answer 6

For me this way worked. Like requestOptions as object

 returnObservable(): Observable<any> {
    const headers = new HttpHeaders().set('Content-Type', 'text/plain; charset=utf-8');
    const requestOptions: Object = {
      headers: headers,
      responseType: 'text'
    }
    return this.http.get<any>(this.streamURL , requestOptions);
 }

Answer 7

The default assumption of the HttpClient is 'json' responseType. If you want to change it to 'text', you should do it like so:

  public signIn(dto: UserCredentialsDto): Promise<string> {
    return this.http.post<string>(
      `${this.url}/userCredentials/signIn`, dto, { responseType: 'text' as 'json'}).toPromise();
  }

Answer 8

By Default angular return responseType as Json, but we can configure below types according to your requirement.

responseType: 'arraybuffer'|'blob'|'json'|'text'

Ex:

this.http.post(
    'http://localhost:8080/order/addtocart', 
    { dealerId: 13, createdBy: "-1", productId, quantity }, 
    { headers, responseType: 'text'});

Answer 9

Have you tried not setting the responseType and just type casting the response?

This is what worked for me:

/**
 * Client for consuming recordings HTTP API endpoint.
 */
@Injectable({
  providedIn: 'root'
})
export class DownloadUrlClientService {
  private _log = Log.create('DownloadUrlClientService');


  constructor(
    private _http: HttpClient,
  ) {}

  private async _getUrl(url: string): Promise<string> {
    const httpOptions = {headers: new HttpHeaders({'auth': 'false'})};
    // const httpOptions = {headers: new HttpHeaders({'auth': 'false'}), responseType: 'text'};
    const res = await (this._http.get(url, httpOptions) as Observable<string>).toPromise();
    // const res = await (this._http.get(url, httpOptions)).toPromise();
    return res;
  }
}