How do you send a JSON response in CakePHP 3.x

Question

I want to produce a JSON response. I've tried the following in my Controller methods:

public function removeFilter($id = null)
{
    $this->autoRender = false;

    header('Content-Type: application/json');
    echo json_encode(['result' => 'filter_removed']);
}

Then following instructions at CakePHP3.4: How to send a json object response? I also tried:

public function removeFilter($id = null)
{
    $this->autoRender = false;

    return $this->response
    ->withType('application/json')
    ->withStringBody(['result' => 'filter_removed']);
}

Both of these give a Response Headers of Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8 Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8 . There is no template associated with this Controller method, which is why autoRender = false .

What's going wrong here?

CakePHP 3.5.13

Answer 1

Please try this. withStringBody accepts a string only.

// If you want a json response
return $this->response->withType('application/json')
    ->withStringBody(json_encode(['result' => 'filter_removed']));

CakePHP More Info