Do I need a content-type header for HTTP GET requests

Question

As far as I understood there are two places where to set the content type    The client sets a content type for the body he is sending to the server  e g  for post  The server sets a content type for the response    Does this mean I don t have to or should not set a content type for all my get requests  client side   And if I can or should what content type would that be   Also I read in a few posts that the content type of the client specifies what type of content the client would like to receive  So maybe my point 1 is not right

User · Answer

Short answer  Most likely  no you do not need a content-type header for HTTP GET requests  But the specs does not seem to rule out a content-type header for HTTP GET  either  Supporting materials    quot Content-Type quot  is part of the representation  i e  payload  metadata  Quoted from RFC 7231 section 3 1   3 1   Representation Metadata Representation header fields provide metadata about the representation   When a message includes a payload body  the representation header fields describe how to interpret the representation data enclosed in the payload body       The following header fields convey representation metadata   ------------------- -----------------    Header Field Name   Defined in         ------------------- -----------------    Content-Type        Section 3 1 1 5                                             Quoted from RFC 7231 section 3 1 1 5 by the way  the current chosen answer had a typo in the section number    The  quot Content-Type quot  header field indicates the media type of the associated representation   In that sense  a Content-Type header is not really about an HTTP GET request  or a POST or PUT request  for that matter   It is about the payload inside such a whatever request  So  if there will be no payload  there needs no Content-Type  In practice  some implementation went ahead and made that understandable assumption  Quoted from Adam s comment    quot While     the spec doesn t say you can t have Content-Type on a GET   Net seems to enforce it in it s HttpClient  See this SO q amp a  quot    However  strictly speaking  the specs itself does not rule out the possibility of HTTP GET contains a payload  Quoted from RFC 7231 section 4 3 1   4 3 1 GET     A payload within a GET request message has no defined semantics  sending a payload body on a GET request might cause some existing implementations to reject the request   So  if your HTTP GET happens to include a payload for whatever reason  a Content-Type header is probably reasonable  too

User · Answer

GET requests can have  Accept  headers  which say which types of content the client understands  The server can then use that to decide which content type to send back   They re optional though   http   www w3 org Protocols rfc2616 rfc2616-sec14 html sec14 1

User · Answer

According to the RFC 7231 section 3 1 5 5      A sender that generates a message containing a payload body SHOULD generate a Content-Type header field in that message unless the intended media type of the enclosed representation is unknown to the sender  If a Content-Type header field is not present  the recipient MAY either assume a media type of  application octet-stream    RFC2046   Section 4 5 1  or examine the data to determine its type    It means that the Content-Type HTTP header should be set only for PUT and POST requests

User · Answer

The accepted answer is wrong   The quote is correct  the assertion that PUT and POST must have it is incorrect  There is no requirement that PUT or POST actually have additional content   Nor is there a prohibition against GET actually having content   The RFCs say exactly what they mean    IFF your side  client OR origin server  will be sending additional content  beyond the HTTP headers  it SHOULD specify a Content-Type header   But note it is allowable to omit the Content-Type and still include content  say  by using a Content-Length header

User · Answer

Get requests should not have content-type because they do not have request entity  that is  a body

User · Answer

The problem with not passing over the content-type on a GET message is that sure the content-type is irrelevant because the server side determines the content anyway  The problem that I have encountered is that there are now a lot of places that set up their webservices to be smart enough to pick up the content-type that you pass and return the response in the  type  that you request  Eg  we are currently messaging with a place that defaults to JSON  however  they have set their webservice up so that if you pass a content-type of xml they will then return xml rather than their JSON default  Which I think going forward is a great idea

[http] Do I need a content-type header for HTTP GET requests?

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