For some reason I'm getting an InvalidAuthenticityToken when making post requests to my application when using json or xml. My understanding is that rails should require an authenticity token only for html or js requests, and thus I shouldn't be encountering this error. The only solution I've found thus far is disabling protect_from_forgery for any action I'd like to access through the API, but this isn't ideal for obvious reasons. Thoughts?
def create
respond_to do |format|
format.html
format.json{
render :json => Object.create(:user => @current_user, :foo => params[:foo], :bar => params[:bar])
}
format.xml{
render :xml => Object.create(:user => @current_user, :foo => params[:foo], :bar => params[:bar])
}
end
end
and this is what I get in the logs whenever I pass a request to the action:
Processing FooController#create to json (for 127.0.0.1 at 2009-08-07 11:52:33) [POST]
Parameters: {"foo"=>"1", "api_key"=>"44a895ca30e95a3206f961fcd56011d364dff78e", "bar"=>"202"}
ActionController::InvalidAuthenticityToken (ActionController::InvalidAuthenticityToken):
thin (1.2.2) lib/thin/connection.rb:76:in `pre_process'
thin (1.2.2) lib/thin/connection.rb:74:in `catch'
thin (1.2.2) lib/thin/connection.rb:74:in `pre_process'
thin (1.2.2) lib/thin/connection.rb:57:in `process'
thin (1.2.2) lib/thin/connection.rb:42:in `receive_data'
eventmachine (0.12.8) lib/eventmachine.rb:242:in `run_machine'
eventmachine (0.12.8) lib/eventmachine.rb:242:in `run'
thin (1.2.2) lib/thin/backends/base.rb:57:in `start'
thin (1.2.2) lib/thin/server.rb:156:in `start'
thin (1.2.2) lib/thin/controllers/controller.rb:80:in `start'
thin (1.2.2) lib/thin/runner.rb:174:in `send'
thin (1.2.2) lib/thin/runner.rb:174:in `run_command'
thin (1.2.2) lib/thin/runner.rb:140:in `run!'
thin (1.2.2) bin/thin:6
/opt/local/bin/thin:19:in `load'
/opt/local/bin/thin:19
Adding up to andymism's answer you can use this to apply the default inclusion of the TOKEN in every POST request:
Another way is to avoid verify_authenticity_token using skip_before_filter in your Rails App:
This will let curl to do its job.
This is the same as @user1756254's answer but in Rails 5 you need to use a bit more different syntax:
Source: http://api.rubyonrails.org/v5.0/classes/ActionController/RequestForgeryProtection.html
To add to Fernando's answer, if your controller responds to both json and html, you can use:
With
protect_from_forgery
enabled, Rails requires an authenticity token for any non-GET requests. Rails will automatically include the authenticity token in forms created with the form helpers or links created with the AJAX helpers--so in normal cases, you won't have to think about it.If you're not using the built-in Rails form or AJAX helpers (maybe you're doing unobstrusive JS or using a JS MVC framework), you'll have to set the token yourself on the client side and send it along with your data when submitting a POST request. You'd put a line like this in the
<head>
of your layout:Then your AJAX function would post the token with your other data (example with jQuery):
I had a similar situation and the problem was that I was not sending through the right content type headers - I was requesting
text/json
and I should have been requestingapplication/json
.I used
curl
the following to test my application (modify as necessary):Or you can save the JSON to a local file and call
curl
like this:When I changed the content type headers to the right
application/json
all my troubles went away and I no longer needed to disable forgery protection.