pyresttest - Unable to read body from a DELETE request

Question

Consider the following template which is used to delete an entity from DB.

- test:
    - group: "Basic Test"
    - name: "Delete 10.24.39.202"
    - url: "/v1/switch"
    - method: 'DELETE'
    - expected_status: [200]
    - body: '{"ip_address": "10.24.39.202"}'
    - headers: {'Authorization': 'Basic ZGV2ZWw6WjNGSmVFTlliMUJvYlVSclVrOWhXRVp3ZDIwNFUzQktSekpzTjBnMGVYVT0=',
                'Content-Type': 'application/json'}

This doesn't work and I get the following error while decoding the body:

  Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/home/stack/git/bwc/bwc/server/switch.py", line 1880, in delete
    request = json.loads(self.request.body)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/json/__init__.py", line 338, in loads
    return _default_decoder.decode(s)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/json/decoder.py", line 366, in decode
    obj, end = self.raw_decode(s, idx=_w(s, 0).end())
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/json/decoder.py", line 384, in raw_decode
    raise ValueError("No JSON object could be decoded")
ValueError: No JSON object could be decoded

From the changelogs, pyresttest supports body in delete request

1.6.0 Mon Oct 12 07:30:00 2015 -0400
BETA: support setting request body on all request types, if present
Allows (for example) DELETE methods that set a request body
Caveat: does not set length if 0

I am sure that I am using version 1.6.0. What could be the issue?

Yes I am sure that the error is from this test. Only this test failed and I have the logs with exception. Same request with curl works without any issues. — Pradeep, Feb 29 '16 at 08:55

score 1 · Answer 1 · edited Oct 07 '21 at 06:09

1

You shouldn't be sending a payload with a DELETE request. From RFC 7231 § 4.3.5:

A payload within a DELETE request message has no defined semantics; sending a payload body on a DELETE request might cause some existing implementations to reject the request.

Even if pyresttest supports it, it's non-standard and the server / proxies in use may not support it.

edited Oct 07 '21 at 06:09

Community

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answered Feb 29 '16 at 09:13

Jim

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The same request with curl works fine. The request handler expects body to be present. – Pradeep Feb 29 '16 at 09:28
Sure – as the specification says, this is non-standard and inconsistently supported. So some software will work with it, and some won't. If the request handler expects the body to be present, then you should re-examine your API design, because it can't be supported reliably. – Jim Feb 29 '16 at 10:05

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 05 '16 at 20:07

0

This was an honest to goodness bug in the test framework (PyRestTest), now fixed. Root cause was that PyCurl wants to set up the DELETE with a body the same way as a POST request (size from the POSTFIELDSIZE), rather than like a PUT (INFIELDSIZE).

answered Mar 05 '16 at 20:07

BobMcGee

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Thanks for the comment. The bug is resolved and now I am able to read the body. – Pradeep Mar 08 '16 at 05:47

pyresttest - Unable to read body from a DELETE request

2 Answers2