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Breaking change in MVC: Accept handling is now more strict [SPR-16251] #20798

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Francisco Lozano opened SPR-16251 and commented

Scenario:

  • MVC controller with a ResponseEntity<?> object.
  • Client sends Accept: application/json
  • Server responds with: application/what.ever+json in the ResponseEntity's headers.

This was seemingly OK with 5.0.1 and before. After upgrading to 5.0.2, it forces to return 406, despite the ResponseEntity saying otherwise.

The commit that caused it is:
9a894ab#diff-24571dc5c7743b2a69f7a5df4f2109b2

The RFC says:

If no Accept header field is present, then it is assumed that the client accepts all media types. *If an Accept header field is present, and if the server cannot send a response which is acceptable according to the combined Accept field value, then the server SHOULD send a 406 (not acceptable) response.*

Please note that it says SHOULD, and not MUST:

3. SHOULD   This word, or the adjective "RECOMMENDED", mean that there
   may exist valid reasons in particular circumstances to ignore a
   particular item, but the full implications must be understood and
   carefully weighed before choosing a different course.

So, a patch release of Spring seems to be enforcing a more strict behaviour, disallowing something allowed (albeit not recommended) by RFC, and breaking existing applications.

A workaround is possible by having a nasty servlet filter that manipulates headers, and adds application/*+json when application/json is in Accept... but, considering this is a patch release, I suggest you consider this behaviour change a bug, as it has backward-compatibility implications, and try not to break acceptable flows.


Affects: 5.0.2

Issue Links:

Referenced from: commits fda0885

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in: webIssues in web modules (web, webmvc, webflux, websocket)type: bugA general bug

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