(Quick Reference) # 8.1.6 Responding with JSON Version: 6.0.0 ## 8.1.6 Responding with JSON #### Using the respond method to output JSON The `respond` method is the preferred way to return JSON and integrates with Content Negotiation and JSON Views. The `respond` method provides content negotiation strategies to intelligently produce an appropriate response for the given client. For example given the following controller and action: grails-app/controllers/example/BookController.groovy
    package example

    class BookController {
        def index() {
            respond Book.list()
        }
    }
The `respond` method will take the followings steps: If the client `Accept` header specifies a media type (for example `application/json`) use that If the file extension of the URI (for example `/books.json`) includes a format defined in the `grails.mime.types` property of `grails-app/conf/application.yml` use the media type defined in the configuration The `respond` method will then look for an appriopriate Renderer for the object and the calculated media type from the RendererRegistry. Grails includes a number of pre-configured `Renderer` implementations that will produce default representations of JSON responses for the argument passed to `respond`. For example going to the `/book.json` URI will produce JSON such as:
    [
        {id:1,"title":"The Stand"},
        {id:2,"title":"Shining"}
    ]
#### Controlling the Priority of Media Types By default if you define a controller there is no priority in terms of which format is sent back to the client and Grails assumes you wish to serve HTML as a response type. However if your application is primarily an API, then you can specify the priorty using the `responseFormats` property: grails-app/controllers/example/BookController.groovy
    package example

    class BookController {
        static responseFormats = ['json', 'html']
        def index() {
            respond Book.list()
        }
    }
In the above example Grails will respond by default with `json` if the media type to respond with cannot be calculated from the `Accept` header or file extension. #### Using Views to Output JSON Responses If you define a view (either a GSP or a JSON View) then Grails will render the view when using the `respond` method by calculating a model from the argument passed to `respond`. For example, in the previous listing, if you were to define `grails-app/views/index.gson` and `grails-app/views/index.gsp` views, these would be used if the client requested `application/json` or `text/html` media types respectively. Thus allowing you to define a single backend capable of serving responses to a web browser or representing your application’s API. When rendering the view, Grails will calculate a model to pass to the view based on the type of the value passed to the `respond` method. The following table summarizes this convention:
Example | Argument Type | Calculated Model Variable
--- | --- | ---
`respond Book.list()` | `java.util.List` | `bookList`
`respond( [] )` | `java.util.List` | `emptyList`
`respond Book.get(1)` | `example.Book` | `book`
`respond( [1,2] )` | `java.util.List` | `integerList`
`respond( [1,2] as Set )` | `java.util.Set` | `integerSet`
`respond( [1,2] as Integer[] )` | `Integer[]` | `integerArray`
Using this convention you can reference the argument passed to `respond` from within your view: grails-app/views/book/index.gson
    @Field List<Book> bookList = []

    json bookList, { Book book ->
        title book.title
    }
You will notice that if `Book.list()` returns an empty list then the model variable name is translated to `emptyList`. This is by design and you should provide a default value in the view if no model variable is specified, such as the `List` in the example above: grails-app/views/book/index.gson
    // defaults to an empty list
    @Field List<Book> bookList = []
    ...
There are cases where you may wish to be more explicit and control the name of the model variable. For example if you have a domain inheritance hierarchy where a call to `list()` my return different child classes relying on automatic calculation may not be reliable. In this case you should pass the model directly using `respond` and a map argument:
    respond bookList: Book.list()
| When responding with any kind of mixed argument types in a collection, always use an explicit model name.
If you simply wish to augment the calculated model then you can do so by passing a `model` argument:
    respond Book.list(), [model: [bookCount: Book.count()]]
The above example will produce a model like `[bookList:books, bookCount:totalBooks]`, where the calculated model is combined with the model passed in the `model` argument. #### Using the render method to output JSON The `render` method can also be used to output JSON, but should only be used for simple cases that don’t warrant the creation of a JSON view:
    def list() {

        def results = Book.list()

        render(contentType: "application/json") {
            books(results) { Book b ->
                title b.title
            }
        }
    }
In this case the result would be something along the lines of:
    [
        {"title":"The Stand"},
        {"title":"Shining"}
    ]
| This technique for rendering JSON may be ok for very simple responses, but in general you should favour the use of JSON Views and use the view layer rather than embedding logic in your application.
The same dangers with naming conflicts described above for XML also apply to JSON building. | Quick Reference (hide)