EncoderHttpMessageWriter adds a Content-Type header even if there's no body

[NadChel]

I was examining this Spring Cloud Gateway issue and discovered that its resolution is blocked by the fact that org.springframework.http.codec.EncoderHttpMessageWriter adds a default Content-Type header anyway, regardless of whether the body Publisher is empty or not. Here's an MRE

package org.springframework.cloud.gateway._misc;

import java.util.Collections;

import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test;
import reactor.core.publisher.Mono;
import reactor.test.StepVerifier;

import org.springframework.cloud.gateway.filter.factory.rewrite.CachedBodyOutputMessage;
import org.springframework.core.ResolvableType;
import org.springframework.core.codec.CharSequenceEncoder;
import org.springframework.core.codec.Encoder;
import org.springframework.core.io.buffer.DefaultDataBufferFactory;
import org.springframework.http.HttpHeaders;
import org.springframework.http.ReactiveHttpOutputMessage;
import org.springframework.http.codec.EncoderHttpMessageWriter;
import org.springframework.web.server.ServerWebExchange;

import static org.assertj.core.api.Assertions.assertThat;
import static org.mockito.Answers.RETURNS_DEEP_STUBS;
import static org.mockito.BDDMockito.given;
import static org.mockito.Mockito.mock;

public class GenericTest {
	@Test
	public void test() {
		Encoder<CharSequence> encoder = CharSequenceEncoder.textPlainOnly();
		EncoderHttpMessageWriter<CharSequence> writer = new EncoderHttpMessageWriter<>(encoder);
		ServerWebExchange exchangeMock = mock(ServerWebExchange.class, RETURNS_DEEP_STUBS);
		given(exchangeMock.getResponse().bufferFactory()).willReturn(DefaultDataBufferFactory.sharedInstance);
		ReactiveHttpOutputMessage outputMessage = new CachedBodyOutputMessage(exchangeMock,
				HttpHeaders.writableHttpHeaders(HttpHeaders.EMPTY));
		Mono<Void> mono = writer.write(Mono.empty(), ResolvableType.forClass(String.class),
				null, outputMessage, Collections.emptyMap());
		StepVerifier.create(mono)
				.verifyComplete();
		assertThat(outputMessage.getHeaders()).doesNotContainKey(HttpHeaders.CONTENT_TYPE);
	}
}

To better match the original issue, I used org.springframework.cloud.gateway.filter.factory.rewrite.CachedBodyOutputMessage, but I believe it doesn't really matter. You can replace it with e.g. org.springframework.mock.http.client.reactive.MockClientHttpRequest, and it will still be reproducible

		ReactiveHttpOutputMessage outputMessage = new MockClientHttpRequest(HttpMethod.POST, "/");

The problem is updateContentType(..) which sets a Content-Type header

	@Override
	public Mono<Void> write(Publisher<? extends T> inputStream, ResolvableType elementType,
			@Nullable MediaType mediaType, ReactiveHttpOutputMessage message, Map<String, Object> hints) {

		MediaType contentType = updateContentType(message, mediaType);

		Flux<DataBuffer> body = this.encoder.encode(
				inputStream, message.bufferFactory(), elementType, contentType, hints);

	@Nullable
	private MediaType updateContentType(ReactiveHttpOutputMessage message, @Nullable MediaType mediaType) {
		MediaType result = message.getHeaders().getContentType();
		if (result != null) {
			return result;
		}
		MediaType fallback = this.defaultMediaType;
		result = (useFallback(mediaType, fallback) ? fallback : mediaType);
		if (result != null) {
			result = addDefaultCharset(result, fallback);
			message.getHeaders().setContentType(result);
		}
		return result;
	}

Spring Cloud Gateway currently uses Spring Web 6.1.5

You may assign me to this issue if you want. I wrote a straightforward fix and added an extra test (will formally submit a PR soon)

[poutsma]

Superseded in favor of #32622.

[NadChel]

Superseded in favor of #32622.

Are issues superseded by PRs? Aren't they closed by PRs and superseded by other issues?

[poutsma]

Thank you for your suggestion on how we should handle our issue tracker. We will take it into consideration.