The following block of code is in a CFC using cfscript.
httpService = new http();
httpService.setMethod(action);
httpService.setCharset("utf-8");
httpService.setUrl("https://translation.googleapis.com/language/translate/v2");
httpService.addParam(type = "header", name = "X-Goog-Api-Key", value = "theActualAPIKey");
httpService.addParam(type = "header", name = "Content-Type", value = "application/json");
httpService.addParam(type = "body", value = "#body#");
res = httpService.send().getPrefix();
The body is a JSON object.
{
"q": ["good-bye", "Hello", "What time is it"],
"source": "en",
"target": "es"
}
If I run the equivalent of this with curl or via regbin.com I get back the expected results. But when run from within a Coldfusion page I get the following error and stacktrace at the last line shown above: res = httpService.send().getPrefix();
Detail The expression has requested a variable or an intermediate expression result as a simple value. However, the result cannot be converted to a simple value. Simple values are strings, numbers, boolean values, and date/time values. Queries, arrays, and COM objects are examples of complex values.
The most likely cause of the error is that you tried to use a complex value as a simple one. For example, you tried to use a query variable in a cfif tag. ErrNumber 0 Message Complex object types cannot be converted to simple values. StackTrace coldfusion.runtime.CfJspPage$ComplexObjectException: Complex object types cannot be converted to simple values. at coldfusion.runtime.Cast._String(Cast.java:1409) at coldfusion.runtime.Cast._String(Cast.java:1347) at coldfusion.tagext.net.HttpTag.setBody(HttpTag.java:1667) at coldfusion.tagext.net.HttpParamTag.doStartTag(HttpParamTag.java:219) at coldfusion.runtime.CfJspPage._emptyTcfTag(CfJspPage.java:5274) at cfbase2ecfc970638991$funcINVOKETAG.runFunction(G:\JBoss7_3\www14dev1\deployments\cfusion.ear\cfusion.war\WEB-INF\cfusion\CustomTags\com\adobe\coldfusion\base.cfc:325) at coldfusion.runtime.UDFMethod.invoke(UDFMethod.java:623) at coldfusion.filter.SilentFilter.invoke(SilentFilter.java:47) at coldfusion.runtime.UDFMethod$ReturnTypeFilter.invoke(UDFMethod.java:553) at coldfusion.runtime.UDFMethod$ArgumentCollectionFilter.invoke(UDFMethod.java:516) at coldfusion.filter.FunctionAccessFilter.invoke(FunctionAccessFilter.java:95) at coldfusion.runtime.UDFMethod.runFilterChain(UDFMethod.java:463) at coldfusion.runtime.UDFMethod.runFilterChain(UDFMethod.java:438) at coldfusion.runtime.UDFMethod.invoke(UDFMethod.java:310) at coldfusion.runtime.CfJspPage._invokeUDF(CfJspPage.java:5084) at coldfusion.runtime.CfJspPage._invokeUDF(CfJspPage.java:5064) at coldfusion.runtime.CfJspPage._invoke(CfJspPage.java:4352) at coldfusion.runtime.CfJspPage._invoke(CfJspPage.java:4290) at cfhttp2ecfc620228233$funcSEND.runFunction(G:\JBoss7_3\www14dev1\deployments\cfusion.ear\cfusion.war\WEB-INF\cfusion\CustomTags\com\adobe\coldfusion\http.cfc:103) at coldfusion.runtime.UDFMethod.invoke(UDFMethod.java:623) at coldfusion.runtime.UDFMethod$ReturnTypeFilter.invoke(UDFMethod.java:553) at coldfusion.runtime.UDFMethod$ArgumentCollectionFilter.invoke(UDFMethod.java:516) at coldfusion.filter.FunctionAccessFilter.invoke(FunctionAccessFilter.java:95) at coldfusion.runtime.UDFMethod.runFilterChain(UDFMethod.java:463) at coldfusion.runtime.UDFMethod.runFilterChain(UDFMethod.java:438) at coldfusion.runtime.UDFMethod.invoke(UDFMethod.java:310) at coldfusion.runtime.TemplateProxy.invoke(TemplateProxy.java:975) at coldfusion.runtime.TemplateProxy.invoke(TemplateProxy.java:696) at coldfusion.runtime.TemplateProxy.invoke(TemplateProxy.java:503) at coldfusion.runtime.CfJspPage._invoke(CfJspPage.java:4327) at coldfusion.runtime.CfJspPage._invoke(CfJspPage.java:4290) at
This looks like it would be an error in the response, possibly HTML when it is expecting JSON and that can happen in certain error cases but typically that is a 404 error. All others seem to be JSON. And as I've said using curl or regbin.com all is good.
I'm stumped. Of course it is probably something painfully obvious.
The error message indicates that the http call is expecting a simple variable, such as a string or number, but a complex variable, such as a struct or array, is being passed instead.
The body variable included seems to be a struct, rather than a string. JSON is always a string, never an object or struct. Wrapping body with serializeJSON() should convert the struct into JSON.