API mercadolivre does not return JSON

Question

When I glue the address https://api.mercadolibre.com/sites/MLB/categories in the browser I see that the restfull API of the free market returns the data in JSON format, but when accessing the same link using the Restdebuger that comes with Delphi (Tools/Rest Debuger) I can only receive text/html.

I also tried to put a Restclient component in Delphi xe7 and configure the urlbase but gave it anyway. Someone knows how to do?

Note that this boy managed to do in delphiXE6, but this example did not work with me. See the link http://edgartec.com/delphi-xe6-consumir-la-api-rest-de-mercado-libre/

object RESTClient1: TRESTClient
  Accept = 'application/json, text/plain; q=0.9;q=0.8,'
  AcceptCharset = 'UTF-8, *;q=0.8'
  AcceptEncoding = 'identity'
  BaseURL = 'https://api.mercadolibre.com/sites/MLB'
  ContentType = 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded'
  Params = <>
  HandleRedirects = True
  Left = 168
  Top = 8
end
object RESTRequest1: TRESTRequest
  Accept = 'application/json, text/plain; q=0.9;q=0.8,'
  Client = RESTClient1
  Params = <
    item
      name = 'q'
      Value = 'Smartphone'
    end
    item
      name = 'price'
      Value = '700.0-1000.0'
    end>
  Response = RESTResponse1
  SynchronizedEvents = False
  Left = 240
  Top = 8
end
object RESTResponse1: TRESTResponse
  ContentType = 'application/json'
  RootElement = 'categories'
  Left = 336
  Top = 8
end

Answer 1

This URL:

https://api.mercadolibre.com/sites/MLB/categories

Forwards to API documentation, not to JSON code. However, according to this same documentation. The URL is correct.

I ran a test using Chrome’s Postman extension, but specified the type of content in the request:

Content-Type: application/json

And in this test, the API returned validated JSON code.

I couldn’t fix your code because you didn’t even provide it. However, your problem is that you’re not specifying the type of content you’re ordering. Most Apis don’t care about that. But this binds. If the component you are using does not support a change in the request header, you may not be able to use it in this API.

Answer 2

I just put "application/json" on RESTClient1.accept and it worked.