HTTP(S) Post requests to /api/contents/ with no body fail

[dylanraws]

Description

HTTP(S) POST requests to /api/contents/ that do not contain a request body currently result in an internal error:

[E 2022-07-26 04:26:38.512 ServerApp] Uncaught exception POST /api/contents/ (*.*.*.*)
    HTTPServerRequest(protocol='https', host='*.*.*.*:*', method='POST', uri='/api/contents/', version='HTTP/1.1', remote_ip='*.*.*.*')
    Traceback (most recent call last):
      File "/home/ec2-user/anaconda3/envs/MyEnvironment/lib/python3.7/site-packages/tornado/web.py", line 1713, in _execute
        result = await result
      File "/home/ec2-user/anaconda3/envs/MyEnvironment/lib/python3.7/site-packages/jupyter_server/services/contents/handlers.py", line 210, in post
        copy_from = model.get("copy_from")
    AttributeError: 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'get']

That error is thrown here:

jupyter_server/jupyter_server/services/contents/handlers.py

Lines 209 to 210 in 19c716b

	model = self.get_json_body()
	copy_from = model.get("copy_from")

The cause seems to be the following commit.

877da10#diff-36003c76c2fc08fa5e2f459696216cd66b2edd6d0bf3aff952d7555f4adbc8d9R210-R219

This is a regression from previous versions, as the previous code allowed creating a file without a request body.

To workaround, I have started passing a request body with {"type": "notebook"}.

Expected behavior

The request should cause a file to be created, and should respond with a 2xx status code.

Context

Using a custom client during automated tests to verify that the API allows creating a file.

• Operating System and version: Amazon Linux 2
• Browser and version: Apache HTTP client
• Jupyter Server version: 1.18.1

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[kevin-bates]

Hi @dylanramzn - thank you for opening this issue; I agree with your assessment.

Would you like to contribute the necessary change? (Looks like an empty-bodied test would be wise as well.)

[kiersten-stokes]

I would be interested in contributing a fix for this!

[kevin-bates]

That would be great @kiersten-stokes - thank you! I've gone ahead and assigned this issue to you.