Could not parse request body into json: Unexpected character (\'-\' (code 45)) AWS Lambda + API + Postman

Question

I have been trying for a few days to get a parameter sent from the API Gateway in AWS to a Lambda function and I am having no success.

I decided to start from the b

Answer 1

Error Message :

Could not parse request body into json: Could not parse payload into json: Unrecognized token \' \': was expecting (\'true\', \'false\' or \'null\')

Cause of the error : When string values inside the json are not assigned using double quotations in the aws mapping template the error occurs.

Solution : (Please Note : This example is for application/json type request template)

Actually the solution for the problem is, if you are using a value of type string in json then its value should be assigned inside a ("" - double quotation marks) in the mapping template.

The below shown example has the following attributes :

customerId - string (Please note : this value comes from a query parameter)
customerName - string
customerAge - integer
isPermanentEmployee - boolean
customerAddress - string (Please note this is an optional parameter)

And the mapping template should be defined like the example shown below

Refer the example below :

#set($inputRoot = $input.path('$'))
{
  "CustomerId": "$input.params('customerId')",
  "CustomerName": "$inputRoot.customerName",
  "CustomerAge": $inputRoot.customerAge,
  "IsPermanentEmployee": $inputRoot.isPermanentEmployee
  "CustomerAddress ": #if($inputRoot.customerAddress == "") "" #elseif($inputRoot.customerAddress != "") "$inputRoot.customerAddress" #end
}

If you note the above mapping template, I would have given string values inside double quotation marks("") which will solve the error

Also this example contains how to handle optional parameters in aws mapping templates using #if#else statements.