import json
import logging
from flask import request

def verify_if_request_is_json(request):
    """
    when a request contains invalid JSON data, this function raises a 400 error (bad request) and returns an error description.
    this function avoids less precise 500 Internal Server Error messages.
    """
    if request.is_json:
        # when invalid json data is posted, a JSONDecodeError will be raised
        json.loads(request.data)
    return