Skip navigation.

Blog

Using Json.Net to deserialize for WebApi methods

Having battled with the problems of the default Json deserialiser in WebApi, I wanted to use Json.Net instead.

The way I ultimately want to do this would be to pass the model in as a parameter and have it deserialized by Json.Net automatically, which by the looks of it is done with a MediaFormatter (presumably that is what I'll end up doing once I've looked into it further).

Public Sub Post(model As MyModelView) As String
    'Do what you need to store the data
    Return "OK"
End Sub

The following solution isn't quite as pretty, but is a simple way to deserialize incoming data to WebApi methods, using Json.Net:

1. Create an Extension method within a Module

Imports System.Runtime.CompilerServices

Module Extensions

    'Deserializes the specified Request content from Json to the specified type
    <Extension>
    Function FromJson(Of T)(ByVal Request As System.Net.Http.HttpRequestMessage) As T
        Dim data As String = Request.Content.ReadAsStringAsync().Result
        Return Newtonsoft.Json.JsonConvert.DeserializeObject(Of T)(data)
    End Function

End Module

2. Deserialise instead of using parameters

Use the simple extension above instead of having a method parameter:

Public Sub Post() As String
    Dim model As MyModelView = Request.FromJson(Of MyModelView)()
    'Do what you need to store the data
    Return "OK"
End Sub

Share|
By on March 15, 2013 | Permalink | Comment

Reader Comments

Skip to form

There are currently no comments about this article.

Comment on This Article:

Your Name:
Your Email Address:
 
Your Email Address will not be made public,
but the MD5 hash of it will be used to display your Gravatar.
Comment:
All HTML, except <i>, <b>, <u> will require your comment to be moderated before it is publicly displayed.
 
If you would like your own avatar displayed, read about comment avatars.