Failed to serialize the response in Web API with Json - c#

I am working with ASP.NET MVC 5 Web Api. I want consult all my users.
I wrote api/users and I receive this:
"The 'ObjectContent`1' type failed to serialize the response body for content type 'application/json; charset=utf-8'"
In WebApiConfig, already I added these lines:
HttpConfiguration config = new HttpConfiguration();
config.Formatters.XmlFormatter.SupportedMediaTypes.Remove(appXmlType);
config.Formatters.JsonFormatter.SerializerSettings.ReferenceLoopHandling = Newtonsoft.Json.ReferenceLoopHandling.Ignore;
But it still doesn't work.
My function for return data is this:
public IEnumerable<User> GetAll()
{
using (Database db = new Database())
{
return db.Users.ToList();
}
}

If you are working with EF, besides adding the code below on Global.asax
GlobalConfiguration.Configuration.Formatters.JsonFormatter.SerializerSettings
.ReferenceLoopHandling = Newtonsoft.Json.ReferenceLoopHandling.Ignore;
GlobalConfiguration.Configuration.Formatters
.Remove(GlobalConfiguration.Configuration.Formatters.XmlFormatter);
Dont`t forget to import
using System.Data.Entity;
Then you can return your own EF Models
Simple as that!

When it comes to returning data back to the consumer from Web Api (or any other web service for that matter), I highly recommend not passing back entities that come from a database. It is much more reliable and maintainable to use Models in which you have control of what the data looks like and not the database. That way you don't have to mess around with the formatters so much in the WebApiConfig. You can just create a UserModel that has child Models as properties and get rid of the reference loops in the return objects. That makes the serializer much happier.
Also, it isn't necessary to remove formatters or supported media types typically if you are just specifying the "Accepts" header in the request. Playing around with that stuff can sometimes make things more confusing.
Example:
public class UserModel {
public string Name {get;set;}
public string Age {get;set;}
// Other properties here that do not reference another UserModel class.
}

Given right answer is one way to go, however it is an overkill when you can fix it by one config settings.
Better to use it in the dbcontext constructor
public DbContext() // dbcontext constructor
: base("name=ConnectionStringNameFromWebConfig")
{
this.Configuration.LazyLoadingEnabled = false;
this.Configuration.ProxyCreationEnabled = false;
}
Asp.Net Web API Error: The 'ObjectContent`1' type failed to serialize the response body for content type 'application/xml; charset=utf-8'

Add this code to global.asax below on Application_Start:
Update from .Ignore to .Serialize . It must work.
GlobalConfiguration.Configuration.Formatters.JsonFormatter.SerializerSettings.ReferenceLoopHandling = Newtonsoft.Json.ReferenceLoopHandling.Serialize;
GlobalConfiguration.Configuration.Formatters.Remove(GlobalConfiguration.Configuration.Formatters.XmlFormatter);

public class UserController : ApiController
{
Database db = new Database();
// construction
public UserController()
{
// Add the following code
// problem will be solved
db.Configuration.ProxyCreationEnabled = false;
}
public IEnumerable<User> GetAll()
{
return db.Users.ToList();
}
}

I resolved it using this code to WebApiConfig.cs file
var json = config.Formatters.JsonFormatter;
json.SerializerSettings.PreserveReferencesHandling = Newtonsoft.Json.PreserveReferencesHandling.Objects;
config.Formatters.Remove(config.Formatters.XmlFormatter);

I don't like this code:
foreach(var user in db.Users)
As an alternative, one might do something like this, which worked for me:
var listOfUsers = db.Users.Select(r => new UserModel
{
userModel.FirstName = r.FirstName;
userModel.LastName = r.LastName;
});
return listOfUsers.ToList();
However, I ended up using Lucas Roselli's solution.
Update: Simplified by returning an anonymous object:
var listOfUsers = db.Users.Select(r => new
{
FirstName = r.FirstName;
LastName = r.LastName;
});
return listOfUsers.ToList();

Adding this in your Application_Start() method of Global.asax file should solve the problem
protected void Application_Start()
{
GlobalConfiguration.Configuration.Formatters.JsonFormatter.SerializerSettings
.ReferenceLoopHandling = Newtonsoft.Json.ReferenceLoopHandling.Ignore;
GlobalConfiguration.Configuration.Formatters
.Remove(GlobalConfiguration.Configuration.Formatters.XmlFormatter);
// ...
}
METHOD 2: [Not recommended]
If you are working with EntityFramework, you can disable proxy in your DbContext class constructor. NOTE: this code wll be removed if you update the model
public class MyDbContext : DbContext
{
public MyDbContext()
{
this.Configuration.ProxyCreationEnabled = false;
}
}

There's also this scenario that generate same error:
In case of the return being a List<dynamic> to web api method
Example:
public HttpResponseMessage Get()
{
var item = new List<dynamic> { new TestClass { Name = "Ale", Age = 30 } };
return Request.CreateResponse(HttpStatusCode.OK, item);
}
public class TestClass
{
public string Name { get; set; }
public int Age { get; set; }
}
So, for this scenario use the [KnownTypeAttribute] in the return class (all of them) like this:
[KnownTypeAttribute(typeof(TestClass))]
public class TestClass
{
public string Name { get; set; }
public int Age { get; set; }
}
This works for me!

My personal favorite: Just add the code below to App_Start/WebApiConfig.cs. This will return json instead of XML by default and also prevent the error you had. No need to edit Global.asax to remove XmlFormatter etc.
The 'ObjectContent`1' type failed to serialize the response body for content type 'application/xml; charset=utf-8
config.Formatters.JsonFormatter.SupportedMediaTypes.Add(new MediaTypeHeaderValue("text/html"));

Just put following lines in global.asax:
GlobalConfiguration.Configuration.Formatters.JsonFormatter.SerializerSettings.ReferenceLoopHandling = Newtonsoft.Json.ReferenceLoopHandling.Ignore;
GlobalConfiguration.Configuration.Formatters.Remove(GlobalConfiguration.Configuration.Formatters.XmlFormatter);
Import
using System.Data.Entity;

Use AutoMapper...
public IEnumerable<User> GetAll()
{
using (Database db = new Database())
{
var users = AutoMapper.Mapper.DynamicMap<List<User>>(db.Users);
return users;
}
}

Use the following namespace:
using System.Web.OData;
Instead of :
using System.Web.Http.OData;
It worked for me

Add the below line
this.Configuration.ProxyCreationEnabled = false;
Two way to use ProxyCreationEnabled as false.
Add it inside of DBContext Constructor
public ProductEntities() : base("name=ProductEntities")
{
this.Configuration.ProxyCreationEnabled = false;
}
OR
Add the line inside of Get method
public IEnumerable<Brand_Details> Get()
{
using (ProductEntities obj = new ProductEntities())
{
this.Configuration.ProxyCreationEnabled = false;
return obj.Brand_Details.ToList();
}
}

Use [Serializable] for class:
Example:
[Serializable]
public class UserModel {
public string Name {get;set;}
public string Age {get;set;}
}
It worked for me!

Solution that worked for me:
Use [DataContract] for class and [DataMember] attributes for each property to serialize. This is enough to get Json result (for ex. from fiddler).
To get xml serialization write in Global.asax this code:
var xml = GlobalConfiguration.Configuration.Formatters.XmlFormatter;
xml.UseXmlSerializer = true;
Read this article, it helped me to understand serialization:
https://www.asp.net/web-api/overview/formats-and-model-binding/json-and-xml-serialization

To add to jensendp's answer:
I would pass the entity to a user created model and use the values from that entity to set the values in your newly created model. For example:
public class UserInformation {
public string Name { get; set; }
public int Age { get; set; }
public UserInformation(UserEntity user) {
this.Name = user.name;
this.Age = user.age;
}
}
Then change your return type to: IEnumerable<UserInformation>

While all these answers above are correct, one may want to check the InnerException > ExceptionMessage.
If it says something like this "The ObjectContext instance has been disposed and can no longer be used for operations that require a connection.". This could be an issue because of default behavior of the EF.
By assigning LazyLoadingEnabled = false in your DbContext constructor will do the trick.
public class MyDbContext : DbContext
{
public MyDbContext()
{
this.Configuration.LazyLoadingEnabled = false;
}
}
For more detailed reading about EagerLoading and LazyLoading behavior of EF refer this MSDN Article.

In my case I have had similar error message:
The 'ObjectContent`1' type failed to serialize the response body for
content type 'application/xml; charset=utf-8'.
But when I dig deeper in it, the issue was:
Type 'name.SomeSubRootType'
with data contract name
'SomeSubRootType://schemas.datacontract.org/2004/07/WhatEverService'
is not expected. Consider using a DataContractResolver if you are
using DataContractSerializer or add any types not known statically to
the list of known types - for example, by using the KnownTypeAttribute
attribute or by adding them to the list of known types passed to the
serializer.
The way I solved by adding KnownType.
[KnownType(typeof(SomeSubRootType))]
public partial class SomeRootStructureType
This was solved inspired from this answer.
Reference: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms730167(v=vs.100).aspx

I basically add one line which they are
entities.Configuration.ProxyCreationEnabled = false;
to UsersController.cs
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Net;
using System.Net.Http;
using System.Web.Http;
using UserDataAccess;
namespace SBPMS.Controllers
{
public class UsersController : ApiController
{
public IEnumerable<User> Get() {
using (SBPMSystemEntities entities = new SBPMSystemEntities()) {
entities.Configuration.ProxyCreationEnabled = false;
return entities.Users.ToList();
}
}
public User Get(int id) {
using (SBPMSystemEntities entities = new SBPMSystemEntities()) {
entities.Configuration.ProxyCreationEnabled = false;
return entities.Users.FirstOrDefault(e => e.user_ID == id);
}
}
}
}

You will have to define Serializer Formatter within WebApiConfig.cs available in App_Start Folder like
Adding config.Formatters.Remove(config.Formatters.XmlFormatter);
// which will provide you data in JSON Format
Adding config.Formatters.Remove(config.Formatters.JsonFormatter);
// which will provide you data in XML Format

Another case where I received this error was when my database query returned a null value but my user/view model type was set as non-nullable. For example, changing my UserModel field from int to int? resolved.

This also happens when the Response-Type is not public!
I returned an internal class as I used Visual Studio to generate me the type.
internal class --> public class

Visual Studio 2017 or 2019 is totally unthoughtful on this, because Visual Studio itself requires the output to be in json format, while Visual Studio's default format is "XmlFormat" (config.Formatters.XmlFormatter).
Visual Studio should do this automatically instead of giving developers so much trouble.
To correct this problem, go to the WebApiConfig.cs file, and add
var json = config.Formatters.JsonFormatter;
json.SerializerSettings.PreserveReferencesHandling = Newtonsoft.Json.PreserveReferencesHandling.Objects;
config.Formatters.Remove(config.Formatters.XmlFormatter);
after "config.MapHttpAttributeRoutes();" in the Register(HttpConfiguration config) method. This would allow your project to produce json output.

In my case I solved recreating the database.
I made some changes in a model and launching Update-Database in Package Manager Console I got the following Error:
"The ALTER TABLE statement conflicted with the FOREIGN KEY constraint "FK_dbo.Activities_dbo.Projects_ProjectId". The conflict occurred in database "TrackEmAllContext-20190530144302", table "dbo.Projects", column 'Id'."

In case: If adding code to WebApiConfig.cs or Global.asax.cs doesn't work for you:
.ToList();
Add .ToList() function.
I tried out every solution but following worked for me:
var allShops = context.shops.Where(s => s.city_id == id)**.ToList()**;
return allShops;
I hope, it helps.

in my case, it was fixed when I removed the virtual keyword before my navigation properties,
I mean the reference tables.
so I changed
public virtual MembershipType MembershipType { get; set; }
to:
public MembershipType MembershipType { get; set; }

Related

Marking a property as Json Required with Newtonsoft just makes object null

I have a request object for my API and I want to enforce that my properties are always present in the body. Here is my object:
public class Code
{
[JsonProperty("id", Required = Required.Always)]
public string id { get; set; }
[JsonProperty("type", Required = Required.Always)]
public string type { get; set; }
}
However, when I don't pass in the type property in my request body, my Code object is null. Instead I would want a bad request error to get propagated back to the client. Will the Newtonsoft decorator not do that for me here? Or would I have to manually add checks to see if the properties are not null?
This following code throws for me as expected:
string serialized = #"{ 'noId': '123' }";
Code deserialized = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<Code>(serialized);
Console.WriteLine(deserialized.Id);
My code class:
class Code
{
[JsonProperty("id", Required = Required.Always)]
public string Id { get; set; }
}
Can you confirm Newtonsoft.Json is used? If you are using ASP.NET Core 3.x or above, please refer to How to use Newtonsoft.Json as default in Asp.net Core Web Api? to set your project up to use Newtonsoft.Json.
Fluent Validation is the solution for you. So, you don't have to use JsonProperty attributes.
Usage:
First, create a validator for your class.
public class CodelValidator : AbstractValidator<Code>
{
public CodelValidator()
{
RuleFor(x => x.id).NotEmpty().WithMessage("id is required.");
RuleFor(x => x.type).NotEmpty().WithMessage("type is required.");
}
}
Inside your controller method:
public ActionResult TestMethod(Code code)
{
var validator = new CodeValidator();
var validationResult = await validator.ValidateAsync(code);
if (validationResult.IsValid == false)
{
var errorMessages = validationResult.Errors.Select(s => s.ErrorMessage);
// manage how you want to show the erros.
}
...
}
So, as you get all the errors. Now you can show however you want.
https://github.com/domaindrivendev/Swashbuckle.AspNetCore/issues/1064
Currently the value for JsonProperty.Required only determines if the value is required - it does not allow you to indicate that a value may or may not be null.
Also in looking at the code it looks like all empty strings get converted to null
https://github.com/JamesNK/Newtonsoft.Json/blob/master/Src/Newtonsoft.Json/Serialization/JsonSerializerInternalReader.cs#L282

Specify a unique identifier attribute for an object across webapi Models

In a POST call to a WebApi I am trying to return a Created(newobject) thing. But there is no signature for Created in ApiController that can only take the object and do the rest.
It works fine if I return something like:
return Created(newobject.blahid.ToString(), newobject);
or if I do a
return CreatedAtRoute("DefaultApi", new { controller = ControllerContext.ControllerDescriptor.ControllerName, id = newobject.blahid.ToString()}, newobject);
I want to simplify this to:
return Created(newobject);
I would need to implement a method in a BaseController
public class BaseController : ApiController
{
protected new CreatedNegotiatedContentResult<T> Created<T>(T content)
{
var id = GetId(content);//need help here
return base.Created(id, content);
}
}
I don't want to worry about the Unique Identifier for an object being called differently in different models e.g. myobjguid, someblahguid etc. I would just want to find it out and mark it as "id".
say if my model is
public class Model_A
{
public List<Model_A> ChildModels { get; set; }
[LookForThisAttribute]//I want something like this
public Guid Model_AGuid { set; get; }
public Guid ? ParentGuid { set; get; }
public List<SomeOtherObject> OtherObjects { set; get; }
}
Is there an attribute([LookForThisAttribute]) or something I can set on all my models to specify that this is the guy to be assumed as THE unique identifier if I ever look for it.
Just like the [Key] attribute in Entity Framework. No matter what you call it, Entity Framework know its going to be the primary key.
So the GetId(T content) method can take the object and return the value of the property that has a [LookForThisAttribute] set?
I ended up writing my own Attribute and then looking up for it in the BaseController.
[AttributeUsage(AttributeTargets.Property, AllowMultiple = false)]
public sealed class UniqueIdAttribute: Attribute
{
}
And in the BaseController Created method:
protected CreatedNegotiatedContentResult<T> Created<T>(T content)
{
var props =typeof(T).GetProperties().Where(
prop => Attribute.IsDefined(prop, typeof(UniqueIdAttribute)));
if (props.Count() == 0)
{
//log this
return base.Created(Request.RequestUri.ToString(), content);
}
var id = props.FirstOrDefault().GetValue(content).ToString();
return base.Created(new Uri(Request.RequestUri + id), content);
}
Mark Gravell's post here helped me with getting the value of the property that has my custom attribute:
How to get a list of properties with a given attribute?
Along with a corresponding unit test for the controllers works fine for me.
Now I can just call Created(anyobject); from all ApiControllers without bothering about the different names people put for their IDs as long as they decorate it with my custom attribute.

Dynamically deserializing to a property in RestSharp

I am playing with the Harvest API and I'm trying to automatically map the entities as easy as possible, unfortunately when I do a request like GET /projects it generates a result like so:
[{
project: {
name: "Test"
}
},
{
project: {
name: "Test 2"
}]
In RestSharp, I can't directly do this:
client.Execute<List<Project>>(request)
Because it is going to look for a property called Project. So I have to make another class that has that property, and call it like this:
client.Execute<List<ProjectContainer>>(request)
I don't want to make a 'container' class for every entity, so I thought I found a clever solution to make one class I can use on all:
public class ListContainer<T> where T : IHarvestEntity
{
public T Item { get; set; }
}
But, of course, the deserializer has no idea it needs to map the entity name (or "Project") to the property Item. In the restsharp documentation I found that I could use [DeserializeAs(Name = "CustomProperty")] to tell the deserializer which field to map to this property. However, attributes do only allow constants, which means I can't do:
[DeserializeAs(Name = typeof(T).FullName)]
public T Item { get; set; }
Does anyone know a clever solution to this? So i don't have to create 10 different container classes?
I suggest you use the XPath equivalent for Json. With Json.NET you can parse the string and create a dynamic object.
With SelectToken you can query values, or using Linq.
The code looks something like this (I did not test it):
// execute the request
RestResponse response = client.Execute(request);
var content = response.Content; // raw content as string
JObject o = JObject.Parse(content);
IList<string> projectNames = o.SelectToken("project").Select(s => (string)s.name).ToList();
You can code the paths or configure the paths anyway you like.
--- Edit ---
Here's an example that I tested, converting the json string to a list of projects.
var projects = JArray.Parse(response.Content).Select(r => new Project(r["project"]["name"].Value<string>())).ToList();
To keep it really simple, you can use List<dynamic> and access the property/properties by name with a one-liner.
var names = client.Execute<List<dynamic>>(request).Data.Select(
item => item["project"]["name"]).ToList(); // list of names
If this is not sufficient, then you could improvise your own mapper and extract a collection of e.g. Project instances:
var projects = client.Execute<List<dynamic>>(request).Data.Select(
item => Map<Project>(item)).ToList(); // list of Project instances
where Map method could be something like
public T Map<T>(dynamic item) where T : class
{
// inline for clarity
var mappings = new Dictionary<Type,Func<dynamic,object>>
{
{ typeof(Project), map => new Project(map["project"]["name"]) }
};
return (T)mappings[typeof(T)].Invoke(item);
}
given Project is defined as
public class Project
{
public Project(string name)
{
Name = name;
}
public string Name { get; set; }
}

asp.net mvc web api partial update with OData Patch

I am using HttpPatch to partially update an object. To get that working I am using Delta and Patch method from OData (mentioned here: What's the currently recommended way of performing partial updates with Web API?). Everything seems to be working fine but noticed that mapper is case sensitive; when the following object is passed the properties are getting updated values:
{
"Title" : "New title goes here",
"ShortDescription" : "New text goes here"
}
But when I pass the same object with lower or camel-case properties, Patch doesn't work - new value is not going through, so it looks like there is a problem with deserialisation and properties mapping, ie: "shortDescription" to "ShortDescription".
Is there a config section that will ignore case sensitivity using Patch?
FYI:
On output I have camel-case properties (following REST best practices) using the following formatter:
//formatting
JsonSerializerSettings jss = new JsonSerializerSettings();
jss.ContractResolver = new CamelCasePropertyNamesContractResolver();
config.Formatters.JsonFormatter.SerializerSettings = jss;
//sample output
{
"title" : "First",
"shortDescription" : "First post!"
}
My model classes however are follwing C#/.NET formatting conventions:
public class Entry {
public string Title { get; set;}
public string ShortDescription { get; set;}
//rest of the code omitted
}
Short answer, No there is no config option to undo the case sensitiveness (as far as i know)
Long answer: I had the same problem as you today, and this is how i worked around it.
I found it incredibly annoying that it had to be case sensitive, thus i decided to do away with the whole oData part, since it is a huge library that we are abusing....
An example of this implementation can be found at my github github
I decided to implement my own patch method, since that is the muscle that we are actually lacking. I created the following abstract class:
public abstract class MyModel
{
public void Patch(Object u)
{
var props = from p in this.GetType().GetProperties()
let attr = p.GetCustomAttribute(typeof(NotPatchableAttribute))
where attr == null
select p;
foreach (var prop in props)
{
var val = prop.GetValue(this, null);
if (val != null)
prop.SetValue(u, val);
}
}
}
Then i make all my model classes inherit from *MyModel*. note the line where i use *let*, i will excplain that later. So now you can remove the Delta from you controller action, and just make it Entry again, as with the put method. e.g.
public IHttpActionResult PatchUser(int id, Entry newEntry)
You can still use the patch method the way you used to:
var entry = dbContext.Entries.SingleOrDefault(p => p.ID == id);
newEntry.Patch(entry);
dbContext.SaveChanges();
Now, let's get back to the line
let attr = p.GetCustomAttribute(typeof(NotPatchableAttribute))
I found it a security risk that just any property would be able to be updated with a patch request. For example, you might now want the an ID to be changeble by the patch. I created a custom attribute to decorate my properties with. the NotPatchable attribute:
public class NotPatchableAttribute : Attribute {}
You can use it just like any other attribute:
public class User : MyModel
{
[NotPatchable]
public int ID { get; set; }
[NotPatchable]
public bool Deleted { get; set; }
public string FirstName { get; set; }
}
This in this call the Deleted and ID properties cannot be changed though the patch method.
I hope this solve it for you as well. Do not hesitate to leave a comment if you have any questions.
I added a screenshot of me inspecting the props in a new mvc 5 project. As you can see the Result view is populated with the Title and ShortDescription.
It can be done quite easily with a custom contract resolver that inherits CamelCasePropertyNamesContractResolver and implementing CreateContract method that look at concrete type for delta and gets the actual property name instead of using the one that comes from json. Abstract is below:
public class DeltaContractResolver : CamelCasePropertyNamesContractResolver
{
protected override JsonContract CreateContract(Type objectType)
{
// This class special cases the JsonContract for just the Delta<T> class. All other types should function
// as usual.
if (objectType.IsGenericType &&
objectType.GetGenericTypeDefinition() == typeof(Delta<>) &&
objectType.GetGenericArguments().Length == 1)
{
var contract = CreateDynamicContract(objectType);
contract.Properties.Clear();
var underlyingContract = CreateObjectContract(objectType.GetGenericArguments()[0]);
var underlyingProperties =
underlyingContract.CreatedType.GetProperties(BindingFlags.Public | BindingFlags.Instance);
foreach (var property in underlyingContract.Properties)
{
property.DeclaringType = objectType;
property.ValueProvider = new DynamicObjectValueProvider()
{
PropertyName = this.ResolveName(underlyingProperties, property.PropertyName),
};
contract.Properties.Add(property);
}
return contract;
}
return base.CreateContract(objectType);
}
private string ResolveName(PropertyInfo[] properties, string propertyName)
{
var prop = properties.SingleOrDefault(p => p.Name.Equals(propertyName, StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase));
if (prop != null)
{
return prop.Name;
}
return propertyName;
}
}

POST object in .NET WebAPI

I have a small problem with the WebApi.
Problem:
If I want to post a model using JSON, I can add as many members I want, as long as the members defined in model are present.
Question:
How can I trigger an exception, if an undefined member is present in my Json object. Is this achievable without a custom JsonConverter?
What I'm looking for is a generic solution, not a convertion for every different model.
Example:
Model:
public class Person
{
[Required]
public string Name { get; set; }
}
Api Controller:
public class PersonController : ApiController
{
public HttpResponseMessage Post(Person person)
{
if (person != null)
{
if (ModelState.IsValid)
{
//do some stuff
return new HttpResponseMessage(HttpStatusCode.OK);
}
}
return new HttpResponseMessage(HttpStatusCode.BadRequest);
}
}
Json posts (body)
{"Name":"Joe"} --> valid
{"Name":"Joe","InvalidMember","test","Name","John"} --> also valid. In this case I want to trigger an Exception. Because if you look at it, it doesn't match my modeldefinition exactly.
One thing you could try is playing around with this setting:
config.Formatters.JsonFormatter.SerializerSettings.MissingMemberHandling = MissingMemberHandling.Error;
It should give you an invalid model state when there are extra properties that aren't recognized in the JSON.

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