I have problem with JsonConvert deserializer. I have class
[BsonCollection("matches")]
public class MatchData : Document
{
[JsonPropertyName("id")]
public string ExternalMatchId { get; set; }
...
}
In my controller, I am trying to deserialize in this way:
[HttpPost("end")]
public ActionResult RoundEnd([FromBody] dynamic data)
{
var saveData = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<MatchData>(data.ToString());
...
}
Input JSON looks like
"{"id": "61696f268c7b70b5f3e85803",
"game_server_id": "615ed4a1cd95e8209a4ab67d",
...
But in my output MatchData object ExternalMatchId is null. How to fix that?
You are mixing frameworks here. The JsonPropertyName attribute is for the System.Text.Json namespace whereas you are using JSON.Net to deserialise. So the solution is to stick with one of them. Either deserialise with the built in framework:
System.Text.Json.JsonSerializer.Deserialize<MatchData>(data.ToString());
Or switch the attributes to use the JSON.Net versions:
[JsonProperty("Foo")]
Having said all that, it looks like you can simplify the whole thing by getting MVC to do the work for you. Instead of using dynamic as the model (don't do that - dynamic is problematic and every time you use it a kitten dies), put the model in here directly:
public ActionResult RoundEnd([FromBody] MatchData data)
I have problem with JsonConvert deserializer. I have class
[BsonCollection("matches")]
public class MatchData : Document
{
[JsonPropertyName("id")]
public string ExternalMatchId { get; set; }
...
}
In my controller, I am trying to deserialize in this way:
[HttpPost("end")]
public ActionResult RoundEnd([FromBody] dynamic data)
{
var saveData = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<MatchData>(data.ToString());
...
}
Input JSON looks like
"{"id": "61696f268c7b70b5f3e85803",
"game_server_id": "615ed4a1cd95e8209a4ab67d",
...
But in my output MatchData object ExternalMatchId is null. How to fix that?
You are mixing frameworks here. The JsonPropertyName attribute is for the System.Text.Json namespace whereas you are using JSON.Net to deserialise. So the solution is to stick with one of them. Either deserialise with the built in framework:
System.Text.Json.JsonSerializer.Deserialize<MatchData>(data.ToString());
Or switch the attributes to use the JSON.Net versions:
[JsonProperty("Foo")]
Having said all that, it looks like you can simplify the whole thing by getting MVC to do the work for you. Instead of using dynamic as the model (don't do that - dynamic is problematic and every time you use it a kitten dies), put the model in here directly:
public ActionResult RoundEnd([FromBody] MatchData data)
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; }
I have the following code trying to deserialize a JSON string and the library gives me this error:
Additional content found in JSON reference object. A JSON reference object should only have a $ref property. Path 'user.obj', line 1, position 34.
Any idea what is wrong? (I understand that it is complaining about the second $ref, but I don't know why.) What is the workaround ?
void Main()
{
var s = "{\"user\": {\"$ref\": \"123456\", \"obj\": {\"$ref\": \"123456\"}}}";
JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<Root>(s).Dump();
}
// Define other methods and classes here
public class Root
{
[JsonProperty("user")]
public User User { get; set; }
}
public class User
{
[JsonPropertyAttribute("$ref")]
public string Ref { get; set; }
[JsonPropertyAttribute("obj")]
public Obj Obj { get; set; }
}
public class Obj
{
[JsonPropertyAttribute("$ref")]
public string Ref { get; set; }
}
Json.Net uses $ref along with $id as metadata to preserve object references in JSON. So when it sees $ref it assumes that property is not part of the actual JSON property set, but an internal identifier referring to a matching $id somewhere else in the JSON. Since your usage of $ref is different than what Json.Net expects to see, it is throwing an error.
UPDATE
In Json.Net version 6.0.4 and later, there is now a setting by which you can instruct the deserializer to treat these metadata properties as normal properties instead of consuming them. All you need to do is set the MetadataPropertyHandling setting to Ignore and then deserialize as usual.
var settings = new JsonSerializerSettings();
settings.MetadataPropertyHandling = MetadataPropertyHandling.Ignore;
var obj = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<FormDefinitionList>(json, settings);
Prior to version 6.0.4, a workaround was needed to solve this issue. If you cannot upgrade to the lastest version of Json.Net, see my answer to a similar question for some possible solutions.
So I am new to working with MVC4 and the serialization of objects on the back end seems pretty "magical" to me so if I am doing this the wrong way please let me know.
My goal however is to build a simple rest API and return JSON out. I figured that I would use System.Json and just return JsonObject. I have simplified this down for the sake of this question but the objects are much more complicated in my real issue.
Here is my controller....
....
public class ActionsController : ApiController
{
// GET api/actions
public JsonObject Get()
{
JsonObject testObjet = new JsonObject();
testObjet.Add("Name", "Test name");
testObjet.Add("Description", "Test Description");
return testObjet;
}
....
I would expect to see:
{"Name":"Test name","Description":"Test Description"}
Instead I see:
{"Name":[],"Description":[]}
I actually seem to get better results when I return a string of the JsonObject or heck even just return the object itself with the exception it has enums and I want to return the names not the number values, which is what led me to JsonObject for customization.
Does anyone know why it is dropping off the values?
EDIT:
So because of Dan's comments below I tried just for giggles to see what the XML serializer spit out with the JSON object and I get the below exception...
"Type 'System.Json.JsonPrimitive' with data contract name 'JsonPrimitive:http://schemas.datacontract.org/2004/07/System.Json' is not expected."
So it appears that you can not serialize the System.Json.JsonObject object, because it uses a type that it does not expect.
That is shocking. Does anyone have a workaround? If not I am off to find out how to show enum names when serializing instead of values.
So the answer is apparently... You Can't!
It appears that the type JsonPrimitive is not supported to serialize objects. The answers provided below by Obi and Dan helped me to poke around a bit more and find out that the XML serializer actually throws an exception while the JSON serializer simply eats it and puts out an empty array which is what you see above.
There are any number of correct answers here.
Make your own custom serializer
Output JSON as a string
Return custom objects and then work around things like the Enum
values
I am sure there are others.
But whatever you do don't try to use System.Json as a return in the ApiController because you will get the results above.
You should not force your WebApi call to use a particular format like JSON. One of the features of WebApi is that you can specify the format as part of the request. Return an object from your Get call, and let the WebApi engine do the serialization and deserialization:
public class DataObject
{
public string Name { get; set; }
public string Description { get; set; }
}
public class ActionsController : ApiController
{
// GET api/actions
public DataObject Get()
{
var testObject = new DataObject
{
Name = "Test name",
Description = "Test Description"
};
return testObject;
}
}
You can specify the format by setting the Accept header to application/xml, application/json, etc.
The default JSON serializer has no problem serializing simple string properties like Name and Description.
I would suggest you did this instead
// GET api/actions
public object Get()
{
//New up a strongly typed object if you want to return a specific type
//and change Action return type accordingly
var testObjet = new (){
Name= "Test name",
Description= "Test Description"
};
return testObjet;
}
Dan has posted a similar answer below so let me try to address your other problem. To serialize the enum, I would suggest you hide it in a public string property which would return the string value of the enum,
public class DataObject{
public MyEnum SomeEnumValue;
public string EnumValue{
get {
//..return SomeEnumValue string value
}
}
}
You can then read the value from EnumValue which should be properly serialized as you want.