Serializing an object with restsharp and passing it to WebApi not serializing list

Question

I have a a view model that looks like.

public class StoreItemViewModel
{
    public Guid ItemId { get; set; }
    public List<Guid> StoreIds { get; set; }
    [Required]
    public string Description { get; set; }
    //[Required]
    //[DataMember(IsRequired = true)]
    public int ItemTypeId { get; set; }


}

I have a small helper that using is using RestSharp.

public static IRestResponse Create<T>(object objectToUpdate, string apiEndPoint) where T : new()
    {
        var client = new RestClient(CreateBaseUrl(null))
        {
            Authenticator = new HttpBasicAuthenticator("user", "Password1")
        };

        var request = new RestRequest(apiEndPoint, Method.POST);
        //request.JsonSerializer = new JsonSerializer();
       // {RequestFormat = DataFormat.Json};
        request.AddObject(objectToUpdate);
       // clientJsonSerializer = new YourCustomSerializer();
        var response = client.Execute<T>(request);
        return response;
    }

When debugging the controller within my api

 [HttpPost]
    public HttpResponseMessage Create([FromBody]StoreItemViewModel myProduct)
    {
        //check fields are valid
     .........
     }

myProducts products are all populated apart from the public List StoreIds it always is returning a single reward with an empty Guid. Even if I have added 2 or more StoreIds

I assume this is because I am doing something wrong with my Create helper within my application.

Can anyone help with this its causing a major headache.

The raw data sent to the webapi is looking like

ItemId=f6dbd244-e840-47e1-9d09-53cc64cd87e6&ItemTypeId=6&Description=blabla&StoreIds=d0f36ef4-28be-4d16-a2e8-37030004174a&StoreIds=f6dbd244-e840-47e1-9d09-53cc64cd87e6&StoreId=d0f36ef4-28be-4d16-a2e8-37030004174a

@KiranChalla sorry how do I get that using the restsharp bits? — Diver Dan, Sep 04 '12 at 19:21
you could use Fiddler, which is a httpproxy, to capture the requests/responses. — Kiran, Sep 04 '12 at 20:33
haha I didnt know I could use fiddler for the serverside stuff. I always thought it was just for clientside stuff. Thanks for the tip :) I just updated the post with the raw json — Diver Dan, Sep 04 '12 at 20:45
So I have gotten as far as seeing that the StoreIds is not set properly when the data is serialized. I tried testing with the json.net library and it works fine. If I need to use the json.net library I am happy to do that I just dont know how to pass the json.net serlialized object to the api — Diver Dan, Sep 05 '12 at 12:08

score 23 · Answer 1 · answered Feb 20 '15 at 16:08

RestSharp now has a more streamlined way to add an object to the RestRequest Body with Json Serialization:

public static IRestResponse Create<T>(object objectToUpdate, string apiEndPoint) where T : new()
{
    var client = new RestClient(CreateBaseUrl(null))
    {
        Authenticator = new HttpBasicAuthenticator("user", "Password1")
    };
    var request = new RestRequest(apiEndPoint, Method.POST);
    request.AddJsonBody(objectToUpdate); // HERE
    var response = client.Execute<T>(request);
    return response;
}

This was found in RestSharp 105.0.1.0

score 20 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 05 '12 at 19:33

I managed to get this working. I don't think its the correct way but it works.

 public static IRestResponse Create<T>(object objectToUpdate, string apiEndPoint) where T : new()
    {
        var client = new RestClient(CreateBaseUrl(null))
        {
            Authenticator = new HttpBasicAuthenticator("user", "Password1")
        };
        var json = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(objectToUpdate);
        var request = new RestRequest(apiEndPoint, Method.POST);
        request.AddParameter("text/json", json, ParameterType.RequestBody);
        var response = client.Execute<T>(request);
        return response;
    }

This solution worked for me. However, I did have to use "application/json" rather than "text/json". Thanks! — carmbrester, Feb 04 '13 at 20:21

score 14 · Answer 3 · answered Aug 11 '14 at 20:03

I struggled with the same problem and came up a working solution.

Be sure to set the request format to JSON:

request.RequestFormat = DataFormat.Json;
Use AddBody, rather than AddObject:

request.AddBody(zNewSessionUsage);

So your code would be something like this:

public static IRestResponse Create<T>(object objectToUpdate, string apiEndPoint) where T : new()
{
    var client = new RestClient(CreateBaseUrl(null))
    {
        Authenticator = new HttpBasicAuthenticator("user", "Password1")
    };

    var request = new RestRequest(apiEndPoint, Method.POST);
    request.RequestFormat = DataFormat.Json;
    request.AddBody(objectToUpdate);
    var response = client.Execute<T>(request);
    return response;
}

And it appears .RequestFormat must be listed before .AddBody as per the example above otherwise it'll still default to XML Serialization. — Jafin, Jan 29 '15 at 05:43

Serializing an object with restsharp and passing it to WebApi not serializing list

3 Answers3

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