4

I want to have a method (api action method) that looks like:

public List<User> GetUserList(int userId, string commaSeperatedListOfIds)
{
...

}

From what I understand, a web api controller will automatically convert the json request and map the parameters, so is it best to create a custom class as a parameter like:

public class UserListRequest
{
    public int UserId {get;set;}
    public string CsvListOfIds {get;set;}
}
loyalflow
  • 14,275
  • 27
  • 107
  • 168

2 Answers2

1

From what I understand, a web api controller will automatically convert the json request and map the parameters, so is it best to create a custom class

Yes, If the data passed with the request can be mapped to the object, Web API will convert the JSON or XML object to the class object.

If you want your json data to come inside an object to your method then first define a class which will hold your json data. 

public class UserListRequest
{
    public int UserId { get; set; }
    public string CsvListOfIds { get; set; }
}

Later modify your method signature to receive object of that class :

[HttpPost]
public List<User> GetUserList(UserListRequest obj)
{

    List<User> list = new List<User>();
    list.Add(new User { ID = obj.UserId });
    list.Add(new User { ID = obj.UserId + 1 }); //something
    return list;

}

Remember to use [HttpPost] attribute. Also there should be one post method you may comment out the already provided Post method in the controller. (If you want to have multiple post methods inside your controller then see this question)

You can send the request through jquery or Fiddler (or any way you want). I tested it with Fiddler. You may see How to debug a Web API through Fiddler

Once your controller is setup, then build your project and start it in debug mode. Start Fiddler and go to composer.

There paste the URI of your controller (from IE/Brower) in address bar, and select POST as Http method. Your URI would be like:

http://localhost:60291/api/values/GetUserList

In Fiddler Composer -> Request Header specify 

Content-Type: application/json

In Fiddler Composer -> Request Body, specify your JSON 

{
   "UserId": 1,
    "CsvListOfIds": "2,3,4,5"
}

(You can also create your C# template class from json using http://json2csharp.com/)

Put a debug point on your method in the controller and then in Fiddler Hit Execute, you will see that your Debug point in Visual studio is Hit and data is populated in the parameter. enter image description here

Later you can return the List<User>, and you will see the response in Fiddler. 

[{"ID":1},{"ID":2}]

Temporarily I created a class User like:

public class User
{
    public int ID { get; set; }
}

Hope this helps.

Community
  • 1
  • 1
Habib
  • 219,104
  • 29
  • 407
  • 436
  • By default is communication done via xml? I want json output – loyalflow Sep 06 '13 at 18:48
  • By default, it differs, chrome would request an XML and IE would request JSON, it depends on your Accept header, In Fiddler try `Accept: application/xml` or `Accept: application/json` to get back data to your need. – Habib Sep 06 '13 at 18:53
  • that's silly how you can't have multiple post w/o doing a configuration change, why??? – loyalflow Sep 06 '13 at 19:33
  • @user1361315, I don't know, if you notice in the linked question, it was asked by me :). I am still not sure if it can be done without configuration, but at that time I couldn't – Habib Sep 06 '13 at 19:34
0

Yeah, pretty much. Create a json object with the same property names as the ViewModel (UserListRequest) in javascript before passing it via POST request to the controller. Use IEnumerable<> when you have lists to pass to the controller. In your example, it can be IEnumerable<int> (for type safety) in your UserListRequest class for the Id list. On the javascript side, it can be an array.

EDIT: GET

$.get(url, function (data) {
    var ids= (data.CsvListOfIds.split(','));        
});
DotNetWala
  • 6,574
  • 1
  • 18
  • 10