ServiceStack UK Date Binding on HTTP POST

Question

I am using a mono self hosted servicestack application with the ServiceStack.Razor rendering. In the application the user enters into a form a UK date (dd/mm/yyyy) but this is converted to a US date (mm/dd/yyyy) on a HTTP POST.

In a normal MVC application I would do this using model binding as shown here ASP.NET MVC3: Force controller to use date format dd/mm/yyyy

How do you do this in ServiceStack as I could not find anything about it.

If you know how it is going to be delivered, can't you just convert it back to your desired format in your service? Also, check this out https://github.com/ServiceStack/ServiceStack.Text/blob/master/tests/ServiceStack.Text.Tests/JsonTests/JsonDateTimeTests.cs — user1477388, Mar 05 '14 at 14:31
It would not work as I would get invalid dates when the day goes over 12 as it would think the month in US dates was not valid. I could use a string but that would defeat the point of using binding. — Ollie, Mar 05 '14 at 15:25

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 07 '14 at 15:11

You can use custom serializers/deserializers to globally control the serialization and deserialization of DateTime values:

In your AppHost:

using ServiceStack.Text;

JsConfig<DateTime>.SerializeFn = SerializeAsUKDate;
// Also, if you need to support nullable DateTimes:
JsConfig<DateTime?>.SerializeFn = SerializeAsNullableUKDate;

public static string SerializeAsUKDate(DateTime value)
{
    // or whatever you prefer to specify the format/culture
    return value.ToString("dd/MM/yyyy");
}

public static string SerializeAsNullableUKDate(DateTime? value)
{
    return value.HasValue ? SerializeAsUKDate(value.Value) : null;
}

You may or may not need to specify DeSerializeFn to ensure that dates are parsed correctly. The ServiceStack.Text date deserializer is pretty robust.

JsConfig<DateTime>.DeSerializeFn = DeSerializeAsUKDate;

public static DateTime DeSerializeAsUKDate(string value)
{
    // date parsing logic here
    // ServiceStack.Text.Common.DateTimeSerializer has some helper methods you may want to leverage
}

ServiceStack UK Date Binding on HTTP POST

1 Answers1