Modifiy JSON Date time object format

Question

Hi I am writing a JSON webservice which returns DateTime.

It is returning the date time in EPOCH format. Is it possible to modify the JSON date format it returns.

Code snippet

  [ServiceContract]
    public interface ITMAppServices
    {
          [OperationContract]
          [WebGet(UriTemplate = "/Test",
          RequestFormat = WebMessageFormat.Json,
          ResponseFormat = WebMessageFormat.Json)]

        DateTime GetData();

    }

Actual implementaiton

public class TMAppServices : ITMAppServices
 {
     public DateTime GetData()
     {
          return DateTime.Now;
     }
 }

i am simply returning datetime.now in C#

Output in EPOCH format :

"/Date(1413399311687+0300)/"

i want output in same format returned by C# Or if I get datetime from SQL

`return DateTime.Now;` is returning date in `EPOCH` format ? — Habib, Oct 15 '14 at 19:22
Yes.Its actually a JSON webservice.. When i am running the service this way http://localhost:64964/TMAppServices.svc/Test it returns "\/Date(1413403048647+0300)\/" — Sunil Kumar, Oct 15 '14 at 19:56

score 3 · Answer 1 · edited May 23 '17 at 11:49

It looks like you're writing a WCF service. By default, WCF uses the DataContractJsonSerializer for JSON serialization - which uses this format.

You should consider either replacing it with JSON.Net - or preferably, writing your service with ASP.Net WebAPI instead - which already uses JSON.Net.

JSON.Net will (by default) use the ISO-8601 serialization format. This is the preferred format for sending dates over the wire, especially in JSON. For example, "2014-10-15T21:54:00-07:00".

You should not use DD MM YYYY format, as JSON is intended to be machine readable. If a machine with MM DD YYYY culture attempts to read the string, it could misinterpret the value. For example, "1/2/2014" can be read as either January 2nd, or February 1st.

As an aside - you should probably consider using the DateTimeOffset type in .NET instead of DateTime.

Thanks for the reply. My intention was not get in the DD MM YY format. Edited my post. will try JSON.Net — Sunil Kumar, Oct 16 '14 at 08:04

Modifiy JSON Date time object format

1 Answers1