Binding ticks in a WebApi route parameter to DateTime

Question

I need milisecond precision on my DateTime object therefore I am sending Ticks from my Windows Service to my WebApi. This is my call to api, the last parameter is the datetime

v1/Product/2/1/1000/636149434774700000

On the Api the request hits a controller that looks like this:

[Route("api/v1/Product/{site}/{start?}/{pageSize?}/{from?}")]
public IHttpActionResult Product(Site site, int start = 1, int pageSize = 100, DateTime? fromLastUpdated = null)

Default model binder fails to bind the ticks to the DateTime parameter. Any tips would be appreciated.

score 1 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:30

Use long fromLastUpdated parse and cast to DateTime independently

[Route("api/v1/Product/{site}/{start?}/{pageSize?}/{from?}")]
public IHttpActionResult Product(Site site, int start = 1, int pageSize = 100, long? fromLastUpdated = null)
{
    if (fromLastUpdated.HasValue)
    {
        var ticks = fromLastUpdated.Value;
        var time = new TimeSpan(fromLastUpdated);
        var dateTime = new DateTime() + time;
        // ...
    }
    return ...
}

Andriy Tolstoy · Answer 2 · 2016-12-16T10:43:52.427

You can call it with the following route v1/Product/2/1/1000/2016-11-17T01:37:57.4700000. The model binding will work properly.

Or you can define a custom model binder:

public class DateTimeModelBinder : System.Web.Http.ModelBinding.IModelBinder
{
    public bool BindModel(HttpActionContext actionContext, System.Web.Http.ModelBinding.ModelBindingContext bindingContext)
    {
        if (bindingContext.ModelType != typeof(DateTime?)) return false;

        long result;

        if  (!long.TryParse(actionContext.RequestContext.RouteData.Values["from"].ToString(), out result)) 
            return false;

        bindingContext.Model = new DateTime(result);

        return bindingContext.ModelState.IsValid;
    }
}

[System.Web.Http.HttpGet]
[Route("api/v1/Product/{site}/{start?}/{pageSize?}/{from?}")]
public IHttpActionResult Product(Site site, 
                                 int start = 1, 
                                 int pageSize = 100,
                                 [System.Web.Http.ModelBinding.ModelBinderAttribute(typeof(DateTimeModelBinder))] DateTime? fromLastUpdated = null)   
{
    // your code
}

Binding ticks in a WebApi route parameter to DateTime

2 Answers2