HttpResponseMessage JSON

Question

I have a model "data" which contains some booleans and strings. I want this model returned with a HttpResponseMessage. Currently I am doing it like this:

string JSON = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(Data);
HttpResponseMessage response = Request.CreateResponse(HttpStatusCode.OK, JSON);
return response;

This results in the following JSON output "{\"\"}". But I need it to be {""}. Yet if I only show the JSON before the HttpResponseMessage it is like {""} and I don't seem to find out what causes the output format to change. Does anyone know what causes this and how to solve this? It seems to me the JSON gets 'stringitized' but why I don't know.

I am using NewtonSoft.

The backslash character is indicating that the quote has been escaped. If you are seeing that in the debugger then it would be normal to see that — Martin, Nov 16 '18 at 12:04
*try this => string JSON (... and the code to serialize object to string then deserialize it back)* **NO, do not try .... it is useless code** ... obviously simple `return Request.CreateResponse(HttpStatusCode.OK, Data);` will do the thing — Selvin, Nov 16 '18 at 12:21
Yes you are all right, should have known that. I fixed it in my code and it works perfectly. Thanx alot! — M Menne, Nov 19 '18 at 08:28

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Nov 16 '18 at 21:55

This happens because the Web API framework has built-in serialization, and you are manually serializing your data on top of that. This double-serialization results in the extra backslashes and quotes you see in the response JSON.

To fix your code, remove the call to SerializeObject and pass your Data object directly to Request.CreateResponse like this:

HttpResponseMessage response = Request.CreateResponse(HttpStatusCode.OK, Data);
return response;

Thanx for the explaining, i fixed it and it works perfectly – M Menne Nov 19 '18 at 08:28 — M Menne, Nov 19 '18 at 08:28

HttpResponseMessage JSON

1 Answers1