how to read form/data value in web api

Question

I am trying to POST Json data to API and read the value from the key using the HttpContext.Current.Request object.

Client Side:

var data = { Name: "Tom" };

$.ajax({
    type: "POST",
    url: url,
    data: JSON.stringify(data),
    dataType: "json",
    contentType: "application/json",
    success: function (response) {

    }
    });

In API:

[HttpPost]
[Route("UploadProduct")]
public HttpResponseMessage Upload()
{

if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(HttpContext.Current.Request["Name"]))
                return "Name is missing";

//... removed for brevity

}

Why key Name is always empty ?

I know Json data will bind to model object only. But like to know if it's possible to get data from HttpContext.Current.Request object by making some changes in client side ?

Why would you want to get the data from `HttpContext.Current.Request` when you can bind it to a model as parameter? — Yom T., Jan 14 '19 at 17:51
Does your `data` (as in `JSON.stringify(data)`) contain a 'Name' property? You've not included it either way in the question. — freedomn-m, Jan 14 '19 at 17:53
@jom The API is already use with client , so dont want to break things. Also is there any way to read data apart from `HttpContext.Current.Request` ? — Shaiju T, Jan 14 '19 at 17:54
Can you post a sample of this data you are passing to the method? — Yom T., Jan 14 '19 at 17:55
@stom Also, why do you think model binding the data in the method breaks things? — Yom T., Jan 14 '19 at 17:59
Have you tried `HttpContext.Current.Request.Form.AllKeys` to check what's actually being passed? Have you checked the browser network tab to see what's being sent? — freedomn-m, Jan 14 '19 at 18:00
Do you need the `stringify` for any specific reason? Try without this (and remove contentType): `$.ajax({ type: "POST", url: url, data: data, dataType: "json", success: ...` With stringify you're only posting a single json value (it's not auto-expanded by web-api), not a form, so `Request["form-field-name"]` doesn't have a form to get the field name from. This is handled when you use model-binding. — freedomn-m, Jan 14 '19 at 18:12

Yom T. · Accepted Answer · 2019-01-14T18:38:28.857

2

OK, try this:

Change contentType to application/x-www-form-urlencoded, remove the JSON.stringify() and just pass the JSON data as is. With this you should be able to get the form values with this.Request.Form["Name"] or simply this.Request["Name"] or even HttpContext.Current.Request["Name"].

When you POST data to server (particularly with content types other than application/x-www-form-urlencoded), the content is being placed in the Request body, and so it's not going to be available for reading in the Request.Form name-value collection object.

For nested data, you can query the values just like you would with Javascript object literal, something like:

var data = {
  Name: "Tom",
  Address: {
    Street: "ABC"
  }
}

this.Request.Form["Address[Street]"] // ABC

Although it's always better to use model binding whenever possible.

edited Jan 14 '19 at 18:38

answered Jan 14 '19 at 18:17

Yom T.

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Hi, can you review your sentence `so it's not going to be available for reading in the Request.Form`, I think it should be `so it's going to be available for reading in the Request.Form`. – Shaiju T Jan 23 '19 at 13:57
1

@stom When you post data as JSON for example, it should not go in `Request.Form`. If you need to post them as JSON, you could use model binding. See [this post](https://stackoverflow.com/a/21579294/3634538) for example. – Yom T. Jan 23 '19 at 15:51

how to read form/data value in web api

1 Answers1