Prevent Json.NET 4.5 from appending timezone offset when using MicrosoftDateFormat

Question

Short of a custom DateTimeConverterBase implementation, is there some way to keep Json.NET 4.5+, when set to use DateFormatHandling.MicrosoftDateFormat

Answer 1

It seems to work just fine for me, see below. My JSON.NET assembly says it's version "4.5.0.0".

JsonSerializerSettings customJsonSettings = new JsonSerializerSettings()
{
    DateFormatHandling = DateFormatHandling.MicrosoftDateFormat,
    DateTimeZoneHandling = DateTimeZoneHandling.Utc
};
string result = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(DateTime.Now, customJsonSettings);
Console.WriteLine(result); // "\/Date(1344249339881)\/"

Perhaps it was a bug that has been fixed?

Explicitly creating a date:

var x = new { thedate = new DateTime(2009, 2, 15, 0, 0, 0, DateTimeKind.Local) };

Console.WriteLine(JsonConvert.SerializeObject(x,
    new JsonSerializerSettings() {
        DateFormatHandling = DateFormatHandling.MicrosoftDateFormat
    }));
// {"thedate":"\/Date(1234652400000+0100)\/"}

Console.WriteLine(JsonConvert.SerializeObject(x,
    new JsonSerializerSettings() {
        DateFormatHandling = DateFormatHandling.MicrosoftDateFormat,
        DateTimeZoneHandling = Newtonsoft.Json.DateTimeZoneHandling.Utc
    }));
// {"thedate":"\/Date(1234652400000)\/"}

Console.WriteLine(JsonConvert.SerializeObject(x,
    new JsonSerializerSettings() {
        DateFormatHandling = DateFormatHandling.MicrosoftDateFormat,
        DateTimeZoneHandling = Newtonsoft.Json.DateTimeZoneHandling.Local
    }));
// {"thedate":"\/Date(1234652400000+0100)\/"}

Answer 2

I found a solution to remove timezone offset from DateTime for latest version 9.0.0:

var time = DateTime.Now;

Console.WriteLine(JsonConvert.SerializeObject(time, new JsonSerializerSettings()
{
    DateFormatHandling = DateFormatHandling.IsoDateFormat,
    DateTimeZoneHandling = Newtonsoft.Json.DateTimeZoneHandling.Unspecified
}));

//"{"thedate": "2016-12-15T09:20:00.9375403"};