how to post arbitrary json object to webapi

Question

How do I / is it possible to pass in a json object to a webapi controller (POST) and not have a class to map it to, but rather handle it as arbitrary content?

Answer 1

You can have your post method that takes in a HttpRequestMessage to by pass the model binding logic and you can read the content of the request directly:

    public HttpResponseMessage Post(HttpRequestMessage req)
    {
        var data = req.Content.ReadAsStringAsync().Result; // using .Result here for simplicity...
        ...

    }

By the way, the reason why the action that takes in JObject doesn't work is because of 'ObjectId("...")' that is used as the value of "_id" in your data...

Answer 2

In your input, "_id": ObjectId("5069f825cd4c1d590cddf206") is what is breaking the JSON materialization on the server. Removing ObjectId and using "_id" : "5069f825cd4c1d590cddf206" works with JObject as well as Dictionary<string, object>

Answer 3

We passed json object by jquery, and parse it in dynamic object. it works fine. this is sample code:

ajaxPost:

...
Content-Type: application/json,
data: {
          "name": "Jack", 
          "age": "12"
      }
...

webapi:

[HttpPost]
public string DoJson2(dynamic data)
{
    string name = data.name;
    int age = data.age;

    return name;
}

similary question on stackoverflow: WebAPI Multiple Put/Post parameters

Answer 4

It is very easy, you just need to put the Accept Header to "application/json".