MVC3 - posting byte array to a controller - Database RowVersion

Question

I am working on an MVC3 application. My client side ViewModel contains a SQL Server RowVersion property, which is a byte[]. It is rendered as an Object array on the client

Answer 1

My client side ViewModel contains a SQL Server RowVersion property, which is a byte[]

Make it so that instead of a byte[] your view model contains a string property which is the base64 representation of this byte[]. Then you won't have any problems roundtripping it to the client and back to the server where you will be able to get the original byte[] from the Base64 string.

Answer 2

Json.NET automatically encodes byte arrays as Base64.

You can use JsonNetResult instead of JsonResult:

from https://gist.github.com/DavidDeSloovere/5689824:

using System;
using System.Web;
using System.Web.Mvc;
using Newtonsoft.Json;
using Newtonsoft.Json.Serialization;

public class JsonNetResult : JsonResult
{
    public override void ExecuteResult(ControllerContext context)
    {
        if (context == null)
        {
            throw new ArgumentNullException("context");
        }

        var response = context.HttpContext.Response;

        response.ContentType = !string.IsNullOrEmpty(this.ContentType) ? this.ContentType : "application/json";

        if (this.ContentEncoding != null)
        {
            response.ContentEncoding = this.ContentEncoding;
        }

        if (this.Data == null)
        {
            return;
        }

        var jsonSerializerSettings = new JsonSerializerSettings();
        jsonSerializerSettings.DateFormatHandling = DateFormatHandling.IsoDateFormat;
        jsonSerializerSettings.ContractResolver = new CamelCasePropertyNamesContractResolver();
        var formatting = HttpContext.Current != null && HttpContext.Current.IsDebuggingEnabled ? Formatting.Indented : Formatting.None;
        var serializedObject = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(Data, formatting, jsonSerializerSettings);
        response.Write(serializedObject);
    }
}

Usage:

[HttpPost]
public JsonResult Save(Contact contact) {
    return new JsonNetResult { Data = _contactService.Save(contact) };
}