How to return JSON from MVC WEB API Controller

Question

I understand that WEB API uses content negotiation for Accept - Content-Type to return json or xml. This is not good enough and I need to be able pragmatically decide if I want to return json or xml.

The internet is flooded with obsolete examples of using HttpResponseMessage<T>, which is no longer present in MVC 4.

    tokenResponse response = new tokenResponse();
response.something = "gfhgfh";

    if(json)
    {
        return Request.CreateResponse(HttpStatusCode.OK, response, "application/json");
    }
    else
    {
         return Request.CreateResponse(HttpStatusCode.OK, response, "application/xml");
    }

How do I change the above code so that it works?

Darin Dimitrov · Accepted Answer · 2012-10-03 09:13:53Z

23

Try like this:

public HttpResponseMessage Get()
{
    tokenResponse response = new tokenResponse();
    response.something = "gfhgfh";

    if(json)
    {
        return Request.CreateResponse(HttpStatusCode.OK, response, Configuration.Formatters.JsonFormatter);
    }
    else
    {
         return Request.CreateResponse(HttpStatusCode.OK, response, Configuration.Formatters.XmlFormatter);
    }    
}

or even better, to avoid cluttering your controller with such plumbing infrastructure code you could also write a custom media formatter and perform this test inside it.

answered Oct 3, 2012 at 9:13

Darin Dimitrov

1.0m275 gold badges3.3k silver badges3k bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

2 Comments

user1662812 Over a year ago

Right! My mistake was that Get() method had a return type of tokenResponse. Thanks!

Wouter Vanherck Over a year ago

Any standard class that could replace tokenResponse in this example?

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

How to return JSON from MVC WEB API Controller

1 Answer 1

2 Comments

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

1 Answer 1

2 Comments

Related