Question

For anyone not familiar with Web API and serializing dates to JSON, here’s what I’m trying to do.

It’s not working for me though, my dates still get serialized as “/Date(1039330800000-0700)/”.

Here’s my JsonNetFormatter:

public class JsonNetFormatter : MediaTypeFormatter
{
    private JsonSerializerSettings _jsonSerializerSettings;

    public JsonNetFormatter(JsonSerializerSettings jsonSerializerSettings)
    {
        _jsonSerializerSettings = jsonSerializerSettings ?? new JsonSerializerSettings();

        // Fill out the mediatype and encoding we support 
        SupportedMediaTypes.Add(new MediaTypeHeaderValue("application/json"));
        Encoding = new UTF8Encoding(false, true);
    }

    protected override bool CanReadType(Type type)
    {
        if (type == typeof(IKeyValueModel))
        {
            return false;
        }

        return true;
    }

    protected override bool CanWriteType(Type type)
    {
        return true;
    }

    protected override Task<object> OnReadFromStreamAsync(Type type, Stream stream, HttpContentHeaders contentHeaders, FormatterContext formatterContext)
    {
        // Create a serializer 
        JsonSerializer serializer = JsonSerializer.Create(_jsonSerializerSettings);

        // Create task reading the content 
        return Task.Factory.StartNew(() =>
        {
            using (StreamReader streamReader = new StreamReader(stream, Encoding))
            {
                using (JsonTextReader jsonTextReader = new JsonTextReader(streamReader))
                {
                    return serializer.Deserialize(jsonTextReader, type);
                }
            }
        });
    }

    protected override Task OnWriteToStreamAsync(Type type, object value, Stream stream, HttpContentHeaders contentHeaders, FormatterContext formatterContext, TransportContext transportContext)
    {
        // Create a serializer 
        JsonSerializer serializer = JsonSerializer.Create(_jsonSerializerSettings);

        // Create task writing the serialized content 
        return Task.Factory.StartNew(() =>
        {
            using (JsonTextWriter jsonTextWriter = new JsonTextWriter(new StreamWriter(stream, Encoding)) { CloseOutput = false })
            {
                serializer.Serialize(jsonTextWriter, value);
                jsonTextWriter.Flush();
            }
        });


    }
}

and my Global.asax.cs file:

public class WebApiApplication : System.Web.HttpApplication
{
    private static Logger Logger = NLog.LogManager.GetCurrentClassLogger();

    public static void RegisterGlobalFilters(GlobalFilterCollection filters)
    {
        filters.Add(new HandleErrorAttribute());
        filters.Add(new WebApiApplication.Filters.ExceptionHandlingAttribute());
    }

    public static void RegisterRoutes(RouteCollection routes)
    {
        routes.IgnoreRoute("{resource}.axd/{*pathInfo}");

        routes.MapHttpRoute(
            name: "DefaultApi",
            routeTemplate: "api/{controller}/{id}",
            defaults: new { id = RouteParameter.Optional }
        );
    }

    protected void Application_Start()
    {
        RegisterDependencies();

        AreaRegistration.RegisterAllAreas();

        RegisterGlobalFilters(GlobalFilters.Filters);
        RegisterRoutes(RouteTable.Routes);

        JsonSerializerSettings serializerSettings = new JsonSerializerSettings();
        serializerSettings.Converters.Add(new IsoDateTimeConverter());
        GlobalConfiguration.Configuration.Formatters.Add(new JsonNetFormatter(serializerSettings));

        BundleTable.Bundles.RegisterTemplateBundles();
    }

    private void RegisterDependencies()
    {

        IUnityContainer container = new UnityContainer();
        container.RegisterInstance<IClientRepository>(new ClientRepository());

        GlobalConfiguration.Configuration.ServiceResolver.SetResolver(
            t =>
            {
                try
                {
                    return container.Resolve(t);
                }
                catch (ResolutionFailedException)
                {
                    return null;
                }
            },
            t =>
            {
                try
                {
                    return container.ResolveAll(t);
                }
                catch (ResolutionFailedException)
                {
                    return new List<object>();
                }
            });
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Catches all exceptions.
    /// </summary>
    protected void Application_Error()
    {
        var exception = Server.GetLastError();

        Logger.Debug(exception);
    }
}

From what I’ve read, this has worked for lots of people. I’m not sure what I’m missing?

Answer 1

Have you removed “old” json formatter that is added by default to configuration? Think default formatter works instead of yours. Try to remove default Json formater before you add yours