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Asked: 2026-05-24T17:01:46+00:00

I am trying to develop a RESTful Web service as an ASP.NET MVC 3

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I am trying to develop a RESTful Web service as an ASP.NET MVC 3 Web Application.

(I know, I should use the right tool for the job, which in this case means I should use WCF. But WCF has too many abstraction layers and is thus too big to fit inside my head. It would be cool for a research project, but I am trying to do my job. Besides I previously tried it, and now I am of the opinion that, despite its big promises, WCF sucks big time.)

Anyway, what I want to do is simple: I want my Web service to return its results as either XML or JSON, depending on the type specified in the HTTP request (by, default, JSON). How do I do that?

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  1. Editorial Team

    A Json action result already exists. MvcContrib has an XML action result you can return, or you could just use Content (xmlContent, “text/xml”) as your action result.

    You can query the accept header to determine which action result you would like to return. As long as your action method returns type ActionResult, it doesn’t matter which type it returns.

    That said, once you prove the overall concept, there are better ways to structure what you’re trying to do.

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