Question

I have a simple client that sends data to the web api server through a generic type

The following structure exists on both server and client

public interface IRequest<T>
{
    string ApiKey { get; set; }
    T RequestObject { get; set; }
}

public class UserRequest : IRequest<UserDetail>
{
    public string ApiKey { get; set; }
    public UserDetail RequestObject { get; set; }
}

I send a request to the server using the following syntax

var client = new RestClient(WebConfigurationManager.AppSettings["apiUri"]);
var profileRequest = new UserRequest
            {
                ApiKey = "xxxxx",
                RequestObject = new UserDetail {Password = txtPassword.Text, UserName = txtUserName.Text}
            };
 var request = new RestRequest("UserRequest/PostUserDetail", Method.POST);
 request.AddObject(profileRequest);

Now the interesting thing is that on the Server side, the UserDetail object does not get de-serialised properly, it just contains NULL, the ApiKey property is set correctly though

 public UserDetail PostUserDetail(UserRequest userRequest)
    {
        return new UserDetail { Password = userRequest.RequestObject.Password, UserName = userRequest.RequestObject.UserName };
    }

from the above, userRequest.ApiKey is set, however, userRequest.RequestObject is always NULL on the server API

Are generic types not supported? if not, does anyone have any pointers as to how I could modify the Deserializer on the server side? I have checked to see if the object is constructed properly on the client side and it is.

Many Thanks

Answer 1

This Web Api scenario is supported. I have tried repro’ing your WebAPI by creating a UserRequest ApiController with PostUserDetail, and I was able to get the expected ‘Password’ and ‘UserName’ in the response:

Request Content:
{"ApiKey":"123","RequestObject":{"Password":"bar","UserName":"foo"}}

Response Content:
{"Password":"bar","UserName":"foo"}

On the client side, I would recommend you to use HttpClient instead. Here is my client repro:

        var httpClient = new HttpClient();
        var content = new ObjectContent<UserRequest>(profileRequest, new JsonMediaTypeFormatter());
        var response2 = httpClient.PostAsync(addr, content).Result; // using .Result here for simplicity...
        Console.WriteLine(response2.Content.ReadAsStringAsync().Result);