Question

What is the correct way of returning JSON data via API controller in MVC4? I’ve heard that you need to use variable type as function, however I cannot do that because I can’t use .Select(x => new { }) then.

What I do instead is to use dynamic like so

[HttpGet]
public dynamic List() // Not List<Item>
{
    var items = _db.Items.OrderBy(x => x.ID).Select(x => new
    {
        ID = x.ID,
        Title = x.Title,
        Price = x.Price,
        Category = new {
            ID = x.Category.ID,
            Name = x.Category.Name
        }
    });

    return items;
}

Is this best way of doing this? I’m askin’ because I just started with MVC4 and I don’t want to pick up bad habits early 🙂

Answer 1

You don’t need to use dynamic, the simple way is to return object for anonymous type:

[HttpGet] 
public object List() // Not List<Item> 
{ 
    var items = _db.Items.OrderBy(x => x.ID).Select(x => new 
    { 
        ID = x.ID, 
        Title = x.Title, 
        Price = x.Price, 
        Category = new { 
            ID = x.Category.ID, 
            Name = x.Category.Name 
        } 
    }); 

    return items; 
}

Or, return HttpResponseMessage:

[HttpGet] 
public HttpResponseMessage List() // Not List<Item> 
{ 
    var items = _db.Items.OrderBy(x => x.ID).Select(x => new 
    { 
        ID = x.ID, 
        Title = x.Title, 
        Price = x.Price, 
        Category = new { 
            ID = x.Category.ID, 
            Name = x.Category.Name 
        } 
    }); 

    return Request.CreateResponse(HttpStatusCode.OK, items);
}