WebApi doesnt serialize null fields

Question

I've got the following following command in my web api:

return Request.CreateResponse(HttpStatusCode.OK, 
    MyDBContext.DB.Database.SqlQuery<MyCustomerClass>("SELECT * FROM CUSTOMER").ToList());

Here is the table:

CREATE TABLE [dbo].[Customer] (
    [CustomerID] [int] NOT NULL,
    [FirstName] [nvarchar](50) NOT NULL,
    [LastName] [nvarchar](50) NULL,
    CONSTRAINT [PK_Customer] PRIMARY KEY CLUSTERED 
([CustomerID] ASC) WITH (PAD_INDEX  = OFF, STATISTICS_NORECOMPUTE = OFF, 
      IGNORE_DUP_KEY = OFF, ALLOW_ROW_LOCKS = ON, ALLOW_PAGE_LOCKS = ON) 
      ON [PRIMARY]
) ON [PRIMARY]

GO

I have found that when requesting data from the webApi, if the fields are null then the returning JSON result doesn't include that field in the return result. Is this expected behaviour?

cuongle · Accepted Answer · 2012-08-17 05:06:37Z

3

I found the fix was to specify the following in the json formatter serializer settings:

jsonFormatter.SerializerSettings = new JsonSerializerSettings() 
{ 
   NullValueHandling = NullValueHandling.Include 
};

edited Aug 17, 2012 at 5:06

cuongle

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answered Aug 17, 2012 at 0:59

Matt

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Comments

Paul Calabro · Accepted Answer · 2012-08-16 23:57:55Z

1

I don't think that's expected behavior. At least in terms of JSON. I can't speak much about WebAPI, since I haven't used it. In a project of mine that uses JSON, if I were to issue the following code:

# Package our response into an array... 
$response = array("type"=>"remove_from_distribution_list","results");                   

# And send it back to XMLHttpRequest object encoded...       
echo json_encode($response);

with results having no value, results would still be passed along. There would just be no value passed alongside it.

answered Aug 16, 2012 at 23:57

Paul Calabro

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