ASP.NET Web API 2 - how to POST?

Question

I've used scaffolding to generate a Controller class for Web API 2 in ASP.NET.

I'd like to post an object from a browser. This is the generated method running:

    // POST: api/MyObjects
    [ResponseType(typeof(MyObject))]
    public async Task<IHttpActionResult> PostMyObject(MyObject myObject)
    {
        if (!ModelState.IsValid)
        {
            return BadRequest(ModelState);
        }

        db.MyObjects.Add(myObject);

        try
        {
            await db.SaveChangesAsync();
        }
        catch (DbUpdateException)
        {
            if (MyObjectExists(myObject.Id))
            {
                return Conflict();
            }
            else
            {
                throw;
            }
        }

        return CreatedAtRoute("DefaultApi", new { id = myObject.Id }, myObject);
    }

I'm trying to invoke it from javascript/jquery:

$.post("http://localhost:2239/api/UrlVisits/5", "=" + "something");

My question is, what do I put in for "something" to serialize it correctly? When the method is entered, myObject is a valid object with all fields set to null. I don't know where in the stack this serialization is happening, so I'm not sure how to modify my post to fix it.

David L · Accepted Answer · 2015-01-28 21:58:30Z

2

You need to change up the structure a bit.

First, /5 signifies an ID of 5, which doesn't make sense with the compound object your method is expecting.

Second, you don't need to manually specify any URL parameterization with "=". Both jQuery and WebAPI will handle those pieces for you if you structure your object correctly. WebAPI 2 is significantly more powerful when it comes to deserializing complex objects than it's predecessor. Simply post the object.

$.post("http://localhost:2239/api/UrlVisits", {id:1, name:"test name"});

Finally, you can use the [FromBody] attribute to specify that your object will be posted on the form body.

[ResponseType(typeof(MyObject))]
public async Task<IHttpActionResult> PostMyObject([FromBody]MyObject myObject)

edited Jan 28, 2015 at 21:58

answered Jan 28, 2015 at 21:29

David L

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2 Comments

user1002973 Over a year ago

Thanks, that worked. The /5 was a copy-paste error. Incidentally, do you know what I should put in the javascript object for a field of type datetime in the database?

David L Over a year ago

Glad to help :). You can use var d = new Date(); in Javascript. Just make sure you serialize to a DateTime type in your C# object.

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