WCF RESTful JSON web service post Nested List of object

Question

I'm developing a WCF service that accepts parameters in JSON. I cant' figure out where I'm going wrong. Please help.

When I test the service using fiddler, I post the following:

"locations": {
        "Departments": [{
            "Name": "Amazonas",
            "alias": "",
            "Municipalities": [{
                "Name": "El Encanto"
            }, {
                "Name": "La Chorrera"
            }]

        }]
    }

I get a 400 error with: "The server encountered an error processing the request. The exception message is 'OperationFormatter encountered an invalid Message body. Expected to find an attribute with name 'type' and value 'object'. Found value 'string'.'. See server logs for more details."

The stacktrace is:

    at System.ServiceModel.Dispatcher.OperationFormatter.DeserializeBodyContents(Message message, Object[] parameters, Boolean isRequest)
   at System.ServiceModel.Dispatcher.OperationFormatter.DeserializeRequest(Message message, Object[] parameters)
   at System.ServiceModel.Dispatcher.DemultiplexingDispatchMessageFormatter.DeserializeRequest(Message message, Object[] parameters)
   at System.ServiceModel.Dispatcher.UriTemplateDispatchFormatter.DeserializeRequest(Message message, Object[] parameters)
   at System.ServiceModel.Dispatcher.CompositeDispatchFormatter.DeserializeRequest(Message message, Object[] parameters)
   at System.ServiceModel.Dispatcher.DispatchOperationRuntime.DeserializeInputs(MessageRpc& rpc)
   at System.ServiceModel.Dispatcher.DispatchOperationRuntime.InvokeBegin(MessageRpc& rpc)
   at System.ServiceModel.Dispatcher.ImmutableDispatchRuntime.ProcessMessage5(MessageRpc& rpc)
   at System.ServiceModel.Dispatcher.ImmutableDispatchRuntime.ProcessMessage4(MessageRpc& rpc)
   at System.ServiceModel.Dispatcher.ImmutableDispatchRuntime.ProcessMessage3(MessageRpc& rpc)
   at System.ServiceModel.Dispatcher.ImmutableDispatchRuntime.ProcessMessage2(MessageRpc& rpc)
   at System.ServiceModel.Dispatcher.ImmutableDispatchRuntime.ProcessMessage1(MessageRpc& rpc)
   at System.ServiceModel.Dispatcher.MessageRpc.Process(Boolean isOperationContextSet)

Here is the contract:

 [OperationContract(Name = "setFacilities")]
    [WebInvoke(
        Method = "POST",
        BodyStyle = WebMessageBodyStyle.WrappedRequest,
        ResponseFormat = WebMessageFormat.Json,
        RequestFormat = WebMessageFormat.Json,
        UriTemplate = "/setFacilities")]
    string SetFacilities(LocationData locations);

[UPDATE]

Here's the LocationData class

    [Serializable]
public class LocationData
{
    public IList<Department> Departments;
}

[Serializable]
public class Department
{
    public string Name;
    public string Alias;
    public IList<Municipality> Municipalities;
}

[Serializable]
public class Municipality
{
    public string Name;
}

What I'm I missing?

My only advice is to view the webcasts on creating and consuming restful web services. There are 4 videos on it here (bottom of page) - msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/netframework/dd728059 — JonWillis
– JonWillis, Commented Feb 22, 2011 at 21:36

Aliostad · Accepted Answer · 2011-02-22 22:17:38Z

3

The problem is your JSON.

You have not shared the class LocationData so I cannot tell you how it must look like but your JSON needs to be wrapped in brackets:

{
    "locations": {
        "Departments": [{
            "Name": "Amazonas",
            "alias": "",
            "Municipalities": [{
                "Name": "El Encanto"
            }, {
                "Name": "La Chorrera"
            }]

        }]
    }
}

I guess LocationData is actually the one which has Departments so I think "locations": is redundant:

{

    "Departments": [{
        "Name": "Amazonas",
        "alias": "",
        "Municipalities": [{
            "Name": "El Encanto"
        }, {
            "Name": "La Chorrera"
        }]

    }]
}

answered Feb 22, 2011 at 22:17

Aliostad

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2 Comments

jmm312 Over a year ago

Thanks!. I've posted the LocationData class above if you would care to take a look

jmm312 Over a year ago

The first snippet worked! the second failed.The problems seems to be the omission of the outer curly braces. Thanks!

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