ASP.NET Web API - Not Deserializing JSON with Escape Characters - json

Question

I have a POST method in my Web API controller that looks like this
public class StudentsController : ApiController {
public HttpResponseMessage Post(ApiStudent apiModel) {
// does processing here
}
}
public class ApiStudent {
public long Id { get; set; }
public string FirstName { get; set; }
public string LastName { get; set; }
public int GraduationClass { get; set; }
// other fields omitted for brevity
}
In cilent 1, I'm adding an ApiStudent directly to the body of the REST client, which results in JSON that does not have escape characters. This correctly automatically deserializes on the server side, but with client 2, when I send over JSON content with escape characters, the ApiStudent deserialized as NULL.
// DESERIALIZES PROPERLY ON SERVER
public void Client1() {
var student = new ApiStudent();
student.Id = 0; // new student since it's a post
student.FirstName = "Homer";
student.LastName = "Simpson";
student.GraduationClass = 2014;
var jsonRequest = new RestRequest("http://www.mydomain.com/api/students", Method.POST);
jsonRequest.RequestFormat = DataFormat.Json;
jsonRequest.AddBody(student);
IRestResponse jsonResponse = client.Execute(jsonRequest);
return jsonResponse;
}
// DESERIALIZES AS NULL ON SERVER
public void Client2() {
var jsonContent = "{ \"FirstName\": \"Api\", \"LastName\": \"Test\", \"GraduationClass\": 2014, \"Id\": 0 }";
var jsonRequest = new RestRequest("http://www.mydomain.com/api/students", Method.POST);
jsonRequest.RequestFormat = DataFormat.Json;
jsonRequest.AddBody(jsonContent);
IRestResponse jsonResponse = client.Execute(jsonRequest);
return jsonResponse;
}
Using fidder, I can see that client 1 sends over the following:
{ "FirstName": "Api", "LastName": "Test", "GraduationClass": 2014, "Id": 0 }
I can see that client 2 sends over the following:
{ \"FirstName\": \"Api\", \"LastName\": \"Test\", \"GraduationClass\": 2014, \"Id\": 0 }
Is there a way to either strip out the escape characters, or have them parsed properly on the server side?

Answer 1

I found a workaround for this, and I hope it helps somebody.
// NOW DESERIALIZES PROPERLY ON THE SERVER
public void Client2() {
var jsonContent = "{ \"FirstName\": \"Api\", \"LastName\": \"Test\", \"GraduationClass\": 2014, \"Id\": 0 }";
var jsonRequest = new RestRequest("http://www.mydomain.com/api/students", Method.POST);
jsonRequest.AddParameter("text/json", jsonContent, ParameterType.RequestBody);
IRestResponse jsonResponse = client.Execute(jsonRequest);
return jsonResponse;
}