Pass multiple complex objects to a post/put Web API method

Question

Can some please help me to know how to pass multiple objects from a C# console app to Web API controller as shown below?

using (var httpClient = new System.N         


        

Answer 1

I know this is an old question, but I had the same issue and here is what I came up with and hopefully will be useful to someone. This will allow passing JSON formatted parameters individually in request URL (GET), as one single JSON object after ? (GET) or within single JSON body object (POST). My goal was RPC-style functionality.

Created a custom attribute and parameter binding, inheriting from HttpParameterBinding:

public class JSONParamBindingAttribute : Attribute
{

}

public class JSONParamBinding : HttpParameterBinding
{

    private static JsonSerializer _serializer = JsonSerializer.Create(new JsonSerializerSettings()
    {
        DateTimeZoneHandling = DateTimeZoneHandling.Utc
    });


    public JSONParamBinding(HttpParameterDescriptor descriptor)
        : base(descriptor)
    {
    }

    public override Task ExecuteBindingAsync(ModelMetadataProvider metadataProvider,
                                                HttpActionContext actionContext,
                                                CancellationToken cancellationToken)
    {
        JObject jobj = GetJSONParameters(actionContext.Request);

        object value = null;

        JToken jTokenVal = null;
        if (!jobj.TryGetValue(Descriptor.ParameterName, out jTokenVal))
        {
            if (Descriptor.IsOptional)
                value = Descriptor.DefaultValue;
            else
                throw new MissingFieldException("Missing parameter : " + Descriptor.ParameterName);
        }
        else
        {
            try
            {
                value = jTokenVal.ToObject(Descriptor.ParameterType, _serializer);
            }
            catch (Newtonsoft.Json.JsonException e)
            {
                throw new HttpParseException(String.Join("", "Unable to parse parameter: ", Descriptor.ParameterName, ". Type: ", Descriptor.ParameterType.ToString()));
            }
        }

        // Set the binding result here
        SetValue(actionContext, value);

        // now, we can return a completed task with no result
        TaskCompletionSource tcs = new TaskCompletionSource();
        tcs.SetResult(default(AsyncVoid));
        return tcs.Task;
    }

    public static HttpParameterBinding HookupParameterBinding(HttpParameterDescriptor descriptor)
    {
        if (descriptor.ActionDescriptor.ControllerDescriptor.GetCustomAttributes().Count == 0 
            && descriptor.ActionDescriptor.GetCustomAttributes().Count == 0)
            return null;

        var supportedMethods = descriptor.ActionDescriptor.SupportedHttpMethods;

        if (supportedMethods.Contains(HttpMethod.Post) || supportedMethods.Contains(HttpMethod.Get))
        {
            return new JSONParamBinding(descriptor);
        }

        return null;
    }

    private JObject GetJSONParameters(HttpRequestMessage request)
    {
        JObject jobj = null;
        object result = null;
        if (!request.Properties.TryGetValue("ParamsJSObject", out result))
        {
            if (request.Method == HttpMethod.Post)
            {
                jobj = JObject.Parse(request.Content.ReadAsStringAsync().Result);
            }
            else if (request.RequestUri.Query.StartsWith("?%7B"))
            {
                jobj = JObject.Parse(HttpUtility.UrlDecode(request.RequestUri.Query).TrimStart('?'));
            }
            else
            {
                jobj = new JObject();
                foreach (var kvp in request.GetQueryNameValuePairs())
                {
                    jobj.Add(kvp.Key, JToken.Parse(kvp.Value));
                }
            }
            request.Properties.Add("ParamsJSObject", jobj);
        }
        else
        {
            jobj = (JObject)result;
        }

        return jobj;
    }



    private struct AsyncVoid
    {
    }
}

Inject binding rule inside WebApiConfig.cs's Register method:

        public static void Register(HttpConfiguration config)
        {
            // Web API configuration and services

            // Web API routes
            config.MapHttpAttributeRoutes();

            config.ParameterBindingRules.Insert(0, JSONParamBinding.HookupParameterBinding);

            config.Routes.MapHttpRoute(
            name: "DefaultApi",
            routeTemplate: "{controller}/{action}/{id}",
            defaults: new { id = RouteParameter.Optional }
        );
        }

This allows for controller actions with default parameter values and mixed complexity, as such:

[JSONParamBinding]
    [HttpPost, HttpGet]
    public Widget DoWidgetStuff(Widget widget, int stockCount, string comment="no comment")
    {
        ... do stuff, return Widget object
    }

example post body:

{ 
    "widget": { 
        "a": 1, 
        "b": "string", 
        "c": { "other": "things" } 
    }, 
    "stockCount": 42, 
    "comment": "sample code"
} 

or GET single param (needs URL encoding)

controllerPath/DoWidgetStuff?{"widget":{..},"comment":"test","stockCount":42}

or GET multiple param (needs URL encoding)

controllerPath/DoWidgetStuff?widget={..}&comment="test"&stockCount=42