How to pass a datetime parameter?

Question

How to pass UTC dates to Web API?

Passing 2010-01-01 works fine, but when I pass a UTC date such as 2014-12-31T22:00:00.000Z (with a time c

Answer 1

in your Product Web API controller:

[RoutePrefix("api/product")]
public class ProductController : ApiController
{
    private readonly IProductRepository _repository;
    public ProductController(IProductRepository repository)
    {
        this._repository = repository;
    }

    [HttpGet, Route("orders")]
    public async Task<IHttpActionResult> GetProductPeriodOrders(string productCode, DateTime dateStart, DateTime dateEnd)
    {
        try
        {
            IList<Order> orders = await _repository.GetPeriodOrdersAsync(productCode, dateStart.ToUniversalTime(), dateEnd.ToUniversalTime());
            return Ok(orders);
        }
        catch(Exception ex)
        {
            return NotFound();
        }
    }
}

test GetProductPeriodOrders method in Fiddler - Composer:

http://localhost:46017/api/product/orders?productCode=100&dateStart=2016-12-01T00:00:00&dateEnd=2016-12-31T23:59:59

DateTime format:

yyyy-MM-ddTHH:mm:ss

javascript pass parameter use moment.js

const dateStart = moment(startDate).format('YYYY-MM-DDTHH:mm:ss');
const dateEnd = moment(endDate).format('YYYY-MM-DDTHH:mm:ss');

Answer 2

One possible solution is to use Ticks:

public long Ticks { get; }

Then in the controller's method:

public DateTime(long ticks);

Answer 3

It used to be a painful task, but now we can use toUTCString():

Example:

[HttpPost]
public ActionResult Query(DateTime Start, DateTime End)

Put the below into Ajax post request

data: {
    Start: new Date().toUTCString(),
    End: new Date().toUTCString()
},

Answer 4

By looking at your code, I assume you do not have a concern about the 'Time' of the DateTime object. If so, you can pass the date, month and the year as integer parameters. Please see the following code. This is a working example from my current project.

The advantage is; this method helps me to avoid DateTime format issues and culture incompatibilities.

    /// <summary>
    /// Get Arrivals Report Seven Day Forecast
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="day"></param>
    /// <param name="month"></param>
    /// <param name="year"></param>
    /// <returns></returns>
    [HttpGet("arrivalreportsevendayforecast/{day:int}/{month:int}/{year:int}")]
    public async Task<ActionResult<List<ArrivalsReportSevenDayForecastModel>>> GetArrivalsReportSevenDayForecast(int day, int month, int year)
    {
        DateTime selectedDate = new DateTime(year, month, day);
        IList<ArrivalsReportSevenDayForecastModel> arrivingStudents = await _applicationService.Value.GetArrivalsReportSevenDayForecast(selectedDate);
        return Ok(arrivingStudents);
    }

If you are keen to see the front-end as well, feel free to read the code below. Unfortunately, that is written in Angular. This is how I normally pass a DateTime as a query parameter in Angular GET requests.

public getArrivalsReportSevenDayForecast(selectedDate1 : Date): Observable<ArrivalsReportSevenDayForecastModel[]> {
const params = new HttpParams();
const day = selectedDate1.getDate();
const month = selectedDate1.getMonth() + 1
const year = selectedDate1.getFullYear();

const data = this.svcHttp.get<ArrivalsReportSevenDayForecastModel[]>(this.routePrefix +
  `/arrivalreportsevendayforecast/${day}/${month}/${year}`, { params: params }).pipe(
  map<ArrivalsReportSevenDayForecastModel[], ArrivalsReportSevenDayForecastModel[]>(arrivingList => {
    // do mapping here if needed       
    return arrivingList;
  }),
  catchError((err) => this.svcError.handleError(err)));

return data;
}