All,
We are using ASP.NET Web API where we have a REST based service with JSON for the payload. If I pass the following Date as a string e.g
sampleObj: {
...
myDate: "31/12/2011 00:00:00",
...
}
as an attribute value in the JSON payload, the date attribute gets deserialised into a DateTime.MinValue. Is the string format valid?
We know the format "2012-10-17 07:45:00" serialises successfully but we cannot guarantee that all dates received will be in this format. What are the valid options?
In ASP.NET Web API, you can add different Json.NET DateTimeConverters through the JsonFormatter's SerializerSettings to make your service understand different DateTime format.
However, I do not think there is a default DateTimeConverter from Json.NET that takes in this format "31/12/2011 00:00:00". In this case you implement your custom DateTimeConverter.
WebApiConfig.cs:
config.Formatters.JsonFormatter.SerializerSettings.Converters.Add(
new IsoDateTimeConverter());
config.Formatters.JsonFormatter.SerializerSettings.Converters.Add(
new MyDateTimeConverter());
Custom DateTimeConverter:
public class MyDateTimeConverter : DateTimeConverterBase
{
//...
}
For more information about how to write a custom DateTimeConverter, I found something on stackoverflow that you might find useful: How to create a json.net Date to String custom Converter.
Just set globalization in web.config:
<globalization enableClientBasedCulture="false" requestEncoding="utf-8" responseEncoding="utf-8" culture="en-GB" uiCulture="en-GB"/>
and then, in Global.asax.cs > Application_Start, set JsonFormatter to use the current culture:
var json = GlobalConfiguration.Configuration.Formatters.JsonFormatter;
json.SerializerSettings.Culture = System.Globalization.CultureInfo.CurrentCulture;
