how to remove fields from a json string in .net MVC Web Api

Question

In my Get method of my REST service,

public HttpResponseMessage Get()
 {
  CustomerRepository lr = new CustomerRepository ();
  IQueryable<Customer> data = lr.GetCustomer();

  var resp = new HttpResponseMessage(HttpStatusCode.OK);
  resp.Content = new ObjectContent<IQueryable<Customer>>(data, new JsonMediaTypeFormatter());        
  return resp;
 }

the following test example would be returned to the view as a json string:

{ id: '1', name:'California', type:'Student', parent:''}, //parent row
{ id: '2', name:'Harry', type:'Student', parent: '1' },
{ id: '3', name:'James', type:'Student', parent: '1' },
{ id: '4', name:'Sally', type:'Student', parent: '1'},

how do I remove the parent row's parent field to be like so before I send it back to UI:

{ id: '1', name:'California', type:'Student'}, //parent row
{ id: '2', name:'Harry', type:'Student', parent: '1' },
{ id: '3', name:'James', type:'Student', parent: '1' },
{ id: '4', name:'Sally', type:'Student', parent: '1'},

Thank you!

EDIT:

I found a solution. In my customer class, I just decorate the field.

[JsonProperty(NullValueHandling = NullValueHandling.Ignore)]
 public string parent { get; set; }

Tascalator · Accepted Answer · 2014-06-02 17:28:57Z

0

I had this problem and another one at the same time, I needed to join two tables before sending them via the API..

What I did was create another class that contained only the fields I needed and made a constructor that accepts the first object.

So in this case I would make a "ParentFormat" class with id,name,type, and the constructor of ParentFormat receives a Parent object... then you make another Get method in the API that returns the ParentFormat. There might be a better solution out there but this worked fine for me so I hope it can help you out ;)

EDIT : Actually I knew something bout anonymous types but it was too for in my head, after a 2second search I found this : http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb397696.aspx

Using anonymous types seems like a good way and im definitly going to try it

edited Jun 2, 2014 at 17:28

answered Jun 2, 2014 at 17:22

Tascalator

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3 Comments

tdw Over a year ago

I saw another one asking something similar but they used data annotation EmitDefaultValue. But I wasn't able to decorate my classes with DataContract and my properties with DataMember to use EmitDefaultValue: stackoverflow.com/questions/10150312/…

tdw Over a year ago

Thanks for replying, found something even easier: [JsonProperty(NullValueHandling = NullValueHandling.Ignore)] public string parent { get; set; }

Tascalator Over a year ago

Thanks for sharing... add it as an answer and accept it ;)

Community · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-23 10:26:20Z

0

In general, when you do not have a very simple application, it is a better idea to use separate dto-classes/viewmodels (data-transfer-objects). In most cases you do not want to expose all data, e.g. the identity or sensitive data. You also dont want your api to be coupled to the business logic and/or the data model.

You can read more about this here: Does it Make Sense to have ViewModels in the Webapi?

Google also has a lot of blog posts about this topic.

edited May 23, 2017 at 10:26

CommunityBot

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answered Jun 2, 2014 at 21:58

SebastianStehle

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