Json – How to get ASP.NET Web API to return JSON instead of XML using Chrome

asp.net-web-apigoogle-chromejson

Using the newer ASP.NET Web API, in Chrome I am seeing XML – how can I change it to request JSON so I can view it in the browser? I do believe it is just part of the request headers, am I correct in that?

Best Answer

Note: Read the comments of this answer, it can produce a XSS Vulnerability if you are using the default error handing of WebAPI

I just add the following in App_Start / WebApiConfig.cs class in my MVC Web API project.

config.Formatters.JsonFormatter.SupportedMediaTypes
    .Add(new MediaTypeHeaderValue("text/html") );

That makes sure you get JSON on most queries, but you can get XML when you send text/xml.

If you need to have the response Content-Type as application/json please check Todd's answer below.

NameSpace is using System.Net.Http.Headers.

Related Solutions

Json – the correct JSON content type

For JSON text:

application/json

The MIME media type for JSON text is application/json. The default encoding is UTF-8. ^{(Source: RFC 4627)}

For JSONP (runnable JavaScript) with callback:

application/javascript

Here are some blog posts that were mentioned in the relevant comments:

Json – Posting a File and Associated Data to a RESTful WebService preferably as JSON

I asked a similar question here:

How do I upload a file with metadata using a REST web service?

You basically have three choices:

Base64 encode the file, at the expense of increasing the data size by around 33%, and add processing overhead in both the server and the client for encoding/decoding.
Send the file first in a multipart/form-data POST, and return an ID to the client. The client then sends the metadata with the ID, and the server re-associates the file and the metadata.
Send the metadata first, and return an ID to the client. The client then sends the file with the ID, and the server re-associates the file and the metadata.