Read and Parse JSON data from POST request in C#

Question

I'm doing a POST request via JQuery's Ajax, with the type of data defined as json, containing the values to be posted to server, something like Username: "Ali".

What I need to do in a Handler, is to read the values, deserialize them to an object named User.

String data = new System.IO.StreamReader(context.Request.InputStream).ReadToEnd();
User user = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<User>(data);

While debugging, the value of data is the following:

Username=Ali&Age=2....

Now I'm sure this isn't JSON, so the next line would certainly produce an error:

"Unexpected character encountered while parsing value: U. Path '', line 0, position 0."

What is the proper way to read JSON data from POST request?

Client Side

$.ajax({
    type: 'POST',
    url: "http://localhost:38504/DeviceService.ashx",
    dataType: 'json',
    data: {
      Username: 'Ali',
      Age: 2,
      Email: 'test'
    },
    success: function (data) {
    },
    error: function (error) {
    }
  });

Solution 1

Convert your object to json string:

$.ajax({
    type: 'POST',
    url: "http://localhost:38504/DeviceService.ashx",
    dataType: 'json',
    data: JSON.stringify({
      Username: 'Ali',
      Age: 2,
      Email: 'test'
    }),
    success: function (data) {
    },
    error: function (error) {
    }
  });

Solution 2

I am not sure why your datastring is encoded like an url (as it seems).

But this might solve the problem (altough i am not sure)

String data = new System.IO.StreamReader(context.Request.InputStream).ReadToEnd();
String fixedData = HttpServerUtility.UrlDecode(data);
User user = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<User>(fixedData);

Comments

[Ashok Damani]

post the string returning from that POST request.

[Ali Bassam]

@AshokDamani isn't it the value of data?

[Ali Bassam]

Well this is a full String, Username=Ali&Age=2&Email=test, same things repeating...

[Luke]

looks like your string is encoded like an url. Maybe if you pass it to an url decoder it might work (msdn.microsoft.com/de-de/library/6196h3wt%28v=vs.110%29.asp‌​x)

[Ali Bassam]

@Luke I added the jQuery part.