webapi won't deserialize string array using $.param

Question

I am trying to call a ASP.NET WebAPI method and pass it a serialized JavaScript object over a GET request similar to a $.ajax POST request. It is working fine except for when the JavaScript object has a null value for Networks, then it sends it in the URL like /api/airings/get-airings?networks= and the server is showing the string[] as having a single item with a value of null! If I remove the network= it shows up as null on the server as I would expect.

So, it appears that people requested tickets in jQuery regarding this behavior, but I want to know what I can do without using a plugin or rewriting the $.param logic or messing with WebAPI ModelBinder.

http://bugs.jquery.com/ticket/8653

http://bugs.jquery.com/ticket/1814

public class ApiGetAiringsRequest
{
    public DateTime? DateStart { get; set; }
    public DateTime? DateFinish { get; set; }
    public string[] Networks { get; set; }
}

public HttpResponseMessage GetAirings([FromUri] ApiGetAiringsRequest request )
    ...

document.location.href = "/api/airings/get-airings?" + $.param(request);

Answer 1

so to work around this issue I changed the string array to a simple string, and do a .split on it.

var serialize = function(obj)
{
    var str = [];

    for (var p in obj)
    {
        if (obj[p])
            str.push(encodeURIComponent(p) + "=" + encodeURIComponent(obj[p]));
    }

    return str.join("&");
};

$.get('/api/airings/get-airings?' + serialize(request));

C#

var networks = (request.Networks??"").Split(',');