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up vote 78 down vote favorite
18

My problem is that I wish to return camelCased (as opposed to the standard PascalCase) JSON data via ActionResults from ASP.NET MVC controller methods, serialized by JSON.NET.

As an example consider the following C# class:

public class Person
{
    public string FirstName { get; set; }
    public string LastName { get; set; }
}

By default, when returning an instance of this class from an MVC controller as JSON, it'll be serialized in the following fashion:

{
  "FirstName": "Joe",
  "LastName": "Public"
}

I would like it to be serialized (by JSON.NET) as:

{
  "firstName": "Joe",
  "lastName": "Public"
}

How do I do this?

share|improve this question
up vote 101 down vote

or, simply put:

JsonConvert.SerializeObject(
    <YOUR OBJECT>, 
    new JsonSerializerSettings 
    { 
        ContractResolver = new CamelCasePropertyNamesContractResolver() 
    });

For instance:

return new ContentResult
            {
                ContentType = "text/plain",
                Content = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(new { content = result, rows = dto }, new JsonSerializerSettings { ContractResolver = new CamelCasePropertyNamesContractResolver() }),
                ContentEncoding = Encoding.UTF8
            };
share|improve this answer
1  
This is more complex to use though, since you must configure a ContentResult for each controller method. – aknuds1 Mar 18 '14 at 15:11
1  
Yeah I understand that your answer was a reusable solution, my point is to make it more clear that it is only a parameter on the Serialize method. – WebDever Mar 18 '14 at 21:00
    
No, that's missing out on the big picture, which is to return camelCased data from controller methods. – aknuds1 Mar 18 '14 at 21:50
1  
If you're returning JSON from a Controller method, you probably should be using an ApiController, in which case this answer works great. – Simon Hartcher Jun 1 '15 at 9:15
1  
@SimonHartcher Consider the scope of the question though, not the general case. – aknuds1 Jun 25 '15 at 6:52
up vote 62 down vote accepted

I found an excellent solution to this problem on Mats Karlsson's blog. The solution is to write a subclass of ActionResult that serializes data via JSON.NET, configuring the latter to follow the camelCase convention:

public class JsonCamelCaseResult : ActionResult
{
    public JsonCamelCaseResult(object data, JsonRequestBehavior jsonRequestBehavior)
    {
        Data = data;
        JsonRequestBehavior = jsonRequestBehavior;
    }

    public Encoding ContentEncoding { get; set; }

    public string ContentType { get; set; }

    public object Data { get; set; }

    public JsonRequestBehavior JsonRequestBehavior { get; set; }

    public override void ExecuteResult(ControllerContext context)
    {
        if (context == null)
        {
            throw new ArgumentNullException("context");
        }
        if (JsonRequestBehavior == JsonRequestBehavior.DenyGet && String.Equals(context.HttpContext.Request.HttpMethod, "GET", StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase))
        {
            throw new InvalidOperationException("This request has been blocked because sensitive information could be disclosed to third party web sites when this is used in a GET request. To allow GET requests, set JsonRequestBehavior to AllowGet.");
        }

        var response = context.HttpContext.Response;

        response.ContentType = !String.IsNullOrEmpty(ContentType) ? ContentType : "application/json";
        if (ContentEncoding != null)
        {
            response.ContentEncoding = ContentEncoding;
        }
        if (Data == null)
            return;

        var jsonSerializerSettings = new JsonSerializerSettings
        {
            ContractResolver = new CamelCasePropertyNamesContractResolver()
        };
        response.Write(JsonConvert.SerializeObject(Data, jsonSerializerSettings));
    }
}

Then use this class as follows in your MVC controller method:

public ActionResult GetPerson()
{
    return new JsonCamelCaseResult(new Person { FirstName = "Joe", LastName = "Public" }, JsonRequestBehavior.AllowGet)};
}
share|improve this answer
2  
Perfect answer: clean and reusable! Thank you. – sander Mar 4 '15 at 20:45
up vote 23 down vote

For WebAPI, check out this link: http://odetocode.com/blogs/scott/archive/2013/03/25/asp-net-webapi-tip-3-camelcasing-json.aspx

Basically, add this code to your Application_Start:

var formatters = GlobalConfiguration.Configuration.Formatters;
var jsonFormatter = formatters.JsonFormatter;
var settings = jsonFormatter.SerializerSettings;
settings.ContractResolver = new CamelCasePropertyNamesContractResolver();
share|improve this answer
5  
This does not answer the question, which is about ASP.NET MVC controllers, not Web API. – aknuds1 Feb 5 '15 at 8:39
1  
You could post a corresponding question on ASP.NET Web API if there isn't one already, and add your answer to that instead. – aknuds1 Feb 5 '15 at 9:09
    
This does not provide an answer to the question. To critique or request clarification from an author, leave a comment below their post. – Stephen Byrne Feb 5 '15 at 14:26
3  
Your answer does not answer the question, it not being about Web API, so it can only confuse. It has nothing to do with being rude or polite. I also explained what would be the right approach. – aknuds1 Feb 8 '15 at 11:25
1  
Web API and MVC have been merged in ASP.NET 6 – AlexFoxGill Aug 14 '15 at 15:40
up vote 10 down vote

I think this is the simple answer you are looking for. It's from Shawn Wildermuth's blog:

// Add MVC services to the services container.
services.AddMvc()
  .AddJsonOptions(opts =>
  {
    opts.SerializerSettings.ContractResolver = new CamelCasePropertyNamesContractResolver();
  });
share|improve this answer
    
This is for Asp.Net 5. – Erik Hellström Jan 17 at 12:50
1  
My apologies, guys. I read through this posting too quickly. It is for ASP.NET 5. – Quantium Jan 24 at 11:18
6  
Ironically, I came here looking for an answer to the question you answered here, so while it wasn't the answer to the OP's question, it helped me anyway. Thanks! :) – porcus Mar 14 at 20:25
1  
I second what @porcus said! Thanks @Quantium! – Gromer Mar 30 at 20:47
1  
fyi For ASP.NET Core 1.0 it's camel case by default OOTB – Chris Marisic Jul 7 at 13:24
up vote 4 down vote

Below is an action method that returns a json string (cameCase) by serializing an array of objects.

public string GetSerializedCourseVms()
    {
        var courses = new[]
        {
            new CourseVm{Number = "CREA101", Name = "Care of Magical Creatures", Instructor ="Rubeus Hagrid"},
            new CourseVm{Number = "DARK502", Name = "Defence against dark arts", Instructor ="Severus Snape"},
            new CourseVm{Number = "TRAN201", Name = "Transfiguration", Instructor ="Minerva McGonal"}
        };
        var camelCaseFormatter = new JsonSerializerSettings();
        camelCaseFormatter.ContractResolver = new CamelCasePropertyNamesContractResolver();
        return JsonConvert.SerializeObject(courses, camelCaseFormatter);
    }

Note the JsonSerializerSettings instance passed as the second parameter. That's what makes the camelCase happen.

share|improve this answer
up vote 1 down vote

An alternative to the custom filter is to create an extension method to serialize any object to JSON.

public static class ObjectExtensions
{
    /// <summary>Serializes the object to a JSON string.</summary>
    /// <returns>A JSON string representation of the object.</returns>
    public static string ToJson(this object value)
    {
        var settings = new JsonSerializerSettings
        {
            ContractResolver = new CamelCasePropertyNamesContractResolver(),
            Converters = new List<JsonConverter> { new StringEnumConverter() }
        };

        return JsonConvert.SerializeObject(value, settings);
    }
}

Then call it when returning from the controller action.

return Content(person.ToJson(), "application/json");
share|improve this answer
up vote 1 down vote

In ASP.NET Core MVC.

    public IActionResult Foo()
    {
        var data = GetData();

        var settings = new JsonSerializerSettings 
        { 
            ContractResolver = new CamelCasePropertyNamesContractResolver() 
        });

        return Json(data, settings);
    }
share|improve this answer

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