ASP.NET Web API - pass a complex type from javascript json

Question

I have an ASP.NET Web API that accepts a POST with a UserModel in it:

[HttpPost]
public object Post(UserModel userModel)
{
    // some logic here
}

The UserModel is a complex type that looks like this:

public class UserModel
{
    public int Id { get; set; }
    public string FirstName { get; set; }
    public string LastName { get; set; }
    public AddressModel CurrentAddress { get; set; }
}

The AddressModel Model looks like this:

public class AddressModel
{
    public string Country { get; set; }
    public string City { get; set; }
    public string Street { get; set; }
    public string Number { get; set; }
}

I'm trying to call this API from javascript and send a JSON object. This is the JSON object I'm sending:

var user = {
    Id: 1,
    FirstName: 'Hello',
    LastName: 'World',
    CurrentAddress: {
        Country: 'Israel',
        City: 'Tel Aviv',
        Street: 'Shalom',
        Number: '5'
    }
};

What I get in my Post method is a UserModel with the UserModel fields filled with the correct information, the CurrentAddrent address is initialized, but the values sent are not there. The values of the parent object (the UserModel object are ok).

What am I doing wrong here? how can you send a complex object to WebAPI Model?

Answer 1

to receive complex data objects in MVC web API actions you have to add [FromBody] attribute to your POST arguments.

The [FromBody] tells the Web API to search for the parameter’s value in the body of a POST request.

 [HttpPost]
 public void Post([FromBody] UserModel userModel)
 {

 }

I've made a local test and I obtained the values.

I hope it helps!