JavaScriptSerializer not deserializing DateTime/TimeSpan Properly

Question

Having a problem where DateTime/TimeSpan doesn't seem to deserialize properly with JavaScriptSerializer. When I get the Object back after deserializing the TimeSpan is empty and if I use DateTime then the times are all out of whack. Did find this article but it didn't really help me too much. http://www.west-wind.com/weblog/ShowPost.aspx?id=471402

Anyone have any ideas? Should I maybe try the json.net library?

public class JsonFilter : ActionFilterAttribute
{
    public string Param { get; set; }
    public Type JsonDataType { get; set; }
    public override void OnActionExecuting(ActionExecutingContext filterContext)
    {
        if (filterContext.HttpContext.Request.ContentType.Contains("application/json"))
        {
            string inputContent;
            using (var sr = new StreamReader(filterContext.HttpContext.Request.InputStream))
            {
                inputContent = sr.ReadToEnd();
            }

            JavaScriptSerializer serializer = new JavaScriptSerializer();
            var result = serializer.Deserialize(inputContent, JsonDataType);
            filterContext.ActionParameters[Param] = result;
        }
    }
}

public class RosterItem
{
    public RosterItem()
    {
        comments = new List<Form.Comment>();
    }
    public Boolean dirty { get; set; }
    public int id { get; set; }
    public int staffId { get; set; }
    public String description { get; set; }
    public int activityId { get; set; }
    public DateTime date { get; set; }
    public TimeSpan startTime { get; set; }
    public TimeSpan endTime { get; set; }
    public List<Form.Comment> comments { get; set; }
}

    [JsonFilter(Param = "rosterItem", JsonDataType = typeof(RosterItem))]
    public int SaveRosterEntry(RosterItem rosterItem)
    {
        RosterEntry rosterEntry = rosterEntryRepository.GetRosterEntry(rosterItem.id);
        if (rosterEntry == null)
        {
            rosterEntry = new RosterEntry();
            rosterEntryRepository.Add(rosterEntry);
        }
        rosterEntry.ActivityID = rosterItem.activityId;
        rosterEntry.StartTime = rosterItem.startTime;
        rosterEntry.EndTime = rosterItem.endTime;
        rosterEntry.RosterDate = rosterItem.date;
        rosterEntry.RosterEmployeeID = rosterItem.staffId;            
        rosterEntryRepository.Save();
        return rosterEntry.RosterEntryID;
    }

Answer 1

This will fix your issue if you ever have the same problem.

http://blog.devarchive.net/2008/02/serializing-datetime-values-using.html

All DateTime objects need to be specified explicitly as UTC.