Dotnet 3.0.103 - JsonConvert.DeserializeObject expects well escaped string as opposed to a plain Json

Question

I am on Dotnet 3.0.103. I have exposed a webapi, that has a code defined like this,

[HttpPost]
        public string Post([FromBody] string data)
        {
            try
            {
            EmployeeRequest request = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<EmployeeRequest>(data);

Now, when I call the API from my postman, a normal json request body like this, does not work

{"EmployeeId": 3, "Name": "John"}

It throws an error like this,

{
    "errors": {
        "": [
            "Unexpected character encountered while parsing value: {. Path '', line 1, position 1."
        ]
    },
    "type": "https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc7231#section-6.5.1",
    "title": "One or more validation errors occurred.",
    "status": 400,
    "traceId": "|b9ea70ff-4ffda7ef1c244839."
}

Where as an escaped string as opposed to a Json body works fine,

 "{\"EmployeeId\": 3, \"Name\": \"John\"}"

I would like to make it work with just a plain json.

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks, Arun

Answer 1

ASP.Net's model binding can bind a JSON payload to your Action's parameters automatically. As such you should be able to do away with the manual deserialization:

[HttpPost]
public string Post([FromBody]EmployeeRequest request)
{
    // request should be properly populated