NodaTime ZonedDateTime error on serializing in ASP.NET Core controller

Question

I have an object as a body on POST request in my ASP.NET Core 8 application. The object is not serialized, and we found out that the property that is causing all is one with type ZonedDateTime and it has a value:

"completedTimestamp": "2023-05-18T14:39:55.303+02:00[Europe/Budapest]",

We are using Newtonsodt.Json library and configured the serializer settings as:

public static IMvcBuilder ConfigureApiBehaviorOptions(this IMvcBuilder builder)
{
    builder.AddNewtonsoftJson(options => 
    {
        var pattern = ZonedDateTimePattern.CreateWithInvariantCulture("yyyy'-'MM'-'dd'T'HH':'mm':'ss;FFFo<Z+HH:mm>'['z']'", DateTimeZoneProviders.Serialization);

        options.SerializerSettings.MissingMemberHandling = MissingMemberHandling.Ignore;
        options.SerializerSettings.DateParseHandling = DateParseHandling.None;
        options.SerializerSettings.Converters.Add(new NodaPatternConverter<ZonedDateTime>(pattern));
    });

    return builder;
}

When the request hits the controller my object is null, if I remove all properties of ZonedDateTime it got mapped.

If I try this with a a console app it works. My console app:

var pattern = ZonedDateTimePattern.CreateWithInvariantCulture(
        "yyyy'-'MM'-'dd'T'HH':'mm':'ss;FFFo<Z+HH:mm>'['z']'",
        DateTimeZoneProviders.Serialization
    );

var settings = new JsonSerializerSettings();
settings.DateParseHandling = DateParseHandling.None;
settings.Converters.Add(new NodaPatternConverter<ZonedDateTime>(pattern));

var json = "{\r\n\t\"completedTimestamp\": \"2023-05-18T14:39:55.303+02:00[Europe/Budapest]\"\r\n}";

var data = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<Data>(json, settings);

Answer 1

Below is sample code you could try:

Converters/ZonedDateTimeConverter.cs:

using Newtonsoft.Json;
using NodaTime;
using NodaTime.Text;
using System;

namespace NodaTimeSample.Converters
{
    public class ZonedDateTimeConverter : JsonConverter<ZonedDateTime>
    {
        private readonly ZonedDateTimePattern _pattern;

        public ZonedDateTimeConverter()
        {
            _pattern = ZonedDateTimePattern.CreateWithInvariantCulture(
                "yyyy'-'MM'-'dd'T'HH':'mm':'ss;FFFo<Z+HH:mm>'['z']'",
                DateTimeZoneProviders.Tzdb);
        }

        public override void WriteJson(JsonWriter writer, ZonedDateTime value, JsonSerializer serializer)
        {
            writer.WriteValue(_pattern.Format(value));
        }

        public override ZonedDateTime ReadJson(JsonReader reader, Type objectType, ZonedDateTime existingValue, bool hasExistingValue, JsonSerializer serializer)
        {
            var text = reader.Value?.ToString();
            Console.WriteLine($"Attempting to parse: {text}");
            var result = _pattern.Parse(text);

            if (result.Success)
            {
                return result.Value;
            }

            Console.WriteLine($"Failed to parse ZonedDateTime: {text}");
            throw new JsonSerializationException($"Invalid ZonedDateTime format: {text}");
        }
    }
}

Data.cs:

using NodaTime;

namespace NodaTimeSample.Models
{
    public class Data
    {
        public ZonedDateTime CompletedTimestamp { get; set; }
    }
}

MyController:

using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc;
using NodaTimeSample.Models;

namespace NodaTimeSample.Controllers
{
    [ApiController]
    [Route("[controller]")]
    public class MyController : ControllerBase
    {
        [HttpPost]
        public IActionResult Post([FromBody] Data data)
        {
            if (data == null)
            {
                Console.WriteLine("Data is null");
                return BadRequest("Data is null");
            }

            Console.WriteLine($"Received data: {data.CompletedTimestamp}");
            return Ok(data);
        }
    }
}

Program:

using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc;
using Newtonsoft.Json;
using NodaTime;
using NodaTime.Serialization.JsonNet;
using NodaTime.Text;
using NodaTimeSample.Converters;

var builder = WebApplication.CreateBuilder(args);

builder.Services.AddControllers()
        .AddNewtonsoftJson(options =>
        {
            var pattern = ZonedDateTimePattern.CreateWithInvariantCulture(
                "yyyy'-'MM'-'dd'T'HH':'mm':'ss;FFFo<Z+HH:mm>'['z']'",
                DateTimeZoneProviders.Serialization
            );

            options.SerializerSettings.MissingMemberHandling = MissingMemberHandling.Ignore;
            options.SerializerSettings.DateParseHandling = DateParseHandling.None;
            options.SerializerSettings.Converters.Add(new NodaPatternConverter<ZonedDateTime>(pattern));
        });


builder.Services.AddEndpointsApiExplorer();
builder.Services.AddSwaggerGen();

var app = builder.Build();

if (app.Environment.IsDevelopment())
{
    app.UseSwagger();
    app.UseSwaggerUI();
}

app.UseHttpsRedirection();
app.UseAuthorization();
app.MapControllers();
app.Run();

Result: