Return either xml or json from MVC web api based on request

Question

Given the following webapiconfig;

config.Routes.MapHttpRoute(
            name: "DefaultApi",
            routeTemplate: "api/{controller}/{id}",
            defaults: new { id = RouteParameter.Optional }
        );

and this controller;

  public class ProductsController : ApiController
    {
         Product[] _products = new Product[] 
        { 
            new Product { Id = 1, Name = "Tomato Soup", Category = "Groceries", Price = 1 }, 
            new Product { Id = 2, Name = "Yo-yo", Category = "Toys", Price = 3.75M }, 
            new Product { Id = 3, Name = "Hammer", Category = "Hardware", Price = 16.99M } 
        };

        public IEnumerable<Product> GetAllProducts()
        {
            return _products;
        }
    }

Using the URL http://localhost/api/Products I get a list of products in XML format.

What I would like to do is have the option to return either json or xml based on the request. So for json, it would be;

http://localhost/api/Products.json

and for XML, it would be;

http://localhost/api/Products.xml

likewise;

http://localhost/api/Products.json/1/
http://localhost/api/Products.xml/1/

Is this possible and how would I achieve this functionality?

An alternative would be something like;

http://localhost/api/json/Products/

Filip W · Accepted Answer · 2012-10-24 16:43:27Z

37

Yes you can achieve that with AddUriPathExtensionMapping

You can create routes like this:

routes.MapHttpRoute(
  name: "Api UriPathExtension",
  routeTemplate: "api/{controller}.{extension}/{id}",
  defaults: new { id = RouteParameter.Optional, extension = RouteParameter.Optional }
);

routes.MapHttpRoute(
  name: "Api UriPathExtension ID",
  routeTemplate: "api/{controller}/{id}.{extension}",
  defaults: new { id = RouteParameter.Optional, extension = RouteParameter.Optional }
);

Then you need to extend the formatters:

  config.Formatters.JsonFormatter.AddUriPathExtensionMapping("json", "application/json");
  config.Formatters.XmlFormatter.AddUriPathExtensionMapping("xml", "text/xml");

MAke sure to add reference to System.Net.Http.Formatting, as these methods are extension methods and intellisense won't see them by default.

Remember in this example, you still have to issue the request with the appropriate content-type. However, if you want to have these directly available via the browser address bar you can map to "text/html".

I wrote a blog post about all that a while ago - which should be helpful and take you into more details http://www.strathweb.com/2012/04/different-mediatypeformatters-for-same-mediaheadervalue-in-asp-net-web-api/

edited Oct 24, 2012 at 16:43

answered Oct 24, 2012 at 16:36

Filip W

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5 Comments

Kinexus Over a year ago

The routes seem to work, but the extension stuff doesn't do anything. I added these to global.asax, is this a problem?

MCattle Over a year ago

Chris, use {ext} instead of {extension}, because {ext} appears to be hard-coded to refer to the mapped formatter.

Luis Gouveia Over a year ago

Great thread. Like @MCattle said, Always remember: EXT instead of EXTENSION

mr. Over a year ago

is it possible to achive this with taking another parameter like format=xml or format=json

ManirajSS Over a year ago

how to use this to accept both formats(xml and json) for request?

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