Web API return XML

Question

I'm trying to display the returned data as xml, but it returns in plain text. I've this code:

context.Response.AddHeader("Content-Type", "text/xml");
context.Response.Write("<pre>" + HttpUtility.HtmlEncode(writer) + "</pre>");

I'am using this :

using (XmlTextWriter writer = new XmlTextWriter(context.Response.OutputStream, System.Text.Encoding.UTF8))
                            {

... write the xml

}

... and create the XML.

This is how I send: context.Response.Write("<pre>" + HttpUtility.HtmlEncode(writer) + "</pre>");

How can i return XML in RAW with tags and all?

What do you mean by trying to display? Is this in a browser? Please provide more information on your client, and expected results — Yishai Galatzer
– Yishai Galatzer, Commented May 9, 2014 at 15:22
yes it is that! it must be displayed in browser, like if you're calling an API and return the data in xml — Severiano
– Severiano, Commented May 9, 2014 at 15:24
Many browsers displays XML as plain text typically, so what's the issue? — Yishai Galatzer
– Yishai Galatzer, Commented May 9, 2014 at 15:25
So why do you add a <pre> etc. ? It's not a valid XML, just remove that line — Yishai Galatzer
– Yishai Galatzer, Commented May 9, 2014 at 15:27

Kiran · Accepted Answer · 2014-05-13 18:50:32Z

Honestly the right answer in Web API is to either do content negotiation as @LB2 is suggesting.

If we look at the way you are doing this there are a few things that are incorrect.

You are trying to use HttpContext.Current to write directly to the output, although this works it's not a recommended practice because your pretty much bypass the whole pipeline, and lose many potential benefits of Web API.
The following line:

context.Response.Write("<pre>" + HttpUtility.HtmlEncode(writer) + "</pre>");

Doesn't write any XML out, and basically makes the XML invalid. If you removed it things will start to seemingly work.

The real alternative is either to follow LB2's suggestion, though it's not very easy to suppress content negotiation for one action. Another (the official recommended) approach is to do the following.

public HttpResponseMessage GetOrder()
{
    // Sample object data
    Order order = new Order();
    order.Id = "A100";
    order.OrderedDate = DateTime.Now;
    order.OrderTotal = 150.00;

    // Explicitly override content negotiation and return XML
    return Request.CreateResponse<Order>(HttpStatusCode.OK, order, Configuration.Formatters.XmlFormatter);
}

See this link for more info: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/kiranchalla/archive/2012/02/25/content-negotiation-in-asp-net-mvc4-web-api-beta-part-1.aspx (Note: This is an old blog post and needs to be updated to latest version)

LB2 · Accepted Answer · 2014-05-09 15:21:06Z

1

HttpConfiguration.Formatters contains various formatters to serialize your model. Instead of writing directly to Response, consider your action to return a model or XDocument, and then make sure that you have XmlFormatter set in HttpConfiguration.Formatters to actually serialize it as XML.

edited May 9, 2014 at 15:21

answered May 9, 2014 at 15:05

LB2

4,86023 silver badges37 bronze badges

4 Comments

Yishai Galatzer Over a year ago

Your answer is referring to Web API, the question was about MVC

LB2 Over a year ago

@YishaiGalatzer Please see title of the post: "Web API return XML"

LB2 Over a year ago

@YishaiGalatzer That said, I did change tag to a wrong one, and just updated to use tag asp.net-web-api. That is a needed correction :)

Yishai Galatzer Over a year ago

Note that XML formatter is in the formatters collection by default. If you always want to display XML regardless of Accept header, you will need to remove the json formatter for this to work.

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Web API return XML

2 Answers 2

Comments

4 Comments

Your Answer

Linked

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

2 Answers 2

Comments

4 Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Linked

Related