Post JSON Array to WCF Rest Service Results in Empty Parameters. DataContract?

Question

I am attempting to create a restful web service in dotnet (VS 2012) that accepts a JSON list. There is this very helpful post.

Jquery Ajax Posting json to webservice

The example is spot on, but I need the DataContract sorted. Here is my problem:

Fiddler posts:

 { "Markers": [
 { "position": "128.3657142857143", "markerPosition": "7" },
 { "position": "235.1944023323615", "markerPosition": "19" },
 { "position": "42.5978231292517", "markerPosition": "-3" }
 ]};

In the VS2012 Debugger I see the equivalent:

 { "Markers": [
 { "position": "0", "markerPosition": "0" },
 { "position": "0", "markerPosition": "0" },
 { "position": "0", "markerPosition": "0" }
 ]};

Here is the code (straight from the linked example):

public class Marker
{
   decimal position { get; set; }
   int markerPosition { get; set; }
}

public string CreateMarkers(List<Marker> Markers)
{
   return "Received " + Markers.Count + " markers.";
}

Here is the contract:

[OperationContract]
[WebInvoke(UriTemplate = "Markers", Method = "POST", ResponseFormat =    WebMessageFormat.Json,
RequestFormat = WebMessageFormat.Json, BodyStyle = WebMessageBodyStyle.WrappedRequest)]
string CreateMarkers(List<Marker> Markers);

This other, equally wonderful, post explains that the datacontract needs to be set to see the parameter values:

WCF REST POST of JSON: Parameter is empty

My original question was what should the data contract be. I started with:

[OperationContract]
[WebInvoke(UriTemplate = "Markers", Method = "POST", ResponseFormat =           WebMessageFormat.Json,
RequestFormat = WebMessageFormat.Json, BodyStyle = WebMessageBodyStyle.WrappedRequest)]
string CreateMarkers(List<Marker> Markers);

After which the message structure comes through, but null content. Then, upon suggestion, I've tried:

[OperationContract]
[WebInvoke(UriTemplate = "Markers", Method = "POST", ResponseFormat =           WebMessageFormat.Json,
RequestFormat = WebMessageFormat.Json, BodyStyle = WebMessageBodyStyle.Bare)]
string CreateMarkers(List<Marker> Markers);

After which the message structure and the content were null.

 [OperationContract]
    [WebInvoke(UriTemplate = "WrappedMarkers", Method = "POST", ResponseFormat = WebMessageFormat.Json,
        RequestFormat = WebMessageFormat.Json, BodyStyle = WebMessageBodyStyle.WrappedRequest)]
    string WrappedMarkers(MarkerRequest wrappedmarkers);

 [DataContract]
  public class MarkerRequest
  {
    [DataMember]
    public List<Marker> Markers 
    { 
        get { return _markers; }
        set { _markers = value; } 
    }

   private List<Marker> _markers = new List<Marker>(); 
}


 public string WrappedMarkers(MarkerRequest wrappedmarkers)
    {
        return wrappedmarkers.Markers.ToString();
    }

Here is the operations contracted, changed to WrappedRequest

The structure was correct, but the content was again null.

Back to square one. I seem to be able to see the structure of the message. How do I get the content mapped to the structure?

Answer 1

As par my knowledge You getting '0' value because of you didn't set [DataContract] and [DataMember] attribute on your data class. After adding those attr, your class should be look like

[DataContract]
public class Marker
{
   [DataMember]
   decimal position { get; set; }
   [DataMember]
   int markerPosition { get; set; }
}