How to make GET request with a complex object?

Question

I try to make GET request via WebApi with complex object. Request is like this:

[HttpGet("{param1}/{param2}")]
public async Task<IActionResult> GetRequest(string param1, int param2, [FromBody] CustomObject[] obj)
{
    throw new NotImplementException();
}

Where CustomObject is:

[DataContract]
public class CustomeObject
{        
    [DataMember]
    public string Name { get; set; }
    [DataMember]
    public string Email { get; set; }
}

How do I compose a valid GET request?

Answer 1

[FromBody] CustomObject[] obj ... GET request has no message body and thus you should change it to FromUri.

Sure, take a look at Documentation

public class GeoPoint
{
    public double Latitude { get; set; } 
    public double Longitude { get; set; }
}

public ValuesController : ApiController
{
    public HttpResponseMessage Get([FromUri] GeoPoint location) { ... }
}

Request would be like below, essentially you pass the entire object data as query string

http://localhost/api/values/?Latitude=47.678558&Longitude=-122.130989

An array of object example can be found in another post pass array of an object to webapi

Answer 2

If your complex object is defined by the server, you can model bind to it through the URI and dot notate the properties in the routing template. My advice is to keep this model to one level of properties. You can bind to more complex objects, but you'll quickly find yourself having to write your own model binder.

Note that your argument decorator will need to be changed to [FromUri] to bind a complex object through the Uri. Servers are not required to support GET bodies and most do not.

public class CustomObject
{ 
    public string Name { get; set; }
    public string Email { get; set; }
}

[HttpGet]
[Route("{foo.Name}/{foo.Email}")]
public HttpResponseMessage Get([FromUri]CustomObject foo)
{
   //...body
  return Request.CreateResponse(HttpStatus.OK, foo);
}