MediaTypeFormatter serialize enum string values in web api

Question

Consider this code:

public Gender Get()
{
    return Gender.Female;
}
public enum Gender
{
   Male,
   Female
}

This code is a Web API controller that returns Gender enum. When we use XmlTypeFormatter and call the method, it returns Male or Female. But when we use JsonTypeFormatter we get the value of enum, such as 1.

Why is it so?! and how can we get Female or Male from JsonTypeFormatter?

Answer 1

In your application start:

using Newtonsoft.Json;

protected void Application_Start()
{
   SerializeSettings(GlobalConfiguration.Configuration);

}

void SerializeSettings(HttpConfiguration config)
{
   JsonSerializerSettings jsonSetting = new JsonSerializerSettings();
   jsonSetting.Converters.Add(new Converters.StringEnumConverter());
   config.Formatters.JsonFormatter.SerializerSettings = jsonSetting;
}