Method with Dictionary Parameter in Asp.Net Web API

Question

I need to make a GET request to a method that contains Dictionary as a parameter. I browse through but could not find any kinds of information about how I could send Dictionary so my request hit to my method. Method signature is as like as below

public void AddItems(Dictionary<string,object> Items)

Best Regards,

Kemal

Answer 1

Did you read ASP.NET Wire Format for Model Binding to Arrays, Lists, Collections, Dictionaries

Answer 2

I wrote a ModelBinder that does exactly what you wanted:

public class DictionaryModelBinder : DefaultModelBinder
{
    private const string _dateTimeFormat = "dd/MM/yyyy HH:mm:ss";

    private enum StateMachine
    {
        NewSection,
        Key,
        Delimiter,
        Value,
        ValueArray
    }

    public override object BindModel(ControllerContext controllerContext, ModelBindingContext bindingContext)
    {
        var stream = controllerContext.HttpContext.Request.InputStream;
        string text;

        stream.Position = 0;
        using (var reader = new StreamReader(stream))
        {
            text = reader.ReadToEnd();
        }

        int index = 0;
        return Build(text, ref index);
    }

    private static Dictionary<string, object> Build(string text, ref int index)
    {
        var state = StateMachine.NewSection;
        var dictionary = new Dictionary<string, object>();
        var key = string.Empty;
        object value = string.Empty;

        for (; index < text.Length; ++index)
        {
            if (state == StateMachine.NewSection && text[index] == '{')
            {
                dictionary = new Dictionary<string, object>();
                state = StateMachine.NewSection;
            }
            else if (state == StateMachine.NewSection && text[index] == '"')
            {
                key = string.Empty;
                state = StateMachine.Key;
            }
            else if (state == StateMachine.Key && text[index] != '"')
            {
                key += text[index];
            }
            else if (state == StateMachine.Key && text[index] == '"')
            {
                state = StateMachine.Delimiter;
            }
            else if (state == StateMachine.Delimiter && text[index] == ':')
            {
                state = StateMachine.Value;
                value = string.Empty;
            }
            else if (state == StateMachine.Value && text[index] == '[')
            {
                state = StateMachine.ValueArray;
                value = value.ToString() + text[index];
            }
            else if (state == StateMachine.ValueArray && text[index] == ']')
            {
                state = StateMachine.Value;
                value = value.ToString() + text[index];
            }
            else if (state == StateMachine.Value && text[index] == '{')
            {
                value = Build(text, ref index);
            }
            else if (state == StateMachine.Value && text[index] == ',')
            {
                dictionary.Add(key, ConvertValue(value));
                state = StateMachine.NewSection;
            }
            else if (state == StateMachine.Value && text[index] == '}')
            {
                dictionary.Add(key, ConvertValue(value));
                return dictionary;
            }
            else if (state == StateMachine.Value || state == StateMachine.ValueArray)
            {
                value = value.ToString() + text[index];
            }
        }

        return dictionary;
    }

    private static object ConvertValue(object value)
    {
        string valueStr;
        if (value is Dictionary<string, object> || value == null || (valueStr = value.ToString()).Length == 0)
        {
            return value;
        }

        bool boolValue;
        if (bool.TryParse(valueStr, out boolValue))
        {
            return boolValue;
        }

        int intValue;
        if (int.TryParse(valueStr, out intValue))
        {
            return intValue;
        }

        double doubleValue;
        if (double.TryParse(valueStr, out doubleValue))
        {
            return doubleValue;
        }

        valueStr = valueStr.Trim('"');

        DateTime datetimeValue;
        if (DateTime.TryParseExact(valueStr, _dateTimeFormat, CultureInfo.InvariantCulture, DateTimeStyles.None, out datetimeValue))
        {
            return datetimeValue;
        }

        if (valueStr.First() == '[' && valueStr.Last() == ']')
        {
            valueStr = valueStr.Trim('[', ']');
            if (valueStr.Length > 0)
            {
                if (valueStr[0] == '"')
                {
                    return valueStr
                        .Split(new[] { '"' }, StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries)
                        .Where(x => x != ",")
                        .ToArray();
                }
                else
                {
                    return valueStr
                        .Split(',')
                        .Select(x => ConvertValue(x.Trim()))
                        .ToArray();
                }
            }
        }

        return valueStr;
    }
}

More explanations and full post you can see in my blog:

Json To Dictionary generic model binder