Return JSON file with ASP.NET Web API

Question

I am trying to return a JSON file using ASP.NET Web API (for testing).

public string[] Get() {     string[] text = System.IO.File.ReadAllLines(@"c:\data.json");      return text; } 

In Fiddler this does appear as a Json type but when I debug in Chrome and view the object it appears as and array of individual lines (left). The right image is what the object should look like when I am using it.

Can anyone tell me what I should return to achieve a Json result in the correct format?

Answer 1

Does the file already has valid JSON in it? If so, instead of calling File.ReadAllLines you should call File.ReadAllText and get it as a single string. Then you need to parse it as JSON so that Web API can re-serialize it.

public object Get() {     string allText = System.IO.File.ReadAllText(@"c:\data.json");      object jsonObject = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject(allText);     return jsonObject; } 

This will:

1. Read the file as a string
2. Parse it as a JSON object into a CLR object
3. Return it to Web API so that it can be formatted as JSON (or XML, or whatever)