I have a DateTime datamember in a datacontract. By default the datacontractserializer serializes the UTC time to yyyy-MM-ddTHH:mm:ss.fffffffZ
format. I need it in yyyy-MM-ddTHH:mm:ss.000Z
format but have no control over the datacontracts. So is there anything I can do with the DataContractSerializer that would give me the UTC time in the format I want. Thanks
Microsoft uses Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) format, an international standard 24-hour timekeeping system, to document the created dates and times of files that are included in a software update.
ToUniversalTime() Method in C# This method is used to convert the value of the current DateTime object to Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).
To convert a JavaScript date object to a UTC string: Use the toUTCString() method of the Date object. The toUTCString() method converts a date to a string using the universal time zone.
For serializing, you can use the DateTime(Offset). ToString method in your converter write logic. This allows you to write DateTime and DateTimeOffset values using any of the standard date and time formats, and the custom date and time formats.
I've created an implementation that uses an implementation of the IDataContractSurrogate to serialize your DTO's with DTO's you own.
You didn't provide DTO's so I've created one to be your original DTO (that you can't change) and one replacement DTO that we own. They will have the same public signature, except their DateTime properties are changed to String types.
/// <summary>
/// original DTO, is fixed
/// </summary>
[DataContract]
class DTO
{
[DataMember]
public DateTime FirstDate { get; set; }
}
/// <summary>
/// Our own DTO, will act as surrogate
/// </summary>
[DataContract(Name="DTO")]
class DTO_UTC
{
[DataMember]
public string FirstDate { get; set; }
}
The IDataContractSurrogate provides the methods needed to substitute one type for another during serialization and deserialization.
I used simple reflection here. If you need better performance look into emiting generated code between the types or even generate the target types.
public class DTOTypeSurrogate : IDataContractSurrogate
{
// this determines how you want to replace one type with the other
public Type GetDataContractType(Type type)
{
if (type == typeof(DTO))
{
return typeof(DTO_UTC);
}
return type;
}
public object GetDeserializedObject(object obj, Type targetType)
{
// do we know this type
if (targetType == typeof(DTO))
{
// find each DateTime prop and copy over
var objType = obj.GetType();
var target = Activator.CreateInstance(targetType);
foreach(var prop in targetType.GetProperties())
{
// value comes in
var src = objType.GetProperty(prop.Name);
// do we need special handling
if (prop.PropertyType == typeof(DateTime))
{
DateTime utcConvert;
// parse to a datetime
if (DateTime.TryParse(
(string) src.GetValue(obj),
System.Globalization.CultureInfo.InvariantCulture,
System.Globalization.DateTimeStyles.AdjustToUniversal,
out utcConvert))
{
// store
prop.SetValue(target, utcConvert);
}
}
else
{
// store non DateTime types
prop.SetValue(target, src);
}
}
return target;
}
return obj;
}
public object GetObjectToSerialize(object obj, Type targetType)
{
// go from DTO to DTO_UTC
if (targetType == typeof(DTO_UTC))
{
var utcObj = Activator.CreateInstance(targetType);
var objType = obj.GetType();
// find our DateTime props
foreach(var prop in objType.GetProperties())
{
var src = prop.GetValue(obj);
if (prop.PropertyType == typeof(DateTime))
{
// create the string
var dateUtc = (DateTime)src;
var utcString = dateUtc.ToString(
"yyyy-MM-ddThh:mm:ss.000Z",
System.Globalization.CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
// store
targetType.GetProperty(prop.Name).SetValue(utcObj, utcString);
} else
{
// normal copy
targetType.GetProperty(prop.Name).SetValue(utcObj, src);
}
}
return utcObj;
}
// unknown types return the original obj
return obj;
}
// omitted the other methods in the interfaces for brevity
}
Here we create the DataContractSerializer and provide it with an instantiated DTO and after serialization we reverse the process to check if the result is the same.
var surrogateSerializer =
new DataContractSerializer(
typeof(DTO),
new Type[] {},
Int16.MaxValue,
false,
true,
new DTOTypeSurrogate()); // here we provide our own implementation
var ms = new MemoryStream();
// test data
var testDto = new DTO {
FirstDate = new DateTime(2015, 12, 31, 4, 5, 6, DateTimeKind.Utc) };
// serialize
surrogateSerializer.WriteObject(ms, testDto);
// debug
var wireformat = Encoding.UTF8.GetString(ms.ToArray());
//reset
ms.Position = 0;
//deserialize
var dtoInstance = (DTO) surrogateSerializer.ReadObject(ms);
// verify we have the same data returned
Debug.Assert(dtoInstance.FirstDate == testDto.FirstDate);
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