Web API 2: how to return JSON with camelCased property names, on objects and their sub-objects

Question

UPDATE

Thanks for all the answers. I am on a new project and it looks like I've finally got to the bottom of this: It looks like the following code was in fact to blame:

public static HttpResponseMessage GetHttpSuccessResponse(object response, HttpStatusCode code = HttpStatusCode.OK) {     return new HttpResponseMessage()     {         StatusCode = code,         Content = response != null ? new JsonContent(response) : null     }; } 

elsewhere...

public JsonContent(object obj) {     var encoded = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(obj, Newtonsoft.Json.Formatting.None, new JsonSerializerSettings { NullValueHandling = NullValueHandling.Ignore } );     _value = JObject.Parse(encoded);      Headers.ContentType = new MediaTypeHeaderValue("application/json"); } 

I had overlooked the innocuous looking JsonContent assuming it was WebAPI but no.

This is used everywhere... Can I just be the first to say, wtf? Or perhaps that should be "Why are they doing this?"

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original question follows

One would have thought this would be a simple config setting, but it's eluded me for too long now.

I have looked at various solutions and answers:

https://gist.github.com/rdingwall/2012642

doesn't seem to apply to latest WebAPI version...

The following doesn't seem to work - property names are still PascalCased.

var json = GlobalConfiguration.Configuration.Formatters.JsonFormatter;  json.UseDataContractJsonSerializer = true; json.SerializerSettings.NullValueHandling = Newtonsoft.Json.NullValueHandling.Ignore;  json.SerializerSettings.ContractResolver = new CamelCasePropertyNamesContractResolver();  

Mayank's answer here: CamelCase JSON WebAPI Sub-Objects (Nested objects, child objects) seemed like an unsatisfactory but workable answer until I realised these attributes would have to be added to generated code as we are using linq2sql...

Any way to do this automatically? This 'nasty' has plagued me for a long time now.

Answer 1

Putting it all together you get...

protected void Application_Start() {     HttpConfiguration config = GlobalConfiguration.Configuration;     config.Formatters.JsonFormatter.SerializerSettings.ContractResolver = new CamelCasePropertyNamesContractResolver();     config.Formatters.JsonFormatter.UseDataContractJsonSerializer = false; }