WebAPI to Return XML

user_408137 0
Viewed 151868

I'm wanting my WEB API method to return an XML object back to the calling application. Currently it's just returning the XML as a string object. Is this a no no? If so how do you tell the webapi get method that it's returning an object of type XML?

Thanks

Edit: An example of the Get method:

[AcceptVerbs("GET")]
public HttpResponseMessage Get(int tenantID, string dataType, string ActionName)
{
   List<string> SQLResult = MyWebSite_DataProvidor.DB.spReturnXMLData
            ("SELECT * FROM vwContactListing FOR XML AUTO, ELEMENTS").ToList();
   string AllResults = "";
   for (int i = 0; i < SQLResult.Count - 1; i++)
   {
       AllResults += SQLResult[i];
   }
    string sSyncData = "<?xml version=\"1.0\"?> " + AllResults;
    HttpResponseMessage response = new HttpResponseMessage();
    response.Content = new StringContent(sSyncData);
    return response;          
}

Its a bit hacky because im still at the prototyping stage. Will refactor when i can prove its doable.

asp.net-web-api asp.net-mvc asp.net
5 Answers

In my project with netcore 2.2 I use this code:

[HttpGet]
[Route( "something" )]
public IActionResult GetSomething()
{
    string payload = "Something";

    OkObjectResult result = Ok( payload );

    // currently result.Formatters is empty but we'd like to ensure it will be so in the future
    result.Formatters.Clear();

    // force response as xml
    result.Formatters.Add( new Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Formatters.XmlSerializerOutputFormatter() );

    return result;
}

It forces only one action within a controller to return a xml without effect to other actions. Also this code doesn't contain neither HttpResponseMessage or StringContent or ObjectContent which are disposable objects and hence should be handled appropriately (it is especially a problem if you use any of code analyzers that reminds you about it).

Going further you could use a handy extension like this:

public static class ObjectResultExtensions
{
    public static T ForceResultAsXml<T>( this T result )
        where T : ObjectResult
    {
        result.Formatters.Clear();
        result.Formatters.Add( new Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Formatters.XmlSerializerOutputFormatter() );

        return result;
    }
}

And your code will become like this:

[HttpGet]
[Route( "something" )]
public IActionResult GetSomething()
{
    string payload = "Something";

    return Ok( payload ).ForceResultAsXml();
}

In addition, this solution looks like an explicit and clean way to force return as xml and it is easy to add to your existent code.

P.S. I used fully-qualified name Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Formatters.XmlSerializerOutputFormatter just to avoid ambiguity.

user_124094960
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