[c#] ASP.NET Core return JSON with status code

I'm looking for the correct way to return JSON with a HTTP status code in my .NET Core Web API controller. I use to use it like this:

public IHttpActionResult GetResourceData()
{
    return this.Content(HttpStatusCode.OK, new { response = "Hello"});
}

This was in a 4.6 MVC application but now with .NET Core I don't seem to have this IHttpActionResult I have ActionResult and using like this:

public ActionResult IsAuthenticated()
{
    return Ok(Json("123"));
}

But the response from the server is weird, as in the image below:

I just want the Web API controller to return JSON with a HTTP status code like I did in Web API 2.

With ASP.NET Core 2.0, the ideal way to return object from Web API (which is unified with MVC and uses same base class Controller) is

public IActionResult Get()
{
    return new OkObjectResult(new Item { Id = 123, Name = "Hero" });
}

Notice that

1. It returns with 200 OK status code (it's an Ok type of ObjectResult)
2. It does content negotiation, i.e. it'll return based on Accept header in request. If Accept: application/xml is sent in request, it'll return as XML. If nothing is sent, JSON is default.

If it needs to send with specific status code, use ObjectResult or StatusCode instead. Both does the same thing, and supports content negotiation.

return new ObjectResult(new Item { Id = 123, Name = "Hero" }) { StatusCode = 200 };
return StatusCode( 200, new Item { Id = 123, Name = "Hero" });

or even more fine grained with ObjectResult:

 Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Formatters.MediaTypeCollection myContentTypes = new Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Formatters.MediaTypeCollection { System.Net.Mime.MediaTypeNames.Application.Json };
 String hardCodedJson = "{\"Id\":\"123\",\"DateOfRegistration\":\"2012-10-21T00:00:00+05:30\",\"Status\":0}";
 return new ObjectResult(hardCodedJson) { StatusCode = 200, ContentTypes = myContentTypes };

If you specifically want to return as JSON, there are couple of ways

//GET http://example.com/api/test/asjson
[HttpGet("AsJson")]
public JsonResult GetAsJson()
{
    return Json(new Item { Id = 123, Name = "Hero" });
}

//GET http://example.com/api/test/withproduces
[HttpGet("WithProduces")]
[Produces("application/json")]
public Item GetWithProduces()
{
    return new Item { Id = 123, Name = "Hero" };
}

Notice that

1. Both enforces JSON in two different ways.
2. Both ignores content negotiation.
3. First method enforces JSON with specific serializer Json(object).
4. Second method does the same by using Produces() attribute (which is a ResultFilter) with contentType = application/json

Read more about them in the official docs. Learn about filters here.

The simple model class that is used in the samples

public class Item
{
    public int Id { get; set; }
    public string Name { get; set; }
}

The easiest way I came up with is :

var result = new Item { Id = 123, Name = "Hero" };

return new JsonResult(result)
{
    StatusCode = StatusCodes.Status201Created // Status code here 
};

I got this to work. My big issue was my json was a string (in my database...and not a specific/known Type).

Ok, I finally got this to work.

////[Route("api/[controller]")]
////[ApiController]
////public class MyController: Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.ControllerBase
////{
                    //// public IActionResult MyMethod(string myParam) {

                    string hardCodedJson = "{}";
                    int hardCodedStatusCode = 200;

                    Newtonsoft.Json.Linq.JObject job = Newtonsoft.Json.Linq.JObject.Parse(hardCodedJson);
                    /* "this" comes from your class being a subclass of Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.ControllerBase */
                    Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.ContentResult contRes = this.Content(job.ToString());
                    contRes.StatusCode = hardCodedStatusCode;

                    return contRes;

                    //// } ////end MyMethod
              //// } ////end class

I happen to be on asp.net core 3.1

#region Assembly Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Core, Version=3.1.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=adb9793829ddae60
//C:\Program Files\dotnet\packs\Microsoft.AspNetCore.App.Ref\3.1.0\ref\netcoreapp3.1\Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Core.dll

I got the hint from here :: https://www.jianshu.com/p/7b3e92c42b61

Please refer below code, You can manage multiple status code with different type JSON

public async Task<HttpResponseMessage> GetAsync()
{
    try
    {
        using (var entities = new DbEntities())
        {
            var resourceModelList = entities.Resources.Select(r=> new ResourceModel{Build Your Resource Model}).ToList();

            if (resourceModelList.Count == 0)
            {
                return this.Request.CreateResponse<string>(HttpStatusCode.NotFound, "No resources found.");
            }

            return this.Request.CreateResponse<List<ResourceModel>>(HttpStatusCode.OK, resourceModelList, "application/json");
        }
    }
    catch (Exception ex)
    {
        return this.Request.CreateResponse<string>(HttpStatusCode.InternalServerError, "Something went wrong.");
    }
}

Instead of using 404/201 status codes using enum

     public async Task<IActionResult> Login(string email, string password)
    {
        if (string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(email) || string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(password))
        { 
            return StatusCode((int)HttpStatusCode.BadRequest, Json("email or password is null")); 
        }

        var user = await _userManager.FindByEmailAsync(email);
        if (user == null)
        {
            return StatusCode((int)HttpStatusCode.BadRequest, Json("Invalid Login and/or password"));

        }
        var passwordSignInResult = await _signInManager.PasswordSignInAsync(user, password, isPersistent: true, lockoutOnFailure: false);
        if (!passwordSignInResult.Succeeded)
        {
            return StatusCode((int)HttpStatusCode.BadRequest, Json("Invalid Login and/or password"));
        }
        return StatusCode((int)HttpStatusCode.OK, Json("Sucess !!!"));
    }

The cleanest solution I have found is to set the following in my ConfigureServices method in Startup.cs (In my case I want the TZ info stripped. I always want to see the date time as the user saw it).

   services.AddControllers()
                .AddNewtonsoftJson(o =>
                {
                    o.SerializerSettings.DateTimeZoneHandling = DateTimeZoneHandling.Unspecified;
                });

The DateTimeZoneHandling options are Utc, Unspecified, Local or RoundtripKind

I would still like to find a way to be able to request this on a per-call bases.

something like

  static readonly JsonMediaTypeFormatter _jsonFormatter = new JsonMediaTypeFormatter();
 _jsonFormatter.SerializerSettings = new JsonSerializerSettings()
                {DateTimeZoneHandling = DateTimeZoneHandling.Unspecified};

return Ok("Hello World", _jsonFormatter );

I am converting from ASP.NET and there I used the following helper method

public static ActionResult<T> Ok<T>(T result, HttpContext context)
    {
        var responseMessage = context.GetHttpRequestMessage().CreateResponse(HttpStatusCode.OK, result, _jsonFormatter);
        return new ResponseMessageResult(responseMessage);
    }

This is my easiest solution:

public IActionResult InfoTag()
{
    return Ok(new {name = "Fabio", age = 42, gender = "M"});
}

or

public IActionResult InfoTag()
{
    return Json(new {name = "Fabio", age = 42, gender = "M"});
}

Controller action return types in ASP.NET Core web API 02/03/2020

6 minutes to read +2

By Scott Addie Link

Synchronous action

[HttpGet("{id}")]
[ProducesResponseType(StatusCodes.Status200OK)]
[ProducesResponseType(StatusCodes.Status404NotFound)]
public ActionResult<Product> GetById(int id)
{
    if (!_repository.TryGetProduct(id, out var product))
    {
        return NotFound();
    }

    return product;
}

Asynchronous action

[HttpPost]
[Consumes(MediaTypeNames.Application.Json)]
[ProducesResponseType(StatusCodes.Status201Created)]
[ProducesResponseType(StatusCodes.Status400BadRequest)]
public async Task<ActionResult<Product>> CreateAsync(Product product)
{
    if (product.Description.Contains("XYZ Widget"))
    {
        return BadRequest();
    }

    await _repository.AddProductAsync(product);

    return CreatedAtAction(nameof(GetById), new { id = product.Id }, product);
}

What I do in my Asp Net Core Api applications it is to create a class that extends from ObjectResult and provide many constructors to customize the content and the status code. Then all my Controller actions use one of the costructors as appropiate. You can take a look at my implementation at: https://github.com/melardev/AspNetCoreApiPaginatedCrud

and

https://github.com/melardev/ApiAspCoreEcommerce

here is how the class looks like(go to my repo for full code):

public class StatusCodeAndDtoWrapper : ObjectResult
{



    public StatusCodeAndDtoWrapper(AppResponse dto, int statusCode = 200) : base(dto)
    {
        StatusCode = statusCode;
    }

    private StatusCodeAndDtoWrapper(AppResponse dto, int statusCode, string message) : base(dto)
    {
        StatusCode = statusCode;
        if (dto.FullMessages == null)
            dto.FullMessages = new List<string>(1);
        dto.FullMessages.Add(message);
    }

    private StatusCodeAndDtoWrapper(AppResponse dto, int statusCode, ICollection<string> messages) : base(dto)
    {
        StatusCode = statusCode;
        dto.FullMessages = messages;
    }
}

Notice the base(dto) you replace dto by your object and you should be good to go.

Awesome answers I found here and I also tried this return statement see StatusCode(whatever code you wish) and it worked!!!

return Ok(new {
                    Token = new JwtSecurityTokenHandler().WriteToken(token),
                    Expiration = token.ValidTo,
                    username = user.FullName,
                    StatusCode = StatusCode(200)
                });

You have predefined methods for most common status codes.

• Ok(result) returns 200 with response
• CreatedAtRoute returns 201 + new resource URL
• NotFound returns 404
• BadRequest returns 400 etc.

See BaseController.cs and Controller.cs for a list of all methods.

But if you really insist you can use StatusCode to set a custom code, but you really shouldn't as it makes code less readable and you'll have to repeat code to set headers (like for CreatedAtRoute).

public ActionResult IsAuthenticated()
{
    return StatusCode(200, "123");
}