How do I return clean JSON from a WCF Service?

Question

I am trying to return some JSON from a WCF service. This service simply returns some content from my database. I can get the data. However, I am concerned about the format of my JSON. Currently, the JSON that gets returned is formatted like this:

{"d":"[{\"Age\":35,\"FirstName\":\"Peyton\",\"LastName\":\"Manning\"},{\"Age\":31,\"FirstName\":\"Drew\",\"LastName\":\"Brees\"},{\"Age\":29,\"FirstName\":\"Tony\",\"LastName\":\"Romo\"}]"}

In reality, I would like my JSON to be formatted as cleanly as possible. I believe (I may be incorrect), that the same collection of results, represented in clean JSON, should look like so:

[{
  "Age": 35,
  "FirstName": "Peyton",
  "LastName": "Manning"
}, {
  "Age": 31,
  "FirstName": "Drew",
  "LastName": "Brees"
}, {
  "Age": 29,
  "FirstName": "Tony",
  "LastName": "Romo"
}]

I have no idea where the “d” is coming from. I also have no clue why the escape characters are being inserted. My entity looks like the following:

[DataContract]
public class Person
{
    [DataMember]
    public string FirstName { get; set; }

    [DataMember]
    public string LastName { get; set; }

    [DataMember]
    public int Age { get; set; }

    public Person(string firstName, string lastName, int age)
    {
        this.FirstName = firstName;
        this.LastName = lastName;
        this.Age = age;
    }
}

The service that is responsible for returning the content is defined as:

[ServiceContract(Namespace = "")]
[AspNetCompatibilityRequirements(RequirementsMode = AspNetCompatibilityRequirementsMode.Allowed)]
public class TestService
{
    [OperationContract]
    [WebGet(ResponseFormat = WebMessageFormat.Json)]
    public string GetResults()
    {
        List<Person> results = new List<Person>();
        results.Add(new Person("Peyton", "Manning", 35));
        results.Add(new Person("Drew", "Brees", 31));
        results.Add(new Person("Tony", "Romo", 29));

        // Serialize the results as JSON
        DataContractJsonSerializer serializer = new DataContractJsonSerializer(results.GetType());
        MemoryStream memoryStream = new MemoryStream();
        serializer.WriteObject(memoryStream, results);

        // Return the results serialized as JSON
        string json = Encoding.Default.GetString(memoryStream.ToArray());
        return json;
    }
}

How do I return “clean” JSON from a WCF service? Thank you!

SOAP should return XML. You can use a REST endpoint to return JSON. Take a look stackoverflow.com/questions/186631/… — Akira Yamamoto
By the way, if anyone else comes across this and wonders why the "d" property is there, it's there to patch a JSON vulnerability. Removing it makes you vulnerable again. — Alex
@Alex - that Vulnerability depends on redefining the Array object, which is no longer possible in modern browsers. See stackoverflow.com/questions/16289894/… — Cheeso
That's good. :) Half my answer is still true though -- it WAS there to patch that vulnerability. — Alex

Cheeso Cheeso · Accepted Answer · 2010-01-18T23:26:33

Change the return type of your GetResults to be List<Person>.
Eliminate the code that you use to serialize the List to a json string - WCF does this for you automatically.

Using your definition for the Person class, this code works for me:

public List<Person> GetPlayers()
{
    List<Person> players = new List<Person>();
    players.Add(new  Person { FirstName="Peyton", LastName="Manning", Age=35 } );
    players.Add(new  Person { FirstName="Drew", LastName="Brees", Age=31 } );
    players.Add(new  Person { FirstName="Brett", LastName="Favre", Age=58 } );

    return players;
}

results:

[{"Age":35,"FirstName":"Peyton","LastName":"Manning"},  
 {"Age":31,"FirstName":"Drew","LastName":"Brees"},  
 {"Age":58,"FirstName":"Brett","LastName":"Favre"}]

(All on one line)

I also used this attribute on the method:

[WebInvoke(Method = "GET",
           RequestFormat = WebMessageFormat.Json,
           ResponseFormat = WebMessageFormat.Json,
           UriTemplate = "players")]

WebInvoke with Method= "GET" is the same as WebGet, but since some of my methods are POST, I use all WebInvoke for consistency.

The UriTemplate sets the URL at which the method is available. So I can do a GET on http://myserver/myvdir/JsonService.svc/players and it just works.

Also check out IIRF or another URL rewriter to get rid of the .svc in the URI.

How do I return clean JSON from a WCF Service?

6 Answers