Return "raw" json in ASP.NET Core 2.0 Web Api

Question

The standard way AFAIK to return data in ASP.NET Core Web Api is by using IActionResult and providing e.g. an OkObject result. This works fine with objects, but what if I have obtained a JSON string somehow, and I just want to return that JSON back to the caller?

e.g.

public IActionResult GetSomeJSON()
{
    return Ok("{ \"name\":\"John\", \"age\":31, \"city\":\"New York\" }");
}

What ASP.NET Core does here is, it takes the JSON String, and wraps it into JSON again (e.g. it escapes the JSON)

Returning plain text with [Produces("text/plain")] does work by providing the "RAW" content, but it also sets the content-type of the response to PLAIN instead of JSON. We use [Produces("application/json")] on our Controllers.

How can I return the JSON that I have as a normal JSON content-type without it being escaped?

Note: It doesn't matter how the JSON string was aquired, it could be from a 3rd party service, or there are some special serialization needs so that we want to do custom serialization instead of using the default JSON.NET serializer.

@NevilleNazerane JSON sent as the return value (body), so no params involved. — MichelZ, Jan 19 '18 at 09:27

score 91 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 19 '18 at 08:34

91

And of course a few minutes after posting the question I stumble upon a solution :)

Just return Content with the content type application/json...

return Content("{ \"name\":\"John\", \"age\":31, \"city\":\"New York\" }", "application/json");

answered Jan 19 '18 at 08:34

MichelZ

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Better yet to return Json(your json goes here) as per https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/aspnet/core/web-api/advanced/formatting?view=aspnetcore-2.0 – Nickolodeon Nov 21 '18 at 08:25
1

This was hugely helpful - thank you! (If i return Json as per the above comment, then it returns it chunked which my client can't use.) Your solution of returning Content with a specification of application/json is what solved my problem. – bab Jan 07 '19 at 21:43
How do you do this for DotNetCore 2.1 ? The "Content" method is not recognized - so I believe they've changed something since. – MC9000 Feb 28 '19 at 21:43
@MC9000 You need ASPNetCore 2.1. NetCore2.1 is not enough. `Content` is a function of `Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.ControllerBase` – MichelZ Mar 01 '19 at 09:16
You may consider using [`MediaTypeNames.Application.Json`](https://stackoverflow.com/a/54650792) instead of `"application/json"` (for .NET Core 2.1+). – Pang May 15 '21 at 09:38

score 28 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 19 '18 at 08:34

28

In your action, replace Ok() with the Content() method, which lets you set the content (raw content), content type, and status code of your response: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/microsoft.aspnetcore.mvc.contentresult?view=aspnetcore-2.0

answered Jan 19 '18 at 08:34

Arash Motamedi

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This is great. I have a feeling that this changed between ASP.NET Core 2 and ASP.NET Core 1. – James Woodall Jun 02 '18 at 16:20
another day of hair pulling here too. Would love to see a working solution for DNCore 2.1! – MC9000 Feb 28 '19 at 21:44
@MC9000 You need ASPNetCore 2.1. NetCore2.1 is not enough. `Content` is a function of `Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.ControllerBase` – MichelZ Mar 01 '19 at 09:16

score 1 · Answer 3 · edited Jan 28 '21 at 18:29

1

This worked for me, where Json() did not:

return new JsonResult(json);

edited Jan 28 '21 at 18:29

Uwe Keim

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answered Dec 29 '20 at 08:22

Oliver Bock

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Return "raw" json in ASP.NET Core 2.0 Web Api

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