WCF RESTful passing JSON Datetime always null

Question

I use .NET WCF + RESTful for developing the service and WizTools.org RESTClient for tesing. I have a problem about receiving JSON datetime from the client. They are always DateTime.MinValue.

Here is my DataContract

   [DataContract(Name = "origin")]
        public class OriginObject
        {
            [DataMember(Name = "airport")]
            public string Airport { get; set; }

            [DataMember(Name = "oddt")]
            public DateTime Oddt { get; set; }

            [DataMember(Name = "eddt")]
            public DateTime Eddt { get; set; }
        }

        [DataContract(Name = "destination")]
        public class DestinationObject
        {
            [DataMember(Name = "airport")]
            public string Airport { get; set; }

            [DataMember(Name = "odat")]
            public DateTime Odat { get; set; }

            [DataMember(Name = "edat")]
            public DateTime Edat { get; set; }
        }

and here is my testing JSON (please ignore "acid", just only "destination" and "origin")

{
    "acid" : "AAA1",
    "destination" : {
        "airport" : "VVVV",
        "eddt" : "2013-03-05T20:20:31.000Z",
        "oddt" : "/Date(1362489941)/"
    },
    "flightPlanState" : "ACTIVE",
    "origin" : {
        "airport" : "XXXX",
        "edat" : "\/Date(1362499081)\/",
        "odat" : "1362498721"
    }
}

all of 4 datetime styles above are min-value in code-behind (just only datetime, both "airport" fields have normal values).

Answer 1

DateTime is not well defined with Json, though the "eddt" value looks like a value which ought to be parsable by a common .Net Json serializer.

My suggestion is to use string properties, and add extra GetOddt() etc. functions which parse the string values to DateTime values; if required, add also SetOddt() etc. functions, and do not forget to update the corresponding string values!