How to Post JSON data to a Web API using HttpClient

Question

I have the following code, basically it takes in a dynamic object (in this case of type file) and using the HTTPClient class tries to a POST to a WebAPI controller , the issue I am having is that the controller is always getting NULL for the values on my [FromBody] parameter.

Code

var obj = new
        {
            f = new File
            {
                Description = description,
                File64 = Convert.ToBase64String(fileContent),
                FileName = fileName,
                VersionName = versionName,
                MimeType = mimeType
            },
        }

var client = new HttpClient(signingHandler)
{
   BaseAddress = new Uri(baseURL + path) //In this case v1/document/checkin/12345
};

client.DefaultRequestHeaders.Accept.Clear();
client.DefaultRequestHeaders.Accept.Add(new MediaTypeWithQualityHeaderValue("application/json"));                        

HttpResponseMessage response;
action = Uri.EscapeUriString(action);

//Obj is passed into this, currently it is of type File 
var content = new StringContent(JsonConvert.SerializeObject(obj).ToString(),
            Encoding.UTF8, "application/json");

response = client.PostAsync(action, content)).Result;
if (response.IsSuccessStatusCode)
{     
    var responseContent = response.Content;                
    string responseString = responseContent.ReadAsStringAsync().Result;
    return JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<T>(responseString);
}

Controller

[HttpPost]
[Route("v1/document/checkin/{id:int}")]
public void Checkin_V1(int id, [FromBody] File f)
{
        //DO STUFF - f has null on all of its properties
}

Model

public class File
{
    public string FileName { get; set; }
    public string VersionName { get; set; }
    public string Description { get; set; }
    public string MimeType { get; set; }
    public byte[] Bytes { get; set;}
    public string File64 { get; set; }
}

The model is shared on both the WebAPI and the client app.

Any help on why this is failing would be much appreciated, been going around in circles for a while now.

Answer 1

Your obj right at the start isn't needed. That is nesting f inside another object.

var obj = new
    {
        f = new File
        {
            Description = description,
            File64 = Convert.ToBase64String(fileContent),
            FileName = fileName,
            VersionName = versionName,
            MimeType = mimeType
        },
    }

Change to

var f = new File
{
    Description = description,
    File64 = Convert.ToBase64String(fileContent),
    FileName = fileName,
    VersionName = versionName,
    MimeType = mimeType
};

Then just serialize f.

Answer 2

I think there is a problem on this part of your code

    var obj = new
    {
        f = new File
        {
            Description = description,
            File64 = Convert.ToBase64String(fileContent),
            FileName = fileName,
            VersionName = versionName,
            MimeType = mimeType
        },
    }

As this will be serialized differently from what you really needed. Try this instead

   var obj =  new File
        {
            Description = description,
            File64 = Convert.ToBase64String(fileContent),
            FileName = fileName,
            VersionName = versionName,
            MimeType = mimeType
        }