How to pass javascript complex object to ASP.NET Web Api and MVC

Shailendra Chauhan

Print 3 min read

04 Sep 2022

Advanced

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ASP.NET Web API is one of the most powerful recent addition to the ASP.NET framework. Sometimes, you have to post a form data using jQuery-JSON to Web API or MVC method, which have so many input fields. Passing each and every input field data as a separate parameter is not good practice, even when you have a strongly typed-view. The best practice is, pass a complex type object for all the input fields to the server-side to remove complexity.

In this article, I am going to explain to you how can you pass complex types object to the Web API and MVC method to remove complexity at the server-side and make it simple and useful.

Model Classes

Suppose you have the following Product class and repository for a product.

public class Product
{
 public int Id { get; set; }
 public string Name { get; set; }
 public string Category { get; set; }
 public decimal Price { get; set; }
}

 interface IProductRepository
{
 Product Add(Product item);
 //To Do : Some Stuff
}

public class ProductRepository : IProductRepository
{
 private List<Product> products = new List<Product>();
 private int _nextId = 1;

 public ProductRepository()
 {
 // Add products for the Demonstration
 Add(new Product { Name = "Computer", Category = "Electronics", Price = 23.54M });
 Add(new Product { Name = "Laptop", Category = "Electronics", Price = 33.75M });
 Add(new Product { Name = "iPhone4", Category = "Phone", Price = 16.99M });
 }

 public Product Add(Product item)
 {
 if (item == null)
 {
 throw new ArgumentNullException("item");
 }
 
 // TO DO : Code to save record into database
 item.Id = _nextId++;
 products.Add(item);

 return item;
 }
 //To Do : Some Stuff
}

View (Product.cshtml)

<script type="text/javascript">
//Add New Item by Web API
$("#Save").click(function () {

 //Making complex type object
 var Product = {
 Id: "0",
 Name: $("#Name").val(),
 Price: $("#Price").val(),
 Category: $("#Category").val()
 };
 
 if (Product.Name != "" && Product.Price != "" && Product.Category != "") {
 //Convert javascript object to JSON object
 var DTO = JSON.stringify(Product);
 $.ajax({
 url: 'api/product', //calling Web API controller product
 cache: false,
 type: 'POST',
 contentType: 'application/json; charset=utf-8',
 data: DTO,
 dataType: "json",
 success: function (data) {
 alert('added');
 }
 }).fail(
 function (xhr, textStatus, err) {
 alert(err);
 });

 }
 else {
 alert('Please Enter All the Values !!');
 }

});

</script> 
<div>
 <div>
 <h2>Add New Product</h2>
 </div>
 <div>
 <label for="name">Name</label>
 <input type="text" id="Name" title="Name" />
 </div>

 <div>
 <label for="category">Category</label>
 <input type="text" id="Category" title="Category" />
 </div>

 <div>
 <label for="price">Price</label>
 <input type="text" id="Price" title="Price" />
 </div>
 <br />
 <div>
 <button id="Save">Save</button>
 <button id="Reset">Reset</button>
 </div>
</div>

Web API Controller

public class ProductController : ApiController
{
 static readonly IProductRepository repository = new ProductRepository();
 public Product PostProduct(Product item)
 {
 return repository.Add(item);
 }
}

How it works?

The same thing you have to done with MVC while calling MVC controller method using jQuery-JSON.

What do you think?

I hope you will enjoy the tips while playing with Asp.Net Web API and MVC. I would like to have feedback from my blog readers. Your valuable feedback, question, or comments about this article are always welcome.