web-api POST body object always null

FromBody is a strange attribute in that the input POST values need to be in a specific format for the parameter to be non-null, when it is not a primitive type. (student here)

  1. Try your request with {"name":"John Doe", "age":18, "country":"United States of America"} as the json.
  2. Remove the [FromBody] attribute and try the solution. It should work for non-primitive types. (student)
  3. With the [FromBody] attribute, the other option is to send the values in =Value format, rather than key=value format. This would mean your key value of student should be an empty string...

There are also other options to write a custom model binder for the student class and attribute the parameter with your custom binder.


I was looking for a solution to my problem for some minutes now, so I'll share my solution.

When you have a custom constructor within your model, your model also needs to have an empty/default constructor. Otherwise the model can't be created, obviously. Be careful while refactoring.


I spend several hours with this issue... :( Getters and setters are REQUIRED in POST parameters object declaration. I do not recommend using simple data objects (string,int, ...) as they require special request format.

[HttpPost]
public HttpResponseMessage PostProcedure(EdiconLogFilter filter){
...
}

Does not work when:

public class EdiconLogFilter
{
    public string fClientName;
    public string fUserName;
    public string fMinutes;
    public string fLogDate;
}

Works fine when:

public class EdiconLogFilter
{
    public string fClientName { get; set; }
    public string fUserName { get; set; }
    public string fMinutes { get; set; }
    public string fLogDate { get; set; }
}