POST gets null value - asp.net

Question

I don't know the exact format of the incoming JSON and have no control of it. I eventually need an object to match the incoming JSON format.
My thought was to treat it as a string and write it to a file, whatever format it is, so I can examine it and create an object to match.
From Fiddler, I'm sending this:
URL: https://localhost:44351/api/values
Headers
User-Agent: Fiddler
Host: localhost:44351
Content-Length: 13
Content-Type: application/json
Body
{name='test'}
'Get' works and returns properly. 'Post' gets called but when I debug it, it gets a null value for the string.
It creates the file but, understandably, it is empty.
public class ValuesController: ApiController
{
public string Get(int id)
{
return "value=" + id.ToString();
}
public IHttpActionResult Post([FromBody] string value)
{
File.WriteAllText(#"C:\temp\Import.txt", value);
return Ok();
}
or
public IHttpActionResult Post([FromBody] GenericText value)
{
File.WriteAllText(#"C:\temp\Import.txt", value.Name);
return Ok();
}
public class GenericText
{
public string Name { get; set; }
}
Routing
public static void RegisterRoutes(RouteCollection routes)
{
routes.IgnoreRoute("{resource}.axd/{*pathInfo}");
routes.MapRoute(
name: "Default",
url: "{controller}/{action}/{id}",
defaults: new { controller = "Home", action = "Index", id = UrlParameter.Optional }
);
}
How do I get access to the incoming JSON so I can write it out to the file?

Answer 1

You are posting a json object: {name='test'} and expect the body to be of type string in the controller. There are two possible solutions to your problem:
post a string and keep expecting a string in the controller.
keep posting the json object with the property name of type string, and change the expected type in the controller.
which would look like:
public class MyRequestObject
{
public string Name {get;set;}
}
public IHttpActionResult Post([FromBody] MyRequestObject value)
{
File.WriteAllText(#"C:\temp\Import.txt", value.Name);
return Ok();
}

Answer 2

I never did solve this directly, but was able to work around it.
If your controller descends from Controller, you get access to Request
//
// Summary:
// Gets the HttpRequestBase object for the current HTTP request.
//
// Returns:
// The request object.
public HttpRequestBase Request { get; }
I used it like so
value = new StreamReader(Request.InputStream).ReadToEnd();
Note that in some cases you need to reset the input stream to the beginning to be able to read any content, but I didn't need that step in the final solution.