ASP.NET MVC Json DateTime Serialization conversion

Question

Using Json() method on ASP.NET MVC Controller is giving me trouble - every DateTime thrown in this method is converted to UTC using server time.

Now, is there an easy way to tell ASP.NET MVC Json Serializer to stop auto-converting DateTime to UTC? As it is noted on this question reasigning each of your variable with DateTime.SpecifyKind(date, DateTimeKind.Utc) does the trick, but obviously I can't do this manually on every DateTime variable.

So is it possible to set something in Web.config and have JSON serializer treat EVERY date as if it's UTC?

Answer 1

Dammit, it seems that lately I'm destined to answer my own questions here at StackOverflow. Sigh, here is the solution:

1. Install ServiceStack.Text using NuGet - you'll get faster JSON serialization for free (you're welcome)

2. Once ServiceStack.Text is installed, just override Json method in your base Controller (you do have one, right?):

   protected override JsonResult Json(object data, string contentType, Encoding contentEncoding, JsonRequestBehavior behavior)
   {
       return new ServiceStackJsonResult
       {
           Data = data,
           ContentType = contentType,
           ContentEncoding = contentEncoding
       };
   }
   
   public class ServiceStackJsonResult : JsonResult
   {
       public override void ExecuteResult(ControllerContext context)
       {
           HttpResponseBase response = context.HttpContext.Response;
           response.ContentType = !String.IsNullOrEmpty(ContentType) ? ContentType : "application/json";
   
           if (ContentEncoding != null)
           {
               response.ContentEncoding = ContentEncoding;
           }
   
           if (Data != null)
           {
               response.Write(JsonSerializer.SerializeToString(Data));
           }
       }
   }  
   

3. It seems that this serializer by default does "the right thing" - it doesn't mess with your DateTime objects if their DateTime.Kind is Unspecified. However, I did few additional config tweaks in Global.asax (and it's good to know how to do that before you start using library):

   protected void Application_Start()
   {
       JsConfig.DateHandler = JsonDateHandler.ISO8601;
       JsConfig.TreatEnumAsInteger = true;
   
       // rest of the method...
   }
   

This link helped