Web Api Post from KnockoutJs ViewModel

Question

I didn't find much info on web api post. Here is one blog entry that I find that talk about how to do POST from knockout. Web Api POST with KnockoutJs ViewModel

ViewModel :

<script type="text/javascript">

var QuickEntry = function (_itemPartNumb, _itemDescription, _itemQuanities) {
    this.ItemPartNumb = ko.observable(_itemPartNumb);
    this.ItemDescription = ko.observable(_itemDescription);
    this.ItemQuanties = ko.observable(_itemQuanities);
};

function QuickEntriesViewModel() {

    var self = this;
    self.quickEntries = ko.observableArray([]);

    for (var i = 0; i < 10; i++) {
        self.quickEntries.push(new QuickEntry());            
    }

    self.addNewRow = function () {
        self.quickEntries.push(new QuickEntry());            
    }.bind(self);

    self.addToCart = function() {
        var items = ko.toJSON(self);

        $.ajax({
            url: '/DesktopModules/blah/API/Data/Post',
            type: 'POST',
            data: items,
            datatype: "json",
            processData: false,
            contentType: "application/json; charset=utf-8",
            success: function (data) {
                alert(data);
            },
            statusCode: {
                404: function () {
                    alert('Failed');
                }
            }
        });
    };
};

ko.applyBindings(new QuickEntriesViewModel());

DataController (Web Api)

[HttpPost]
public string Post(quickEntries values)
{
    string response = string.Empty;
    response = values.Items != null ? "some data" : "nothing at all";

    return response;
}

//class
public class quickEntries
{
    public MyQuickEntry[] Items { get; set; }
}

public class MyQuickEntry
{
    public string ItemPartNumb { get; set; }
    public string ItemDescription { get; set; }
    public string ItemQuanties { get; set; }
}

This is what is passing to web api POST method from fiddler:

{"quickEntries":[{"ItemPartNumb":"bob","ItemDescription":"bob","ItemQuanties":"bob"},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{},{}]}

Does anyone have experience with passing a array of json objects to web api?

Answer 1

The problem is you are sending the ViewModel, not the array of objects:

var items = ko.toJSON(self);

This turns the entire ViewModel object into JSON. Try converting just the array:

var items = ko.toJSON(self.quickEntries);