Replace JSON.NET with ServiceStack.Text in ASP.NET Web API

· 437 words · 3 minutes to read

I recently stumbled across a [comparison of JSON serialization libraries][1]. which shows that ServiceStack.Text by far outperforms any of the competitors. Indeed, the folks down at [ServiceStack][2] have been building a lot of great stuff for the past few (4?) years to facilitate their framework.
ServiceStack.Text is available [on Nuget][3] and can be used outside of ServiceStack, within any .NET project, so why not use it with Web API, replacing the default serializer, JSON.NET?

Let’s do that.

Creating a ServiceStack.Text MediaTypeFormatter 🔗

Typically, whenever you want to introduce a new serialziation mechanism to ASP.NET Web API, you’d create a new MediaTypeFormatter. This case is no different. Let’s grab ServiceStack.Text [from Nuget][3]:

PM> Install-Package ServiceStack.Text  

Once you have it refrenced in your solution, the formatter is pretty straight forward:

public class ServiceStackTextFormatter : MediaTypeFormatter  
{  
public ServiceStackTextFormatter()  
{  
JsConfig.DateHandler = JsonDateHandler.ISO8601;  
SupportedMediaTypes.Add(new MediaTypeHeaderValue("application/json"));

SupportedEncodings.Add(new UTF8Encoding(encoderShouldEmitUTF8Identifier: false, throwOnInvalidBytes: true));  
SupportedEncodings.Add(new UnicodeEncoding(bigEndian: false, byteOrderMark: true, throwOnInvalidBytes: true));  
}

public override bool CanReadType(Type type)  
{  
if (type == null) throw new ArgumentNullException("type");  
return true;  
}

public override bool CanWriteType(Type type)  
{  
if (type == null) throw new ArgumentNullException("type");  
return true;  
}

public override Task

<object>
  ReadFromStreamAsync(Type type, Stream readStream, System.Net.Http.HttpContent content, IFormatterLogger formatterLogger)<br /> {<br /> var task = Task
  
  <object>
    .Factory.StartNew(() => JsonSerializer.DeserializeFromStream(type, readStream));<br /> return task;<br /> }</p> 
    
    <p>
      public override Task WriteToStreamAsync(Type type, object value, Stream writeStream, System.Net.Http.HttpContent content, TransportContext transportContext)<br /> {<br /> var task = Task.Factory.StartNew(() => JsonSerializer.SerializeToStream(value, type, writeStream));<br /> return task;<br /> }<br /> }<br /> ```
    </p>
    
    <p>
      We tell the formatter a few things:<br /> - we will support <i>application/json</i> media type<br /> - we support UtF-8 and Unicode encoding<br /> - Read and Write is available for all types of objects<br /> - we tell ServiceStack to handle dates as <i>ISO8601</i>, to avoid JSON dates with Unix Epoch milliseconds (read more <a href="http://www.hanselman.com/blog/OnTheNightmareThatIsJSONDatesPlusJSONNETAndASPNETWebAPI.aspx">here</a>)<br /> - in the read/write methods we simply asynchronously call the respective methods of the ServiceStack.Text.JsonSerializer
    </p>
    
    <h3>
      Replacing JSON.NET
    </h3>
    
    <p>
      Now, in order to wire this up, we need to remove the default JSON formatter (JSON.NET) and inject our new formatter into the <i>GlobalConfiguration.Formatters</i> collection.<br /> ```csharp
<br /> public static void Register(HttpConfiguration config)<br /> {<br /> config.Formatters.RemoveAt(0);<br /> config.Formatters.Insert(0, new ServiceStackTextFormatter());
    </p>
    
    <p>
      //continue with config<br /> }<br /> ```
    </p>
    
    <p>
      And that's it!
    </p>
    
    <p>
      From now your ASP.NET Web API application will be using ServiceStack.Text, a serializer which benchmarks show is almost 2x faster than JSON.NET. In all fairness, that's one of the micro optimizations, but still, if you can improve something, why not do that?
    </p>

 [1]: http://theburningmonk.com/2012/11/json-serializers-benchmark-updated-including-mongodb-driver/
 [2]: http://www.servicestack.net/
 [3]: https://www.nuget.org/packages/ServiceStack.Text

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Hi! I'm Filip W., a cloud architect from Zürich 🇨🇭. I like Toronto Maple Leafs 🇨🇦, Rancid and quantum computing. Oh, and I love the Lowlands 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿.

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