Serialization deserialization

Serialization and deserialization

ServiceStack serializes and deserializes your DTOs automatically. If you want to override the default serializers or you want to add a new format, you have to register your own Content-Type:

Register a custom format

string contentType = "application/yourformat"; //To override JSON eg, write "application/json"
var serialize = (IRequestContext requestContext, object response, Stream stream) => ...;
var deserialize = (Type type, Stream stream) => ...;

//In AppHost Configure method
//Pass two delegates for serialization and deserialization
this.ContentTypeFilters.Register(contentType, serialize, deserialize);	

The Protobuf-format shows an example of registering a new format whilst the Northwind VCard Format shows an example of creating a custom media type in ServiceStack.

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Reading in and De-Serializing ad-hoc custom requests

There are 2 ways to deserialize your own custom format, via attaching a custom request binder for a particular service or marking your service with IRequiresRequestStream which will skip auto-deserialization and inject the ASP.NET Request stream instead.

Create a custom request dto binder

You can register custom binders in your AppHost by using the example below:

base.RequestBinders.Add(typeof(MyRequest), httpReq => ... requestDto);

This gives you access to the IHttpRequest object letting you parse it manually so you can construct and return the strong-typed request DTO manually which will be passed to the service instead.

Reading directly from the Request Stream

Instead of registering a custom binder you can skip the serialization of the request DTO, you can add the IRequiresRequestStream interface to directly retrieve the stream without populating the request DTO.

//Request DTO
public class Hello : IRequiresRequestStream
{
    /// <summary>
    /// The raw Http Request Input Stream
    /// </summary>
    Stream RequestStream { get; set; }
}