.NET - Return Enum as String from API
Tutorial built with .NET 5.0
This is a quick post to show how to serialize enum values as strings so enum values are returned in API responses instead of the enum indexes (the default).
The solution is to add a JsonStringEnumConverter() in the .AddJsonOptions() method of the Startup class:
services.AddControllers().AddJsonOptions(x =>
{
// serialize enums as strings in api responses (e.g. Role)
x.JsonSerializerOptions.Converters.Add(new JsonStringEnumConverter());
});
Example .NET API Startup Class
Below is the complete Startup class that includes the above snippet, it's from a .NET CRUD API tutorial I posted recently that includes a Role enum that's returned in API responses. For the full tutorial or to test the code see .NET 5.0 - CRUD API Example and Tutorial.
The Startup class configures the services available to the .NET Dependency Injection (DI) container in the ConfigureServices() method, and configures the .NET request pipeline for the application in the Configure() method. Both methods are called by the .NET runtime when the app starts, first ConfigureServices() followed by Configure(), for more info see .NET - Startup Class in a Nutshell.
using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Builder;
using Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection;
using System;
using System.Text.Json.Serialization;
using WebApi.Helpers;
using WebApi.Services;
namespace WebApi
{
public class Startup
{
// add services to the DI container
public void ConfigureServices(IServiceCollection services)
{
services.AddDbContext<DataContext>();
services.AddCors();
services.AddControllers().AddJsonOptions(x =>
{
// serialize enums as strings in api responses (e.g. Role)
x.JsonSerializerOptions.Converters.Add(new JsonStringEnumConverter());
// ignore omitted parameters on models to enable optional params (e.g. User update)
x.JsonSerializerOptions.IgnoreNullValues = true;
});
services.AddAutoMapper(AppDomain.CurrentDomain.GetAssemblies());
// configure DI for application services
services.AddScoped<IUserService, UserService>();
}
// configure the HTTP request pipeline
public void Configure(IApplicationBuilder app)
{
app.UseRouting();
// global cors policy
app.UseCors(x => x
.AllowAnyOrigin()
.AllowAnyMethod()
.AllowAnyHeader());
// global error handler
app.UseMiddleware<ErrorHandlerMiddleware>();
app.UseEndpoints(x => x.MapControllers());
}
}
}
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