ASP.NET MVC4 WebAPI and Posting XML data

Question

I'm missing a trick with the new webapi - I'm trying to submit an xml string through a post request and not having much luck. The front end is using jQuery like this: ``` $(document = function () { $("#buttonTestAPI").click(function () { var d = " 1234"; $.ajax({ type: 'POST', contentType: "text/xml", url: "@Url.Content("~/api/Customer/")", data: d, success: function (result) { var str = result; $("#output").html(str); } }); }); }); ``` My controller is pretty simple at the moment - just the default for the post action - trying to return what was passed in: ``` public string Post(string value) { return value; } ``` However, "value" is repeatedly null. The odd thing is, when I change my data in the jquery to be something like this: ``` d = "1234"; ``` Then I get "value" in my controller as 1234. How can I get access to the more complex xml string in my controller?

Accepted Answer

The following will allow you to read a raw XML message via a POST to a Web API method:

```
public void PostRawXMLMessage(HttpRequestMessage request)
{
   var xmlDoc = new XmlDocument();
   xmlDoc.Load(request.Content.ReadAsStreamAsync().Result);   
}
```

You can debug and inspect the body, headers, etc. and will see the raw XML posted. I used Fiddler's Composer to make a HTTP POST and this works well.

ASP.NET MVC4 WebAPI and Posting XML data

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