String -> Json serialization

[marekvinkler]

I'm actually continuing discussion on this bug: #1886

I have to send an arbitrary object via RestSharp. Currently the only possibility for me is to add the body via AddParameter(new JsonParameter("", json)) which seems quite ugly to me. It would be nice to add the bool forceSerialize parameter also to the generic AddJsonBody and not only to the string specialization. That way I could make sure that AddJsonBody serializes the object to a valid JSON for every type.

[alexeyzimarev]

It's already there and described in the docs:

[marekvinkler]

The example you sent is for the string specialization, in other words, when the compiler knows the payload is a string.

But I would like a method that serializes any runtime type correctly, e.g.

or even

Here, the compile time type is a string array (or any other structure) or object type leading to a compile time error.

I think the method could look like this:

public static RestRequest AddJsonBody<T>(this RestRequest request, T obj, bool forceSerialize, ContentType? contentType = null) where T : class
{
    request.RequestFormat = DataFormat.Json;

    return obj is string str && !forceSerialize
        ? request.AddStringBody(str, DataFormat.Json)
        : request.AddParameter(new JsonParameter(obj, contentType));
}

[alexeyzimarev]

The idea is good, but I don't like the API ambiguity. It's quote unclear that you pass an object and then have an option to set forceSerialize to false, and it will do nothing at all. Isn't it confusing?

[marekvinkler]

I probably don't fully understand your concern. With forceSerialize = false the behavior is exactly the same as for the already existing method:

RestSharp/src/RestSharp/Request/RestRequestExtensions.cs

Line 400 in 1231a68

public static RestRequest AddJsonBody<T>(this RestRequest request, T obj, ContentType? contentType = null) where T : class {

In other words, the existing code will work exactly the same as it does now (not serializing strings).

The advantage of the optional forceSerialize = true is that you will get a valid json for any input type, which is what I believe the AddJsonBody method should do (though I get that for backwards compatibility it is not possible to make it a default behavior).