Creating Custom Formatter in ASP.NET Web API TO HANDLE SPECIFIC formatted REQUEST

In this article I will show you how to create a custom formatter in ASP.Net Web API to send object in Request body with specific format.

This is a series of the article I wrote earlier in which I showed the way of handling formatted response.

Formatters in ASP .NET Web API plays an important role, when the request comes to the server, depending on the media-type, determines which formatter has to be used to parse the request and assemble the data into appropriate format as response. In ASP.Net Web API when the request is made by the user, Web API framework checks if it is Simple Type or a Complex Type. All types like string, integers, etc. are simple types and by default ASP.Net Web API read those values from URI and uses Model binding. On the other hand for complex types, ASP.Net WEB API framework read it from request body by default (the behavior can be overridden) an depending on the content-type load specific formatter from the list of formatters available in HttpConfiguration list.

Let suppose we want to send object in pipe format. In this post I will send a user object in request body in below format.

User object have two properties namely Name and Position and we need to send data in below format

Request Body: Name=Ovais | Position=Technical Architect

This can be done by implementing a custom formatter. When you are creating a custom formatter in ASP.Net Web API, you have two options one is when the request is arrived on server and you want to return the data in specific format or when the request arrives and you want to read/parse the data in specific format.

Steps to follow.

  1. Create a new Web API project in Visual Studio
  2. Add a new User class having two string properties namely Name and Position
  3. Add a new folder named “Infrastructure”. It’s always a good practice to place all the core level classes in particular folder. In my case I have named it Infrastructure.
  4. Add a new class and named it PipeFormatter
  5. Derive this class from BufferedMediaTypeFormatter
  6. Override CanReadType and ReadToStream methods and add the logic to handle incoming request
  7. Below is the complete code of PipeFormatter class

public class PipeFormatter : BufferedMediaTypeFormatter
public PipeFormatter() {
SupportedMediaTypes.Add(new System.Net.Http.Headers.MediaTypeHeaderValue(“text/pipe”)); }

public override bool CanReadType(Type type)
if (type == typeof(User)) {
 return true;

return false


public override object ReadFromStream(Type type, System.IO.Stream readStream, System.Net.Http.HttpContent content, IFormatterLogger formatterLogger, System.Threading.CancellationToken cancellationToken) {

 User userObject = new User();

 StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(readStream);

 string str=reader.ReadToEnd();

 String[] propArr = str.Split(new char[] { ‘|’ });

 foreach (var val in propArr) {
string[] propIntArr = val.Split(new char[] { ‘=’ });
if (propIntArr[0].ToLower().Trim().Equals(“name”)){
userObject.Name = propIntArr[1].ToString();
else if (propIntArr[0].ToLower().Trim().Equals(“position”)) {
userObject.Position = propIntArr[1].ToString();
return userObject;

 8. In the above code you can see that I have added the “text/pipe” media type in the supported media type list. This you have to add it so you can specify the Content-Type attribute when sending HTTP request.

 9. Now open the WebApiConfig class placed under App_Start folder

 10. Add an entry in the config.Formatters collection as below.

config.Formatters.Add(new WebApplication1.Infrastructure.PipeFormatter));

 11. Build the project and run.

 12. In order to test I used Fiddler
13. Requesting from fiddler

14. ReadFromStream method is called and populate the User object

15. And finally on my controller Post method I am receiving this object.

Hope this helps!

Providing Interactive Grid handling in ASP.Net MVC Application using Kendo UI

Nowadays, in every application, grid plays an important role in providing rich and easy interface for data management. In my last project I used Telerik Kendo UI Grid control for ASP.Net which I found quite easy and robust to use with ASP.NET MVC applications. Developers only need to provide some configuration and the rest of features like paging, sorting, filtering editing, updating, etc. runs accordingly. Moreover, there are lot of different skins available which you can apply depending on your UI design.

Following are the steps shows the usage of Telerik Kendo UI Grid control in ASP .NET MVC applications with a minimal amount of code.

  1. Create a new ASP.Net MVC Web Application in Visual Studio
  2. Make sure you have installed the Telerik ASP.NET MVC Controls suite from telerik website.
  3. In your MVC project add a reference to Kendo.MVC.dll from C:\Program Files (x86)\Telerik\UI for ASP.NET MVC Q1 2014\wrappers\aspnetmvc\Binaries\Mvc5
  4. Under the Scripts folder add kendo.all.min.js and kendo.aspnetmvc.min.js files from C:\Program Files (x86)\Telerik\UI for ASP.NET MVC Q1 2014\JS
  5. Then, create another folder Styles under root MVC project and add three files and a Default folder containing images for telerik controls.

    – kendo.common.min.css

    – kendo.dataviz.min.css

    – kendo.default.min.css

  6. Open BundleConfig.cs file and add entries to newly added Kendo CSS files and Javascript files.










7. Now open the _Layout.cshtml as this is the default master page in ASP.Net MVC application and add the newly configure kendo bundle in the head section as below


8. Now let’s create a new controller named “DemoController”


9.  Create a sample model class that contains few properties


Int32 Id { set; get; }

String Name { set; get; }

String Company { set; get; }

String Designation { set; get; }

String EmailAddress { set; get; }

10. Then in the newly added DemoController add a GetPersons method that returns the list of persons to display in a view.

DemoController : Controller


// GET: Demo

ActionResult GetPersons([DataSourceRequest] DataSourceRequest request)


List<Person> personLst = new

Person { Id = 1, Name = “Ovais Mehboob”, Company = “USTS”, Designation = “Technical Architect”, EmailAddress = “” });

Person { Id = 1, Name = “Khusro Habib”, Company = “EO”, Designation = “SAP Lead”, EmailAddress = “n/a” });

Person { Id = 1, Name = “David”, Company = “USTS”, Designation = “Network Administrator”, EmailAddress = “n/a” });

return Json(personLst);



11. Create a Index method that returns ActionResult. As per the default routing engine this will be invoked whenever the controller will be called without action name

12. Add a new empty view by right clicking the Index method

13. Add the html.kendo grid code as shown below in the Index.cshtml page

@using System.Collections;

@using Kendo.Mvc.UI;




.Columns(columns =>


columns.Bound(p => p.Name).Width(200).Title(“Name”);

columns.Bound(p => p.Company).Width(300).Title(“Company”);

columns.Bound(p => p.Designation).Width(200).Title(“Designation”);

columns.Bound(p => p.EmailAddress).Width(200).Title(“Email Address”);


.HtmlAttributes(new { style = “height: 500px” })

.Editable(editable => editable.Mode(GridEditMode.InCell))







.Resizable(resizable => resizable.Columns(true))

.DataSource(dataSource => dataSource





.Model(model =>


model.Id(p => p.Id);



.Read(action => action.Action(“GetPersons”, “Demo”))

.Update(“SavePerson”, “Demo”)



14. If you see the above code the .Read is the method where you can specify the action name followed with a Controller name

15. Likewise read, you can add update and delete methods as well

16. There are many attributes provided which you can configure on the fly like Pageable() for paging, Filterable() for filtering. For detailed documentation for each method please visit

17. Once you build and run the project you will see something like below

Hope this helps!

Awarded Microsoft MVP (Most Valuable Professional) Award

I am glad to announce that on 1st July 2014, I received an email from Microsoft on being awarded as the Microsoft MVP (Most Valuable Professional) in ASP.Net/IIS. I got really excited to see the award and that Microsoft has recognized my contributions I did in the community.

I am more impassioned and certainly increases my motivation to contribute more in the community.

I would like to thanks Microsoft for acknowledging my efforts and especially Microsoft Innovation Center, Pakistan for sponsoring my technical sessions/events and giving me opportunity to contribute and participate in Boot camps and Tech Ed events.

Looking forward to continue my efforts and share the knowledge as much as I can to help the community.

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