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This seems to be quite a common theme and a few people have given some very constructive answers, but I'm still struggling to get my attempt to work.

The problem is much the same as this one for example, except that I'm only trying to send a single complex object instead of an array.

My controller looks like this:

[AcceptVerbs (HttpVerbs.Put)]
[JsonFilter(Param="Designer", JsonDataType=typeof(Designer))]
public JsonResult SaveProfile(Designer Profile)
    ProfileRepository Repo = new ProfileRepository();

    Designer d = Repo.GetById(Profile.ID);
    d.Comments = Profile.Comments;
    d.DisplayName = Profile.DisplayName;
    d.Email = Profile.Email;
    d.FirstName = Profile.FirstName;
    d.LastName = Profile.LastName;


    return Json(Profile);

The code for retrieving the page data and posting it looks like this:

    $('#save-profile').click(function () {

        var Profile = {};
        var context = $('#profile-data')[0];

        $('span', context).each(function () {
            Profile[this.id] = $(this).text();

        Profile.ID = $('h3', context).attr('id');

        //var DTO = { 'Profile': Profile };

            type: "PUT",
            url: "/Home/SaveProfile",
            data: { 'Profile': Profile },
            success: function (data) {

The object is being correctly created and posted to the server (I've tried using POST and PUT, by the way), the server appears to be receiving an object instance, but the properties are - as usual - all null.

What am I missing? I've tried using the approach (adapted) from the example question linked above, but still don't seem to be getting any closer to the solution. Any help appreciated.

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What's this JsonFilter action filter attribute? (It's definitely not part of ASP.NET MVC itself.) I'm guessing that for some reason it's not understanding the input JSON data. –  Eilon Dec 31 '09 at 20:35
Ah - oops, forgot to remove that. If you look at the other example post I linked to, you'll see a reference to a custom filter that is supposed to assist the model binding. Just ignore it. –  Phil.Wheeler Dec 31 '09 at 21:16
Found it. I'm guessing that the data you're posting is not compatible with the design of that filter. Can you set a breakpoint in the filter's deserialization logic and see what's going on? That is, what is the deserializer seeing, and why can't it create your object? –  Eilon Dec 31 '09 at 21:33
Pretty close as it turns out. I wasn't checking to make sure the filter parameter type I was setting was correct. I'll explain in an answer below. –  Phil.Wheeler Jan 1 '10 at 1:57

1 Answer 1

up vote 1 down vote accepted

As it turns out, there's nothing wrong with the ActionResult method itself and neither is there any issue with the JavaScript object or Ajax post. The problem actually lies in the custom filter that decorates the ActionResult and the parameter being set for its param value.

The following attribute has a parameter of "Designer" set for the name of the parameter I'm trying to pass in. I've supplied this as both the parameter name and the type.


The correct version should be:

[JsonFilter(Param="Profile", JsonDataType=typeof(Designer))]
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