Is it possible to instruct JSON.Net to serialize DateTime as UTC even if no time zone is specified?
asp.net entity-framework javascript json.net
Question
My database stores dates as UTC. But they return as type undefined when I get them using the entity framework.
They are not in UTC format when they are serialized by JSON.Net. Is it possible to instruct JSON.Net to serialize DateTimes as UTC even if that is not their type?
Accepted Answer
Set DateTimeZoneHandling
on JsonSerializerSettings
to Utc
That will serialize all dates before converting them to UTC.
public void SerializeObjectDateTimeZoneHandling()
{
string json = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(
new DateTime(2000, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, DateTimeKind.Unspecified),
new JsonSerializerSettings
{
DateTimeZoneHandling = DateTimeZoneHandling.Utc
});
Assert.AreEqual(@"""2000-01-01T01:01:01Z""", json);
}
Zzz-20-Zzz Documentation
Popular Answer
I utilized the above answer, which is completely functional, to build an attribute that converts API responses from PST to UTC.
I first had to make aJsonConverter
public class UTCDateTimeConverter : Newtonsoft.Json.JsonConverter {
private TimeZoneInfo pacificZone = TimeZoneInfo.FindSystemTimeZoneById("Pacific Standard Time");
public override bool CanConvert(Type objectType) {
return objectType == typeof(DateTime);
}
public override object ReadJson(JsonReader reader, Type objectType, object existingValue, JsonSerializer serializer) {
if (reader.Value == null) return null;
var pacificTime = DateTime.Parse(reader.Value.ToString());
return TimeZoneInfo.ConvertTimeToUtc(pacificTime, pacificZone);
}
public override void WriteJson(JsonWriter writer, object value, JsonSerializer serializer) {
writer.WriteValue(TimeZoneInfo.ConvertTimeFromUtc((DateTime) value, pacificZone));
}
}
When it came time to transform the properties, I had to use that.
public class Order{
[JsonConverter(typeof(UTCDateTimeConverter))]
public DateTime OrderDate {get;set;}
}
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