RestRequest post fails when using AddBody with string. This worked fine in 107.3.0.

[HHasenack]

This piece of code works just fine using restsharp v107.3.0 but failes when using 108.0.1

public async Task PostTest()
        {
            var calcId = await AddCalculationSetup();

            string paramValue = "InvalidValue";

            // Set a parameter with an invalid value
            var request = new RestRequest($"{url}/CalculationSetups/{calcId}/Parameters/InheritsFromCalcSetup").
                              AddBody(paramValue);
            var response = await restClient.ExecutePostAsync(request); 
            Assert.AreEqual(HttpStatusCode.Created, response.StatusCode, response.Content);
           . . .

The controller handler involved looks like this, but doesnt get called when using restclient v108, as stated before v107 works fine.

. . .
        /// <summary>
        /// Set a value for a parameter
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="projectIdentifier">identifier of the project</param>
        /// <param name="itemIdentifier">identifier of the parameterized collection item</param>
        /// <param name="parameterIdentifier">identifier of the parammeter</param>
        /// <param name="value">value for the param</param>
        [HttpPost]
        [SwaggerOperation("Set a value for a parameter")]
        [Route("{parameterIdentifier}")]
        [SwaggerResponse(StatusCodes.Status201Created)]
        [SwaggerResponse(StatusCodes.Status404NotFound, Type = typeof(string))]
        [SwaggerResponse(StatusCodes.Status400BadRequest)]
        public virtual IActionResult Post(string projectIdentifier, string itemIdentifier, string parameterIdentifier, [FromBody] object value)
        { . . . }

The Assert in the unit test statement fails, and error returned is:

 PostTest
   Source: ValueSetTest.cs line 30
   Duration: 200 ms

  Message: 
Assert.AreEqual failed. Expected:<Created>. Actual:<BadRequest>. {
  "type": "https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc7231#section-6.5.1",
  "title": "One or more validation errors occurred.",
  "status": 400,
  "traceId": "00-4fc8ce2dfbaa969137ff4f9482017569-1090e9c87770ee73-00",
  "errors": {
    "$": [
      "'I' is an invalid start of a value. Path: $ | LineNumber: 0 | BytePositionInLine: 0."
    ],
    "value": [
      "The value field is required."
    ]
  }
}

  Stack Trace: 
ValueSetTest.PostTest() line 40
ThreadOperations.ExecuteWithAbortSafety(Action action)

• Thx, Hans

[HHasenack]

When replacing the
request.AddBody(paramValue)
with
request.AddParameter(new JsonParameter("", paramValue, RestSharp.Serializers.ContentType.Json));
the unit tests completes in both 107.3 and 108.0 without errors.

So I guess something is off with the AddBody method resolving via AddJsonBody to AddParameter

[alexeyzimarev]

If AddBody doesn't recognise the parameter string (in your case) as a valid JSON, it would send it as a regular body parameter. In your case, it would be the multipart form parameter. If you want to explicitly tell RestSharp to send it as JSON, you should use AddStringBody with JSON content type or DataFormat.Json.

[HHasenack]

Hi alexy - sorry to get back to this after a long while. Unfortunately your proposed fix doesn't solve the problem. I even tried all the other options (Json, Binary, Xml and None), but no luck.
Only the

request.AddParameter(new JsonParameter("", paramValue, RestSharp.Serializers.ContentType.Json));

did the trick. Though it allowed shorter notation because of default parameters:

request.AddParameter(new JsonParameter("", paramValue));

So it seems some of the logic was broken (or repaired? in release 108.0) that made the decision to store the provide value from AddBody using request.AddParameter(new JsonParameter...)) somehow.

I think I could patch this in restsharp sources, but I am unsure wether it "works as designed" in v108 or v107

as restsharp was only used in my unit testing code, I simply changed my sources to work around the problem.

Thx

[IanElsinga]

I would like to report that in version 108.0.2 this is still an issue in that the following does not work because the resulting DataFormat in the Parameter winds up being None. Because of this, the parameter is sent without quotes (not as JSON):

request = new RestRequest(method).AddStringBody(json, DataFormat.Json);

(where json = "simple string value")

However, if you use the following, it works properly. DataFormat in the Parameter is set to Json and the value is sent with quotes:

request = new RestRequest(method).AddParameter(new JsonParameter("", json));

The same problem exists with this method but I understand that this is not technically appropriate for a string:
request = new RestRequest(method).AddJsonBody(json);

[alexeyzimarev]

I believe there's a check that prevents setting the parameter type to JSON if the string doesn't contain a valid JSON object. Why are you trying to send a sample string value as a JSON as it's apparently not a valid JSON?

[alexeyzimarev]

AddJsonBody is designed for serializable objects, not for strings. It's clearly documented.

[IanElsinga]

Thanks Alex, I understand and agree regarding AddJsonBody.

However, a single quoted string is valid JSON, and in our application is treated thus, both for client and server (asp.net core). According to RFC7159, any JSON value is valid JSON text and valid "application/json" content, including simple strings with double quotes.

In light of that, I feel that when DataFormat.Json is specified, it should consider a simple string as valid JSON and send it with quotes.

[alexeyzimarev]

Yeah, but if you pass a string to AddJsonBody, it will be serialised appropriately, and you get a valid JSON string (quoted). An arbitrary string is not a valid JSON, like in your example.

[IanElsinga]

Sorry, I might not be understanding you, but an arbitrary string IS valid JSON, as indicated above according to RFC7159. I'm actually asking about request = new RestRequest(method).AddStringBody(json, DataFormat.Json);. If json is just a single arbitrary string, it should be treated as valid JSON because DataFormat.Json is specified and because a single arbitrary string is valid JSON.

[alexeyzimarev]

including simple strings with double quotes.

that is what I meant, not "just" a string. if you try to serialise a string value, you'll see that it gets double quoted.

[alexeyzimarev]

Basically, you can use:

AddJsonBody(str) // will serialise the string to a double-quoted string, making it a valid JSON

or

AddStringBody(str, DataFormat.Json)

it won't touch the string, just add it as a body, as-is