System.Net.Http.UnsupportedMediaTypeException: 'No MediaTypeFormatter is available to read an object of type 'IEnumerable`1' from content with media type 'text/html'.'

Question

I am getting Unsupported Media Type Exception whenever I am doing a get request on MVC side on http://localhost:52541/Employee/Index . Please check my code and help me to solve the issue

EmployeeController.cs from MVC

using System;

using System.Collections.Generic;

using System.Linq;

using System.Net.Http;

using System.Web;

using System.Web.Mvc;

using WebAppMvc.Globals;

using WebAppMvc.Models;

namespace WebAppMvc.Controllers

{

public class EmployeeController : Controller

{


    

    public ActionResult Index()

    {

        IEnumerable<MvcEmployee> empList;

        HttpResponseMessage response = GlobalVariables.WebApiClient.

            GetAsync("Employee").Result;

		empList = response.Content.ReadAsAsync

            <IEnumerable<MvcEmployee>>().Result;

        return View(empList);

    }

}

}

// EmployeeController.cs from API

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Data.Entity;
using System.Net;
using System.Net.Http;
using System.Web.Http;
using WebAppAPI.Models;
using System.Data.Entity.Infrastructure;
using System.Web.Http.Description;

namespace WebAppAPI.Controllers
{
	public class EmployeeController : ApiController
	{
		private TSQL2012Entities db = new TSQL2012Entities();

		public IQueryable<tblEmployee> GetTblEmployees()
		{
			return db.tblEmployees;
		}

		public IHttpActionResult GettblEmployees(int id)
		{
			tblEmployee myEmp = db.tblEmployees.Find(id);

			if (Convert.ToString(myEmp).Length == 0 || myEmp == null)
			{
				return NotFound();
			}

			return Ok(myEmp);
		}

		public IHttpActionResult PuttblEmployees(int id, tblEmployee tblEmployees)
		{

			if (id != tblEmployees.emp_id)
			{
				return BadRequest();
			}

			db.Entry(tblEmployees).State = System.Data.Entity.EntityState.Modified;



			try
			{
				db.SaveChanges();
			}
			catch (DbUpdateConcurrencyException)
			{
				if (!tblEmployeesExists(id))
				{
					return NotFound();
				}
				else
				{
					throw;
				}
			}

			return StatusCode(HttpStatusCode.NoContent);
		}


		// POST api/Employee
		[ResponseType(typeof(tblEmployee))]
		public IHttpActionResult PostEmployee(tblEmployee employee)
		{

			db.tblEmployees.Add(employee);
			db.SaveChanges();

			return CreatedAtRoute("DefaultApi", new { id = employee.emp_id }, employee);
		}

		// DELETE api/Employee/5
		[ResponseType(typeof(tblEmployee))]
		public IHttpActionResult DeleteEmployee(int id)
		{
			tblEmployee employee = db.tblEmployees.Find(id);
			if (employee == null)
			{
				return NotFound();
			}

			db.tblEmployees.Remove(employee);
			db.SaveChanges();

			return Ok(employee);
		}


		protected override void Dispose(bool disposing)
		{
			if (disposing)
			{
				db.Dispose();
			}
			base.Dispose(disposing);
		}
		private bool tblEmployeesExists(int id)
		{
			return db.tblEmployees.Count(e => e.emp_id == id) > 0;
		}

	}
}

// GlobalVariable.cs from MVC using System.Net.Http; using System.Net.Http.Headers; using System.Web;

namespace WebAppMvc.Globals {

public class GlobalVariables
{
	public static HttpClient WebApiClient = new HttpClient();

	static GlobalVariables()
	{
		WebApiClient.BaseAddress = new Uri("http://localhost:52541/api/");
		WebApiClient.DefaultRequestHeaders.Clear();
		WebApiClient.DefaultRequestHeaders.Accept.Add
			(new MediaTypeWithQualityHeaderValue("application/json"));
	}
}

}

// MvcEmployee.cs using System; using System.Collections.Generic; using System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations; using System.Linq; using System.Web;

namespace WebAppMvc.Models {

public class MvcEmployee
{
	public int emp_id { get; set; }

	[Required (ErrorMessage ="Please enter your name")]
	[DataType (DataType.Text)]
	public string emp_name { get; set; }

	[Required (ErrorMessage = "Please enter your email")]
	[DataType (DataType.EmailAddress)]
	public string emp_email { get; set; }
	public string emp_password { get; set; }
	public string emp_gender { get; set; }
	public Nullable<int> noOfDependants { get; set; }
	public Nullable<decimal> Additions { get; set; }
	public Nullable<decimal> ITex { get; set; }
	public Nullable<decimal> CPP { get; set; }
	public Nullable<decimal> EI { get; set; }
	public Nullable<decimal> GrossSalary { get; set; }
}

}

// Index.cshtml from MVC

@model IEnumerable<WebAppMvc.Models.MvcEmployee>

@{
    ViewBag.Title = "Index";
    Layout = "~/Views/Shared/_Layout.cshtml";
}


<table class="table table-striped">
    <thead class="table-heading">
        <tr>

            <th>
                @Html.DisplayNameFor(model => model.emp_name)
            </th>
            <th>
                @Html.DisplayNameFor(model => model.emp_email)
            </th>
            <th>
                @Html.DisplayNameFor(model => model.emp_gender)
            </th>
            <th>
                @Html.DisplayNameFor(model => model.noOfDependants)
            </th>
            <th>
                @Html.DisplayNameFor(model => model.Additions)
            </th>
            <th>
                @Html.DisplayNameFor(model => model.ITex)
            </th>
            <th>
                @Html.DisplayNameFor(model => model.CPP)
            </th>
            <th>
                @Html.DisplayNameFor(model => model.EI)
            </th>
            <th>
                @Html.DisplayNameFor(model => model.GrossSalary)
            </th>
            <th>Actions</th>

        </tr>
    </thead>

    @foreach (var item in Model)
    {
        <tr>
            <td>
                @Html.DisplayFor(modelItem => item.emp_name)
            </td>
            <td>
                @Html.DisplayFor(modelItem => item.emp_email)
            </td>
            <td>
                @Html.DisplayFor(modelItem => item.emp_gender)
            </td>
            <td>
                @Html.DisplayFor(modelItem => item.noOfDependants)
            </td>
            <td>
                @Html.DisplayFor(modelItem => item.Additions)
            </td>
            <td>
                @Html.DisplayFor(modelItem => item.ITex)
            </td>
            <td>
                @Html.DisplayFor(modelItem => item.CPP)
            </td>
            <td>
                @Html.DisplayFor(modelItem => item.EI)
            </td>
            <td>
                @Html.DisplayFor(modelItem => item.GrossSalary)
            </td>

        </tr>

    }
</table>

type here

Answer 1

Hi @Amritpal Singh,

First run WebAPI: http://localhost:52541/api/Employee should report an error:

The 'ObjectContent`1' type failed to serialize the response body for content type 'application/xml; charset=utf-8'

So doing a get request on the MVC side will report Unsupported Media Type Exception.

Add this code to global.asax below on Application_Start:

GlobalConfiguration.Configuration.Formatters.JsonFormatter.SerializerSettings.ReferenceLoopHandling = Newtonsoft.Json.ReferenceLoopHandling.Serialize;
            GlobalConfiguration.Configuration.Formatters.Remove(GlobalConfiguration.Configuration.Formatters.XmlFormatter);

Best regards,
Lan Huang

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