Return Json from Generic List in Web API

Question 1

I take this approach which seems a lot simpler and does not involve changing the json serializer for the data that you have.

If you return the objects as a list the default media type formatter will handle the serialization based on the content type specified from the client (providing it is json or xml).

For demo purposes add the below methods which return hard coded objects.

    // GET api/search
    public List<SearchFormula> Get(string searchTerm)
    {
        var searchItems = SearchData(searchTerm);
        return searchItems;
    }

    public static List<SearchFormula> SearchData(string searchString)
    {
        var searchResults = new List<SearchFormula>();

        searchResults.Add(new SearchFormula { Description = "desc1", Title = "title1", Url = "http://url.com" });
        searchResults.Add(new SearchFormula { Description = "desc2", Title = "title2", Url = "http://url.com" });

        return searchResults;

    }

Then in fiddler specify the client accepts application/json as pictured below and the content is returned as json.

enter image description here

For further info on serialization see here:

http://www.asp.net/web-api/overview/formats-and-model-binding/json-and-xml-serialization

Question 2

I usually serialize to JSON using this extension method:

    public static class Extensions
{
    public static string SerializeToJson<T>(this T obj, DateTimeSerializationFormat format = DateTimeSerializationFormat.DotNet) where T : class
    {
        string result;
        var serializer = new DataContractJsonSerializer(typeof(T));
        using (var stream = new MemoryStream())
        {
            serializer.WriteObject(stream, obj);
            result = Encoding.UTF8.GetString(stream.ToArray());
        }

        if (formaat != DateTimeSerializationFormat.DotNet)
        {
            const string dotNetDateTimePattern = @"""\\/Date\((-?\d+)([\+-]\d{4})?\)\\/""";

            if (format ==DateTimeSerializationFormat.Iso8601 || format ==DateTimeSerializationFormat.Ruby))
            {
                var matchEvaluator = new MatchEvaluator(ConvertJsonDateToIso8601DateString);
                var regex = new Regex(dotNetDateTimePattern);
                resultaat = regex.Replace(resultaat, matchEvaluator);
                if (format == DateTimeSerializationFormat.Ruby && resultaat.Length > 10) // Ruby time
                {
                    result = Regex.Replace(result, @"([\+-]\d{1,2}\:\d{2})", " $0"); // Add an space before the timeZone, for example bv "+01:00" becomes " +01:00"
                }
            }

        }
        return result;
    }

    public enum DateTimeSerializationFormat
    {
        /// <summary>
        /// Example: "\/Date(1198908717056)\/" (aantal miliseconden na 1-1-1970)
        /// </summary>
        DotNet,
        /// <summary>
        /// Example: "1997-07-16T19:20:30.45+01:00"
        /// </summary>
        Iso8601,
        /// <summary>
        /// Example: "1997-07-16T19:20:30.45 +01:00"
        /// </summary>
        Ruby,
        ///// <summary>
        ///// Example: new Date(1198908717056) or other formats like new (date (1997,7,16)
        ///// </summary>
        //JavascriptDateObject
    }

Don't forget to add the using and reference to:

System.Runtime.Serialization.Json;