How to receive JSON as an MVC 5 action method parameter

I have been trying the whole afternoon crawling through the web trying to receive a JSON object in the action controller.

What is the correct and or easier way to go about doing it?

I have tried the following: 1:

//Post/ Roles/AddUser
[HttpPost]
public ActionResult AddUser(String model)
{
    if(model != null)
    {
        return Json("Success");
    }else
    {
        return Json("An Error Has occoured");
    }
    
}

Which gave me a null value on my input.

2:

//Post/ Roles/AddUser
[HttpPost]
public ActionResult AddUser(IDictionary<string, object> model)
{
    if(model != null)
    {
        return Json("Success");
    }else
    {
        return Json("An Error Has occoured");
    }
    
}

which gives me a 500 error on the jquery side which is trying to post to it? (meaning that it didn't bind correctly).

here is my jQuery code:

<script>
function submitForm() {

    var usersRoles = new Array;
    jQuery("#dualSelectRoles2 option").each(function () {
        usersRoles.push(jQuery(this).val());
    });
    console.log(usersRoles);

    jQuery.ajax({
        type: "POST",
        url: "@Url.Action("AddUser")",
        contentType: "application/json; charset=utf-8",
        dataType: "json",
        data: JSON.stringify(usersRoles),
        success: function (data) { alert(data); },
        failure: function (errMsg) {
            alert(errMsg);
        }
    });
}

All I want to do is receive my JSON object in my mvc action?

Unfortunately, Dictionary has problems with Model Binding in MVC. Read the full story here. Instead, create a custom model binder to get the Dictionary as a parameter for the controller action.

To solve your requirement, here is the working solution -

First create your ViewModels in following way. PersonModel can have list of RoleModels.

public class PersonModel
{
    public List<RoleModel> Roles { get; set; }
    public string Name { get; set; }
}

public class RoleModel
{
    public string RoleName { get; set;}
    public string Description { get; set;}
}

Then have a index action which will be serving basic index view -

public ActionResult Index()
{
    return View();
}

Index view will be having following JQuery AJAX POST operation -

<script src="~/Scripts/jquery-1.10.2.min.js"></script>
<script>
    $(function () {
        $('#click1').click(function (e) {

            var jsonObject = {
                "Name" : "Rami",
                "Roles": [{ "RoleName": "Admin", "Description" : "Admin Role"}, { "RoleName": "User", "Description" : "User Role"}]
            };

            $.ajax({
                url: "@Url.Action("AddUser")",
                type: "POST",
                data: JSON.stringify(jsonObject),
                contentType: "application/json; charset=utf-8",
                dataType: "json",
                error: function (response) {
                    alert(response.responseText);
            },
                success: function (response) {
                    alert(response);
                }
            });

        });
    });
</script>

<input type="button" value="click1" id="click1" />

Index action posts to AddUser action -

[HttpPost]
public ActionResult AddUser(PersonModel model)
{
    if (model != null)
    {
        return Json("Success");
    }
    else
    {
        return Json("An Error Has occoured");
    }
}

So now when the post happens you can get all the posted data in the model parameter of action.

Update:

For asp.net core, to get JSON data as your action parameter you should add the [FromBody] attribute before your param name in your controller action. Note: if you're using ASP.NET Core 2.1, you can also use the [ApiController] attribute to automatically infer the [FromBody] binding source for your complex action method parameters. (Doc)

There are a couple issues here. First, you need to make sure to bind your JSON object back to the model in the controller. This is done by changing

data: JSON.stringify(usersRoles),

to

data: { model: JSON.stringify(usersRoles) },

Secondly, you aren't binding types correctly with your jquery call. If you remove

contentType: "application/json; charset=utf-8",

it will inherently bind back to a string.

All together, use the first ActionResult method and the following jquery ajax call:

    jQuery.ajax({
        type: "POST",
        url: "@Url.Action("AddUser")",
        dataType: "json",
        data: { model: JSON.stringify(usersRoles) },
        success: function (data) { alert(data); },
        failure: function (errMsg) {
        alert(errMsg);
        }
   });

You are sending a array of string

var usersRoles = [];
jQuery("#dualSelectRoles2 option").each(function () {
    usersRoles.push(jQuery(this).val());
});   

So change model type accordingly

 public ActionResult AddUser(List<string> model)
 {
 }

fwiw, this didn't work for me until I had this in the ajax call:

contentType: "application/json; charset=utf-8",

using Asp.Net MVC 4.