What is the role of serialization and deserialization in a .NET Core Web API, and how do you implement it?

Serialization and deserialization are essential processes in a .NET Core Web API, as they allow the conversion of data between different formats, such as JSON or XML, and .NET Core objects.

Serialization is the process of converting an object into a format that can be transmitted or stored, such as JSON or XML. This process is commonly used in a Web API when returning data to a client.

Deserialization is the opposite process, which converts the data back into .NET Core objects.

To implement serialization and deserialization in a .NET Core Web API, you can use the built-in JSON serializer, which is included in the Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.NewtonsoftJson package. This package allows you to easily convert .NET Core objects to and from JSON format.

To use the JSON serializer, you can add the AddNewtonsoftJson() extension method to the ConfigureServices method in the Startup.cs file, as follows:

public void ConfigureServices(IServiceCollection services)
{
    services.AddControllers()
            .AddNewtonsoftJson();
}


This registers the JSON serializer as the default serializer for the Web API.

You can also customize the JSON serializer settings by passing an instance of the JsonSerializerSettings class to the AddNewtonsoftJson() method. For example, to specify that null values should be included in the JSON output, you can do the following:

public void ConfigureServices(IServiceCollection services)
{
    services.AddControllers()
            .AddNewtonsoftJson(options => {
                options.SerializerSettings.NullValueHandling = NullValueHandling.Include;
            });
}


Serialization and deserialization are essential processes in a .NET Core Web API, and using the built-in JSON serializer can make it easy to convert .NET Core objects to and from JSON format.