{"id":6302,"date":"2025-12-01T14:16:41","date_gmt":"2025-12-01T22:16:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/azure-sql\/?p=6302"},"modified":"2026-05-20T18:52:43","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T01:52:43","slug":"data-api-builder-request-body-strict","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/azure-sql\/data-api-builder-request-body-strict\/","title":{"rendered":"Data API builder\u2019s “request-body-strict” Simplifies Client Code"},"content":{"rendered":"

Data API builder (DAB) provides REST and GraphQL endpoints over SQL Server, Azure Cosmos DB, PostgreSQL, MySQL, and SQL Data Warehouse. \"Data<\/a> The request-body-strict<\/code> configuration value controls how REST endpoints treat unknown JSON properties in the payload:\n* When set to true<\/code> (default), unknown properties are rejected and an exception is thrown.\n* When set to false<\/code>, unknown properties are allowed and ignored. This is especially useful for .NET developers. Read<\/p>\n

the documentation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Let’s try it out<\/h2>\n

The database table<\/h3>\n

Imagine a simple table called Category with only two columns:<\/p>\n

CREATE TABLE Category (\r\n    Id INT PRIMARY KEY,\r\n    Name VARCHAR(100)\r\n)<\/code><\/pre>\n
The configuration file<\/h3>\n
Create your Data API builder configuration file with the following command line commands:<\/p>\n
\n
\n
dab init --database-type mssql --connection-string \"<your-connection-string>\" --host-mode development\r\ndab add Category --source dbo.Category --permissions anonymous:*\r\ndab start<\/code><\/pre>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
The JSON payload<\/h3>\n
When you call the REST endpoint for Category at<\/p>\n
https:\/\/localhost:5001\/api\/Category<\/code>, the resulting JSON looks like this:<\/p>\n
{\r\n  \"value\": [\r\n    {\r\n      \"Id\": 1,\r\n      \"Name\": \"Category 1\"\r\n    },\r\n    {\r\n      \"Id\": 2,\r\n      \"Name\": \"Category 2\"\r\n    },\r\n    {\r\n      \"Id\": 3,\r\n      \"Name\": \"Category 3\"\r\n    }\r\n  ]\r\n}<\/code><\/pre>\n
The C# class<\/h3>\n
To deserialize this JSON in .NET, you would use C# classes similar to these:<\/p>\n
public class Root\r\n{\r\n    [JsonPropertyName(\"value\")]\r\n    public List<Category> Categories { get; set; }\r\n}\r\n\r\npublic class Category\r\n{\r\n    [JsonPropertyName(\"Id\")]\r\n    public int Id { get; set; }\r\n    \r\n    [JsonPropertyName(\"Name\")]\r\n    public string Name { get; set; }\r\n}<\/code><\/pre>\n
Updating data when request-body-strict is true When<\/h3>\n
request-body-strict<\/code> is true<\/code>, you update a record by sending a PATCH request to https:\/\/localhost:5001\/api\/Category\/Id\/1<\/code>. The request body cannot include the Id<\/code> property since it’s already in the URL. This requires creating a separate C# class for updates:<\/p>\n
public class Category_NoPK\r\n{\r\n    [JsonPropertyName(\"Name\")] \r\n    public string Name { get; set; }\r\n}<\/code><\/pre>\n
This allows you to pass the payload to the REST endpoint without errors and successfully update the database record.<\/p>\n
Updating data when request-body-strict is false \u2b50 When<\/h3>\n
request-body-strict<\/code> is false<\/code>, you can send the same PATCH request but include the full Category<\/code> class in the body. The Id<\/code> property will simply be ignored. This provides a much better experience for .NET developers, allowing you to reuse the same Category<\/code> class for both reading and updating. Yes, it’s that easy.<\/p>\n
Conclusion<\/h2>\n
Using REST to Create, Read, Update, or Delete database records with Data API builder is straightforward. By setting<\/p>\n
request-body-strict<\/code> to false<\/code>, you can write less code with fewer types and simpler payloads when working with your API. 
Data API builder<\/a><\/div><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Data API builder (DAB) provides REST and GraphQL endpoints over SQL Server, Azure Cosmos DB, PostgreSQL, MySQL, and SQL Data Warehouse. The request-body-strict configuration value controls how REST endpoints treat unknown JSON properties in the payload: * When set to true (default), unknown properties are rejected and an exception is thrown. * When set to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":96788,"featured_media":6608,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[444,597],"tags":[409,560],"class_list":["post-6302","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-net","category-data-api-builder-2","tag-api","tag-data-api-builder"],"acf":[],"blog_post_summary":"
Data API builder (DAB) provides REST and GraphQL endpoints over SQL Server, Azure Cosmos DB, PostgreSQL, MySQL, and SQL Data Warehouse. The request-body-strict configuration value controls how REST endpoints treat unknown JSON properties in the payload: * When set to true (default), unknown properties are rejected and an exception is thrown. * When set to […]<\/p>\n","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/azure-sql\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6302","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/azure-sql\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/azure-sql\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/azure-sql\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/96788"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/azure-sql\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6302"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/azure-sql\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6302\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7134,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/azure-sql\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6302\/revisions\/7134"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/azure-sql\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6608"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/azure-sql\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/azure-sql\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/azure-sql\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}