How to return raw string with ApiController?

Question

I have an ApiController that serves XML/JSON, but I would like one of my actions to return pure HTML. I tried the below but it still return XML/JSON.

public string Get()
{
    return "<strong>test</strong>";
}

This is what the above returns:

<string xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/2003/10/Serialization/">&lt;strong&gt;test&lt;/strong&gt;</string>

Is there a way to return just the pure, unescaped text without even the surrounding XML tags (maybe a different return type of action attribute)?

Answer 1

You could have your Web Api action return an HttpResponseMessage for which you have full control over the Content. In your case you might use a StringContent and specify the correct content type:

public HttpResponseMessage Get()
{
    return new HttpResponseMessage()
    {
        Content = new StringContent(
            "<strong>test</strong>", 
            Encoding.UTF8, 
            "text/html"
        )
    };
}

or

public IHttpActionResult Get()
{
    return base.ResponseMessage(new HttpResponseMessage()
    {
        Content = new StringContent(
            "<strong>test</strong>", 
            Encoding.UTF8, 
            "text/html"
        )
    });
}