Return JSON as default from and UmbracoApiController

So you'd like to stop the UmbracoApiController from returning XML and instead always return JSON, but you don't want to be doing some hacky workaround every time or modify the global applications settings?

I've made this attribute to be the answer to that question, apply it to any Api Controller and it'll remove the XmlFormatter for you.

Use this code to create attribute:

using System;
using System.Linq;
using System.Net.Http.Formatting;
using System.Web.Http.Controllers;

/// 
/// Applying this attribute to any Umbraco API Controller will ensure that it does not contain an xml formatter.
/// 
public class JsonOnlyConfigurationAttribute : Attribute, IControllerConfiguration
{
    public virtual void Initialize(HttpControllerSettings controllerSettings, HttpControllerDescriptor controllerDescriptor)
    {
        var toRemove = controllerSettings.Formatters.Where(x => x is XmlMediaTypeFormatter).ToList();

        // Remove all xml formatters
        foreach (var y in toRemove)
        {
            controllerSettings.Formatters.Remove(y);
        }
    }
}

The apply it to your controller like this:

[JsonOnlyConfiguration]
public class MyController : UmbracoApiController
{
    ...
}

You're done, the controller will now return json by default.