How do I provide ObjectContent that is a string - unit-testing

Question

I'm writing a unit test which tests the scenario where a body is sent in the request which is a plain string, i.e. not parseable as JSON.
In this test, I'm setting the HttpRequestMessage something like this:
var ojectContent = new ObjectContent(typeof(string)
, "aaaaa"
, new JsonMediaTypeFormatter());
httpRequestMessage.Content = objectContent;
The problem is, when I debug the code, the request body has been set to "aaaaa" (note the additional quotes) which is enough to cause the deserialisation code to treat the request body differently, meaning I can't test what I mean to test. I need the request body to be aaaaa.
Can anyone advise how I can set up the test so that the request body does not contain these quotes?
Edit: I have also tried new ObjectContent(typeof(object)... and it gives the same result.

Answer 1

Another way is to bypass the MediaTypeFormatter by using StringContent instead of ObjectContent:
var content = new StringContent("aaaaa");
httpRequestMessage.Content = content;

Answer 2

Okay, so I needed to create a media type formatter that didn't interfere with the input in any way. I used this:
private class DoNothingTypeFormatter : MediaTypeFormatter
{
public override bool CanReadType(Type type)
{
return false;
}
public override bool CanWriteType(Type type)
{
if (type == typeof(string))
{
return true;
}
return false;
}
public override Task WriteToStreamAsync(Type type, object value, System.IO.Stream writeStream, HttpContent content, TransportContext transportContext)
{
var myString = value as string;
if (myString == null)
{
throw new Exception("Everything is supposed to be a string here.");
}
var length = myString.Length;
var bytes = System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(myString);
return Task.Factory.StartNew(() => writeStream.Write(bytes, 0, length));
}
}
Then, when I want to generate the body of the `HttpRequestMessage', I do so like this:
objectContent = new ObjectContent(typeof(string)
, "not json"
, new DoNothingTypeFormatter());