How do I sub in JSON.NET as model binder for ASP.NET MVC controllers?

I have done this, and also heavily customized the serialization that Json.NET is doing, by:

Replace the default formatter in global.asax.cs, Application_Start:

GlobalConfiguration.Configuration.Formatters.Remove(GlobalConfiguration.Configuration.Formatters.JsonFormatter);GlobalConfiguration.Configuration.Formatters.Add(new CustomJsonMediaTypeFormatter());

And my CustomJsonMediaTypeFormatter is:

public static class CustomJsonSettings{    private static JsonSerializerSettings _settings;    public static JsonSerializerSettings Instance    {        get        {            if (_settings == null)            {                var settings = new JsonSerializerSettings();                // Must convert times coming from the client (always in UTC) to local - need both these parts:                settings.Converters.Add(new IsoDateTimeConverter { DateTimeStyles = System.Globalization.DateTimeStyles.AssumeUniversal }); // Critical part 1                settings.DateTimeZoneHandling = DateTimeZoneHandling.Local;   // Critical part 2                // Skip circular references                settings.ReferenceLoopHandling = ReferenceLoopHandling.Ignore;                // Handle special cases in json (self-referencing loops, etc)                settings.ContractResolver = new CustomJsonResolver();                _settings = settings;            }            return _settings;        }    }}public class CustomJsonMediaTypeFormatter : MediaTypeFormatter{    public JsonSerializerSettings _jsonSerializerSettings;    public CustomJsonMediaTypeFormatter()    {        _jsonSerializerSettings = CustomJsonSettings.Instance;        // Fill out the mediatype and encoding we support        SupportedMediaTypes.Add(new MediaTypeHeaderValue("application/json"));        SupportedEncodings.Add(new UTF8Encoding(false, true));    }    public override bool CanReadType(Type type)    {        return true;    }    public override bool CanWriteType(Type type)    {        return true;    }    public override Task<object> ReadFromStreamAsync(Type type, Stream stream, HttpContent content, IFormatterLogger formatterLogger)    {        // Create a serializer        JsonSerializer serializer = JsonSerializer.Create(_jsonSerializerSettings);        // Create task reading the content        return Task.Factory.StartNew(() =>        {            using (StreamReader streamReader = new StreamReader(stream, SupportedEncodings.First()))            {                using (JsonTextReader jsonTextReader = new JsonTextReader(streamReader))                {                    return serializer.Deserialize(jsonTextReader, type);                }            }        });    }    public override Task WriteToStreamAsync(Type type, object value, Stream stream, HttpContent content, TransportContext transportContext)    {        // Create a serializer        JsonSerializer serializer = JsonSerializer.Create(_jsonSerializerSettings);        // Create task writing the serialized content        return Task.Factory.StartNew(() =>        {            using (StreamWriter streamWriter = new StreamWriter(stream, SupportedEncodings.First()))            {                using (JsonTextWriter jsonTextWriter = new JsonTextWriter(streamWriter))                {                    serializer.Serialize(jsonTextWriter, value);                }            }        });    }}

And finally, the CustomJsonResolver:

public class CustomJsonResolver : DefaultContractResolver{    protected override IList<JsonProperty> CreateProperties(Type type, Newtonsoft.Json.MemberSerialization memberSerialization)    {        var list = base.CreateProperties(type, memberSerialization);        // Custom stuff for my app        if (type == typeof(Foo))        {            RemoveProperty(list, "Bar");            RemoveProperty(list, "Bar2");        }        return list;    }    private void RemoveProperty(IList<JsonProperty> list, string propertyName)    {        var rmc = list.FirstOrDefault(x => x.PropertyName == propertyName);        if (rmc != null)        {            list.Remove(rmc);        }    }}

The JsonNetValueProviderFactory proposed here works better than the others I've tried (I had issues with arrays using Greg Ennis' one for example). This link also propose a solution to return Json from an action.