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Send a limited/reduced class to frontend

What I want
I want to send a limited/reduced class/object to frontend (as JSON). I use .NET Core 5.
What I have
I have a model class like this:
namespace Tasks.Models
{
public class Resources
{
public Guid Id { get; set; }
public string Type { get; set; }
public string Url { get; set; }
public string Name { get; set; }
public string Description { get; set; }
public DateTime? Createdon { get; set; }
public Guid Userid { get; set; }
public Guid Taskid { get; set; }
public int Clicked { get; set; }
public byte Active { get; set; }
+++ many more properties
}
}
Now depending on the which controller that calls this model I want to have different "kind" of models. So if the resource is file I maybe want the properties Id,Type,Name. But if the resource is URL I want Id, Url, Name.
I tried setting up a method that "initialized the fields I wanted, but that also returned all properties
public static Responses FileResponse()
{
var response = new Responses()
{
Id = new Guid(),
Name = "",
Type = "File",
};
return response;
}
Now, when I call the Resources class or this method I get all properties, and returning it to the view presents all properties, but mostly as null, because I only set the three fields in the method.
What is the recommended way of solving this?

If you want to remove the field if it's null instead of showing in json with null value.
public class Resources
{
public Guid Id { get; set; }
public string Type { get; set; }
// if null, dont show it in JSON output
[JsonIgnoreAttribute(Condition = JsonIgnoreCondition.WhenWritingNull)]
public string Url { get; set; }
// if null, dont show it in JSON output
[JsonIgnoreAttribute(Condition = JsonIgnoreCondition.WhenWritingNull)]
public string Name { get; set; }
public string Description { get; set; }
public DateTime? Createdon { get; set; }
public Guid Userid { get; set; }
public Guid Taskid { get; set; }
public int Clicked { get; set; }
public byte Active { get; set; }
}
PS: Fiddle https://dotnetfiddle.net/hiMAci

It is just limiting the Resource class I am not able to do
Yep, side effect of C# being strongly typed, with object X definitely having properties Y and Z. You need differently shaped objects - either full on classes or records - that name the reduced set of properties because the serializer is going to look a tthe object and ser every property it can find.
You could make a new class for every variation - quick and easy with records, and easy to pass around inside your C#:
public record FileThing(string Id, string Type, string Name);
//make a new one and return it
new FileThing(someResources.Id, someResources.Type, someResources.Name);
Or can consider using an anonymous type if you're literally looking to put a few properties into some json, down a socket to a consuming front end (I can't quite decide what you mean by "view" - it doesn't seem to be an MVC View) that only cares about a few props out of many
So if the resource is file I maybe want the properties Id,Type,Name. But if the resource is URL I want Id, Url, Name.
public ActionResult SomeControllerMethod(){
if(isFile)
return Ok(new { someResources.Id, someResources.Type, someResources.Name });
else if(isUrl)
return Ok(new { someResources.Id, someResources.Url, someResources.Name });
}
Anonymous types are a bit harder to work with because the compiler writes the class for you, so it's tricky to do things like declare return types from methods if the method is returning an AT.. But if you're using it as some fill-in all within one method, such as a "make this and serialize it", they work well..

I think your approach is not the right one here. I tend to follow more general OO guidelines in this situation (note, some consider these a bit dated, and other solutions exist. But they are still commonly used)
You write against an interface. So let's see what you want... A guid, type and name. All other deatils aren't important.
public interface IResourceDetails
{
public Guid Id { get; }
public string Name { get; }
public string Type { get; }
}
And you can have multiple of these interfaces.
You could then implement the interfaces per type. But I would probably combine them in a base class
public abstract class ResourceBase : IResourceDetails
{
public Guid Id { get; } = new ();
public string Name { get; init; }
public string Type { get; }
public ResourceBase(string type)
{
Type = type;
}
}
Each resource type would have it's own implementation
public class FileResource : ResourceBase
{
public FileResource() : base("File") { }
// File-specific properties.
public string Description { get; init; }
public DateTime? Createdon { get; init; }
}
The response method then could be made generic and look like this
public static IActionResult Response(IResourceDetails resource)
{
return Ok(new
{
resource.Id,
resource.Name,
resource.Type,
});
}

Unable to parse JSON with empty array/objects

Trying the parse this json file and it seems to be getting stuck on empty objects and arrays.
{"Unexpected character encountered while parsing value: [. Path 'notes'."}
{
"id":null,
"phone":null,
"name":" ",
"email":null,
"address":null,
"assignee":null,
"notes":[
],
"created_at":null,
"items":{
"0":{
"minimized":false,
"sku":{
"partner_id":null,
"type_id":0,
"errors":{
}
}
}
}
}
CLASSES
public class RootObject
{
public string id { get; set; }
public string phone { get; set; }
public string name { get; set; }
public string email { get; set; }
public string address { get; set; }
public string assignee { get; set; }
public string notes { get; set; }
public string created_at { get; set; }
public Items items { get; set; }
}
public class Items
{
public bool minimized { get; set; }
public Sku sku { get; set; }
}
public class Sku
{
public int partner_id { get; set; }
public int type_id { get; set; }
public Errors errors { get; set; }
}
public class Errors
{
}
The issue appears to be with handling the Notes and Errors property, I've tried to use the following settings as per a few other SO posts but nothing has worked and I am not sure how to get this to deserialize into an object.
RootObject o = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<RootObject>(json, new JsonSerializerSettings
{
MissingMemberHandling = MissingMemberHandling.Ignore,
NullValueHandling = NullValueHandling.Ignore
});
Perhaps someone can help me out because it seems to me JSON.net should be able to handle these properties?

Here's a working dotNetFiddle: https://dotnetfiddle.net/Lnkojw
Here's the output.
NOTE: I put in sample values in your json for your null values so you can see that it is working)
Your class definitions (autogenerated from http://json2csharp.com/ ) need to be modified as shown below.
public class RootObject
{
public string id { get; set; }
public string phone { get; set; }
public string name { get; set; }
public string email { get; set; }
public string address { get; set; }
public string assignee { get; set; }
public List<string> notes { get; set; }
public string created_at { get; set; }
public Dictionary<int,Item> items { get; set; }
}
public class Item
{
public bool minimized { get; set; }
public Sku sku { get; set; }
}
public class Sku
{
public int partner_id { get; set; }
public int type_id { get; set; }
[JsonIgnore]
public object errors { get; set; }
}
Since you have stated in comments that Errors will always be empty, I removed that redundant Errors class you had, with no properties or members. I also set the errors member in the Sku class to be object type in case you get values in future. Finally I set this errors property to [JsonIgnore] so json.net will ignore it for serialization / deserialization
Also Items appears to be Dictionary with an int for key and an Item for Value. So I have changed the definition there also.
Here's the code that deserializes and prints out the values.
using System;
using Newtonsoft.Json;
using System.Collections.Generic;
public class Program
{
public static void Main()
{
string json = #"{
""id"":1,
""phone"":""415-000-1234"",
""name"":"" "",
""email"":null,
""address"":null,
""assignee"":null,
""notes"":[
],
""created_at"":null,
""items"":{
""0"":{
""minimized"":false,
""sku"":{
""partner_id"":21,
""type_id"":44,
""errors"":{
}
}
}
}
}";
Console.WriteLine("Deserializing json...");
RootObject o = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<RootObject>(json, new JsonSerializerSettings
{
MissingMemberHandling = MissingMemberHandling.Ignore,
NullValueHandling = NullValueHandling.Ignore
});
Console.WriteLine("Success!");
Console.WriteLine("id #: {0}",o.id);
Console.WriteLine("phone #: {0}",o.phone);
foreach (var item in o.items)
{
Console.WriteLine(" Item #: {0}",item.Key);
if (item.Value != null)
{
Console.WriteLine(" SKU: partner_id: {0}",item.Value.sku.partner_id);
Console.WriteLine(" SKU: type_id: {0}",item.Value.sku.type_id);
}
}
}
}
And once again, here's the output. You can see the json values properly deserialized.
PRO TIPS:
Use a sample json that has values for as many fields as possible, so that http://json2csharp.com/ can generate the proper classes
Whenever you have a nameless property like the items in your json,you will likely need to inspect what http://json2csharp.com/ generated and modify it to be a Dictionary or a NameValuePair or KeyValuePair or something else. It is on a case by case basis. In other words, for 99% of well designed json, you can "plug and play" with http://json2csharp.com/ , for the remaining 1% you will have to customize the classes generated, or your serialization code or both.

The issue seems to be that in your auto-properties for RootObject, you have the notes property listed as a string rather than string[] - if notes are indeed an array of strings, your JSON snippet doesn't show that.
You should also be able to use a List<string> for notes, if you would prefer that.

Deserialise JSON containing numeric key with Json.NET

I would like to deserialize the following JSON (using Json.NET) to an object, but cannot, as the class name would need to begin with a number.
An example of this is the Wikipedia article API. Using the API to provide a JSON response returns something like this. Note the "16689396" inside the "pages" key.
{
"batchcomplete":"",
"continue":{
"grncontinue":"0.893378504602|0.893378998188|35714269|0",
"continue":"grncontinue||"
},
"query":{
"pages":{
"16689396":{
"pageid":16689396,
"ns":0,
"title":"Jalan Juru",
"extract":"<p><b>Jalan Juru</b> (Penang state road <i>P176</i>) is a major road in Penang, Malaysia.</p>\n\n<h2><span id=\"List_of_junctions\">List of junctions</span></h2>\n<p></p>\n<p><br></p>"
}
}
}
}
How could I deserialize this JSON containing a number which changes based on the article?

It sounds like the Pages property in your Query class would just need to be a Dictionary<int, Page> or Dictionary<string, Page>.
Complete example with the JSON you've provided - I've had to guess at some of the name meanings:
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.IO;
using Newtonsoft.Json;
public class Root
{
[JsonProperty("batchcomplete")]
public string BatchComplete { get; set; }
[JsonProperty("continue")]
public Continuation Continuation { get; set; }
[JsonProperty("query")]
public Query Query { get; set; }
}
public class Continuation
{
[JsonProperty("grncontinue")]
public string GrnContinue { get; set; }
[JsonProperty("continue")]
public string Continue { get; set; }
}
public class Query
{
[JsonProperty("pages")]
public Dictionary<int, Page> Pages { get; set; }
}
public class Page
{
[JsonProperty("pageid")]
public int Id { get; set; }
[JsonProperty("ns")]
public int Ns { get; set; }
[JsonProperty("title")]
public string Title { get; set; }
[JsonProperty("extract")]
public string Extract { get; set; }
}
class Test
{
static void Main()
{
string text = File.ReadAllText("test.json");
var root = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<Root>(text);
Console.WriteLine(root.Query.Pages[16689396].Title);
}
}

Related question: Json deserialize from wikipedia api with c#
Essentially you need to changes from using a class for the pages to a dictionary, which allows for the dynamic nature of the naming convention.
Class definitions :
public class pageval
{
public int pageid { get; set; }
public int ns { get; set; }
public string title { get; set; }
public string extract { get; set; }
}
public class Query
{
public Dictionary<string, pageval> pages { get; set; }
}
public class Limits
{
public int extracts { get; set; }
}
public class RootObject
{
public string batchcomplete { get; set; }
public Query query { get; set; }
public Limits limits { get; set; }
}
Deserialization :
var root = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<RootObject>(__YOUR_JSON_HERE__);
var page = responseJson.query.pages["16689396"];

You can implement your own DeSerializer or editing the JSON before you DeSerialize it.

Deserialize JSON with variable name arrays

I am getting JSON that is being returned from a REST web service for survey responses. It has arrays for the name portion of some of the name value pairs. Additionally the names will be variable depending on the type of questions asked. I'm using JSON.net and trying to deserialize the returned value into some type of object tree that I can walk but can't figure out what structure to use to have it filled in.
I tested the following snippet in LinqPad and fields is always empty. Is there someway to easily read in the variable data or do I have to parse it in code?
void Main() {
string json = #"{
'result_ok':true,
'total_count':'51',
'data':[{
'id':'1',
'status':'Deleted',
'datesubmitted':'2015-01-12 10:43:47',
'[question(3)]':'Red',
'[question(4)]':'Blue',
'[question(18)]':12,
'[variable(\'STANDARD_IP\')]':'127.0.0.1',
'[variable(\'STANDARD_GEOCOUNTRY\')]':'United States'
}]
}";
var responses = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<RootObject>(json);
responses.Dump();
}
public class RootObject {
public bool result_ok { get; set; }
public string total_count { get; set; }
public List<Response> data { get; set; }
}
public class Response {
public string id { get; set; }
public string status { get; set; }
public string datesubmitted { get; set; }
public List<object> fields = new List<object>();
}

Change the fields property in your Response class to be a Dictionary<string, object>, then mark it with a [JsonExtensionData] attribute like this:
public class Response
{
public string id { get; set; }
public string status { get; set; }
public string datesubmitted { get; set; }
[JsonExtensionData]
public Dictionary<string, object> fields { get; set; }
}
All of the fields with the strange property names will then be placed into the dictionary where you can access them as normal. No extra code is required.
Here is a demo: https://dotnetfiddle.net/1rQUXT

Deserialize JSON with dynamic objects

I have a JSON object that comes with a long list of area codes. Unfortunately each area code is the object name on a list in the Data object. How do I create a class that will allow RestSharp to deserialize the content?
Here's how my class looks now:
public class phaxioResponse
{
public string success { get; set; }
public string message { get; set; }
public List<areaCode> data { get; set; }
public class areaCode
{
public string city { get; set; }
public string state { get; set; }
}
}
And here's the JSON content:
{
success: true
message: "277 area codes available."
data: {
201: {
city: "Bayonne, Jersey City, Union City"
state: "New Jersey"
}
202: {
city: "Washington"
state: "District Of Columbia"
} [...]
}

Since this JSON is not C# friendly, I had to do a little bit of hackery to make it come out properly. However, the result is quite nice.
var json = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<dynamic>(sampleJson);
var data = ((JObject)json.data).Children();
var stuff = data.Select(x => new { AreaCode = x.Path.Split('.')[1], City = x.First()["city"], State = x.Last()["state"] });
This code will generate an anonymous type that best represents the data. However, the anonymous type could be easily replaced by a ctor for a more normal DTO class.
The output looks something like this:

your json is incorrect, but if you do correct it you can use a json-to-csharp tool like the one on http://json2csharp.com/ to generate your classes:
public class __invalid_type__201
{
public string city { get; set; }
public string state { get; set; }
}
public class Data
{
public __invalid_type__201 __invalid_name__201 { get; set; }
}
public class RootObject
{
public bool success { get; set; }
public string message { get; set; }
public Data data { get; set; }
}

I don't know anything about RestSharp, but if you're using Newtonsoft on the server side, then you can just pass a JObject to your method. Then you can interrogate the object to see what type of object it really is and use JObject.ToObject() to convert it.

I think using Dictionary<int,areaCode> is the easiest way.
public class phaxioResponse
{
public string success { get; set; }
public string message { get; set; }
public Dictionary<int,areaCode> data { get; set; }
public class areaCode
{
public string city { get; set; }
public string state { get; set; }
}
}
Then:
var res= JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<phaxioResponse>(json);
Console.WriteLine(string.Join(",", res.data));