Dynamic/Expando and JSON - c#

There's a lot of Qs on this, but I need a solution without JSON.Net, etc. - I must use the canned stuff in Asp.Net MVC.
How can I serialize a POCO with a dynamic property - and get all the static properties, too? What I found was the dynamic only, or the static type which is easy.
e.g.
public class ReturnThisClassAsJSON {
public int Id {get; set; }
public string Name { get; set; }
public ContainedClass ContainedContents { get; set; }
}
public class ContainedClass {
public int Order { get; set; }
public string Label { get; set; }
public dynamic DynamicInfo { get; set; }
public List<dynamic> DynamicList { get; set }
}

My own answer:
I replaced the dynamic from the DynamicInfo and DynamicList from the ContainedClass with static types.
With the dynamic, I had 1 of 2 choices. Either serialize the dynamic to a string in its own serialization call using above SO question 5156664. (Which left me with the rest of the class I also wanted serialized and merged with it, thus this question). Or, incur this error:
"A circular reference was detected while serializing an object of type 'System.Reflection .RuntimeModule' ".
when attempting a single serialization call on the ContainedClass.
So, I transferred the dynamics into static-typed classes:
public class ColumnValue
{
public string Name { get; set; }
public string Value { get; set; }
}
public class DynamicRow
{
public List<ColumnValue> ColumnValue { get; set; }
}
and, change ContainedClass to this:
public class ContainedClass
{
public List<ColumnValue> DynamicInfo { get; set; }
public List<DynamicRow> Data { get; set; }
}
And, it serializes using out-of-the-box Asp.Net MVC:
return Json(ReturnThisClassAsJSON, JsonRequestBehaviour.AllowGet);

Related

Deserialize multiple JSON records in C# [duplicate]

This question already has an answer here:
Deserializing JSON into an object
(1 answer)
Closed 5 years ago.
I have the following string of Json records:
{
"records":[
{
"PK":"1_1_8",
"ID":"8",
"DeviceID":"1",
"RootID":"1",
"CustName":"test1",
"CustSurname":"test2",
"Address":"Nisou 1",
"City":"",
"ZipCode":"",
"PhoneNumber":"45646",
"HomePhoneNumber":"",
"Email":"",
"Notes":"",
"Owner":"1",
"LanguageID":"1",
"LanguagePK":"",
"DeletedFlag":"false",
"created":"2017-10-25 10:15:00",
"modified":"2017-10-25 09:35:43"
},
{
"PK":"1_1_33",
"ID":"33",
"DeviceID":"1",
"RootID":"1",
"CustName":"",
"CustSurname":"",
"Address":"",
"City":"",
"ZipCode":"",
"PhoneNumber":"",
"HomePhoneNumber":"",
"Email":"",
"Notes":"",
"Owner":null,
"LanguageID":"0",
"LanguagePK":"",
"DeletedFlag":"true",
"created":"2017-10-25 10:13:54",
"modified":"2017-10-25 10:13:54"
},
{
"PK":"1_1_16",
"ID":"16",
"DeviceID":"1",
"RootID":"1",
"CustName":"Theodosis",
"CustSurname":"",
"Address":"Dali",
"City":"Nicosia",
"ZipCode":"2540",
"PhoneNumber":"45645",
"HomePhoneNumber":"99123456",
"Email":"theodosis#gmail.com",
"Notes":"",
"Owner":"",
"LanguageID":"1",
"LanguagePK":"",
"DeletedFlag":"false",
"created":"2017-10-25 09:36:22",
"modified":"2017-10-25 09:36:22"
}
]
}
I am using Xamarin PCL in C# trying to parse this string into a list of objects.
I have a Customer class:
public class Customer
{
[PrimaryKey]
public string PK { get; set; }
public int DeviceID { get; set; }
public int ID { get; set; }
public string RootID{ get; set; }
public string CustName { get; set; }
public string CustSurname { get; set; }
public string Address { get; set; }
public string City { get; set; }
public string ZipCode { get; set; }
public string PhoneNumber { get; set; }
public string HomePhoneNumber { get; set; }
public string Email { get; set; }
public string Notes { get; set; }
public bool Owner { get; set; }
public int LanguageID { get; set; }
public string LanguagePK { get; set; }
public bool DeletedFlag { get; set; }
public DateTime created { get; set; }
public DateTime modified { get; set; }
}
I also tried out having a container class with a list of Customer objects.
public class DataContainer
{
public List<Customer> customers { get; set; }
}
I have seen quite a few of examples online on how to parse this into a list or any workable type but nothing seems to be working for me.
I have tried the following (JsonResults holds the string of Json records):
var observation = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<DataContainer>(JsonResults);
From other posts, I am not able to access JavaScriptSerializer class from my code, perhaps because of the Xamarin PCL Framework I am using.
Any ideas would be very welcome, as I said I do not mind the format I parse the string into, as long as it's workable.
Thank you.
You would have to make the following changes to your code to make this work.
First and most importantly, you don't have a property customers, you have records, so either rename it
public class DataContainer {
public List<Customer> records { get; set; }
}
or add a JsonProperty attribute
[JsonProperty(PropertyName = "records")]
Secondly, your Owner is a bool in C# and a nullable int (int?) in Json. So either change it in your C# class
public int? Owner { get; set; }
or write a converter to do that (e.g. like here)
[JsonConverter(typeof(NullableIntToBooleanConverter))]
public bool Owner { get; set; }
Here is a working .NetFiddle
The JSON string you provided is a JSON object, which contains a single property called records. records property is a List<Customer>. You can not deserialize the given string directly into DataContainer class that you provided because the property names do not match.
In the Class that your provided it is called customers
public class DataContainer {
public List<Customer> customers { get; set; } //records
}
Or please have a look at the attribute for a bit of advanced mapping
[JsonProperty]
JSON you provided is of the form:
{"records":[{Customer},{Customer},{Customer}]}
But Owner property is "1", null or "". Therefore I would suggest redefining Owner as int? (nullable)
Your string shows one object with a property named records that contains a list of other objects. Your code is trying to deserialize this into an object that doesn't have such a property.
Furthermore, the string contains objects with a property Owner that may be missing or have a numeric value. It's definitely not a bool.
You'll have to change Owner to :
public int? Owner { get; set; }
To deserialize the string, you need an object with a records property:
public class DataContainer
{
public Customer[] records { get; set; }
}
var data=JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<DataContainer>(json);
Debug.Assert(data.records.Length == 3);

Converting infinitely nested objects in .NET Core

EDIT: I originally worded this question very poorly, stating the problem was with JSON serialization. The problem actually happens when I'm converting from my base classes to my returned models using my custom mappings. I apologize for the confusion. :(
I'm using .NET Core 1.1.0, EF Core 1.1.0. I'm querying an interest and want to get its category from my DB. EF is querying the DB properly, no problems there. The issue is that the returned category has a collection with one interest, which has one parent category, which has a collection with one interest, etc. When I attempt to convert this from the base class to my return model, I'm getting a stack overflow because it's attempting to convert the infinite loop of objects. The only way I can get around this is to set that collection to null before I serialize the category.
Interest/category is an example, but this is happening with ALL of the entities I query. Some of them get very messy with the loops to set the relevant properties to null, such as posts/comments.
What is the best way to address this? Right now I'm using custom mappings that I wrote to convert between base classes and the returned models, but I'm open to using any other tools that may be helpful. (I know my custom mappings are the reason for the stack overflow, but surely there must be a more graceful way of handling this than setting everything to null before projecting from base class to model.)
Classes:
public class InterestCategory
{
public long Id { get; set; }
public string Name { get; set; }
public ICollection<Interest> Interests { get; set; }
}
public class Interest
{
public long Id { get; set; }
public string Name { get; set; }
public long InterestCategoryId { get; set; }
public InterestCategory InterestCategory { get; set; }
}
Models:
public class InterestCategoryModel
{
public long Id { get; set; }
public string Name { get; set; }
public List<InterestModel> Interests { get; set; }
}
public class InterestModel
{
public long Id { get; set; }
public string Name { get; set; }
public InterestCategoryModel InterestCategory { get; set; }
public long? InterestCategoryId { get; set; }
}
Mapping functions:
public static InterestCategoryModel ToModel(this InterestCategory category)
{
var m = new InterestCategoryModel
{
Name = category.Name,
Description = category.Description
};
if (category.Interests != null)
m.Interests = category.Interests.Select(i => i.ToModel()).ToList();
return m;
}
public static InterestModel ToModel(this Interest interest)
{
var m = new InterestModel
{
Name = interest.Name,
Description = interest.Description
};
if (interest.InterestCategory != null)
m.InterestCategory = interest.InterestCategory.ToModel();
return m;
}
This is returned by the query. (Sorry, needed to censor some things.)
This is not .NET Core related! JSON.NET is doing the serialization.
To disable it globally, just add this during configuration in Startup
services.AddMvc()
.AddJsonOptions(options =>
{
options.SerializerSettings.ReferenceLoopHandling = ReferenceLoopHandling.Ignore;
}));
edit:
Is it an option to remove the circular references form the model and have 2 distinct pair of models, depending on whether you want to show categories or interests?
public class InterestCategoryModel
{
public long Id { get; set; }
public string Name { get; set; }
public List<InterestModel> Interests { get; set; }
public class InterestModel
{
public long Id { get; set; }
public string Name { get; set; }
}
}
public class InterestModel
{
public long Id { get; set; }
public string Name { get; set; }
public InterestCategoryModel InterestCategory { get; set; }
public class InterestCategoryModel
{
public long Id { get; set; }
public string Name { get; set; }
}
}
Note that each of the models has a nested class for it's child objects, but they have their back references removed, so there would be no infinite reference during deserialization?

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.

Umbraco - Map strong-typed object to IPublishedContent

I'm 'conjoining' Umbraco with another web application and using Elasticsearch to store data from both applications in one index. So far, I've been only searching through Umbraco content, getting its ID and then using UmbracoHelper to retrieve the proper IPublishedContent item, which then I mapped to a strong-typed object [Class1], which inherits from PublishedContentModel abstract class, using Ditto.
Currently in the Umbraco application, the Class1 object is being serialized with JSON.Net and output and I can't change the structure of it. With addition of the items coming from another, non-Umbraco application I wanted to completely omit the step of retrieving the content from Umbraco and instead hold all of the relevant data directly in the index. That way I could just create strong typed objects based on the content of the index. However, after remapping the item to it's DTO [Class1DTO], I found myself unable to map those onto the Class1.
Obviously, I cannot use Ditto anymore, as it only works when mapping from IPublishedContent and it's derivatives. I was thinking about using AutoMapper, but the problem is, I cannot instantiate my Class1, without passing IPublishedContent object (because of the need to implement the PublishedContentModel constructor).
I know I could duplicate all of my strong-typed objects without the PublishedContentModel inheritance, but it feels really wrong doing that. Is there a way to somehow fake the IPublishedContent object, so that I could use AutoMapper? Or is there any other way of achieving the same output?
Example classes below:
[JsonObject(MemberSerialization.OptIn)]
public class Class1 : PublishedContentModel
{
public Class1(IPublishedContent content)
: base(content)
{
}
[JsonProperty]
public string type { get; set; }
[JsonProperty]
public override int Id { get { return base.Id; } }
[JsonProperty]
public override string SomeData { get; set; }
}
[JsonObject(MemberSerialization.OptIn)]
public class Class1DTO
{
[JsonProperty]
public string type { get; set; }
[JsonProperty]
public int Id { get; set; }
[JsonProperty]
public string SomeData { get; set; }
[JsonProperty]
public SomeFilter FilterForSearch { get; set; }
}
Couldn't you create your own version of the PublishedContentModel that doesn't have a reliance on IPublishedContent? Something like this:
public abstract class Base
{
public Int32 Id { get; set; }
public String Name { get; set; }
public String Path { get; set; }
public IList<Int32> PathIds
{
get
{
return !String.IsNullOrEmpty(Path) ? Path.Split(',').Select(x => Convert.ToInt32(x)).ToList() : null;
}
}
public Int32 ParentId
{
get
{
if (PathIds.HasItemsAndNotNull() && PathIds.Count >= 2)
return PathIds[PathIds.Count - 2];
return -1;
}
}
public Int32 Level { get; set; }
public DateTime CreateDate { get; set; }
public DateTime UpdateDate { get; set; }
public String WriterName { get; set; }
public String DocumentTypeAlias { get; set; }
}
Unless you have a need of very specific fields that are on PublishedContentModel.

Not sure how to implement IEnumerable on this class

Continuing to develop the API I have mentioned in previous posts, I have come across the following situation:
I need to be able to access a list of responses returned by the
webservice.
Problem is I am unsure how to implement IEnumerable on this class.
...
public class ResponseBodyResponse
{
public ResponseListResponse ResponseList { get; set; }
public class ResponseListResponse
{
public ResponseInfoResponse ResponseInfo { get; set; }
public class ResponseInfoResponse
{
public string RequestId { get; set; }
public string RequestType { get; set; }
public DateTime RequestDate { get; set; }
public string RequestStatus { get; set; }
public string Error { get; set; }
public string Memo { get; set; }
}
public ResponseListResponse()
{
ResponseInfo = new ResponseInfoResponse();
}
}
public ResponseBodyResponse()
{
ResponseList = new ResponseListResponse();
}
...
Before anyone asks I did get a copy of the xsd files, however generating the classes using xsd.exe resulted in a ridiculous mishmash of files with conflicting class names causing over 1000 ambiguous naming errors.
You really should return a concrete collection such as a list or an array from a web service instead of an implementation IEnumerable<T>, even though lists and arrays (and other colections) do implement it. Its not IEnumerable<T> that is the key for the serialization.
Aside, the nested class structure makes your code hard to consume.
Since I'm not sure of your intent with your above code, here is an example
public class Road
{
public Car[] Cars { get; set; } // this can be also `List<Car>`
}
public class Car
{
// stuff
}

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