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How to deserialize json object with no parent class?

I'm trying and failing to write a program that will make an API call and then turn the returned items into objects that fit my model. Specifically I can't make it deserealize, and I suspect it has something to do with how the json is return compared to what my model looks like.
The data I'm trying to get looks like this;
https://api.nasa.gov/planetary/apod?start_date=2022-03-01&end_date=2022-03-08&api_key=DEMO_KEY
As you can see, it consists of an array of items, but there is no name for the array items. When I paste this into the Get-model with Paste JSON as Classes, I get this;
public class GetApodItemsResult
{
public Class1[] Property1 { get; set; }
}
public class Class1
{
public string copyright { get; set; }
public string date { get; set; }
public string explanation { get; set; }
public string hdurl { get; set; }
public string media_type { get; set; }
public string service_version { get; set; }
public string title { get; set; }
public string url { get; set; }
}
My entire code works just fine up until I need to serialize the JSON with this line:
var responseObject = await response.Content.ReadFromJsonAsync<GetApodItemsResult>();
, where I get this message;
System.Text.Json.JsonException: 'The JSON value could not be converted to UnnamedSpaceProject.Models.GetApodItemsResult.
Interestingly I know that the code works on a spotify api call, so the code really should work largely the same, which leads me to believe that the problem is with how the JSON is formatted.
How do I get around that? Because I don't see a way to have the root object contain an unnamed array.

Your GetApodItemsResult class is not a valid class to deserialize the content you get from server, the correct deserialization type will be List<Class1> or Class1[]
var responseObject = await response.Content.ReadFromJsonAsync<List<Class1>>();
I recommend you to use more meaningful name instead of Class1 you can name it Apod (acronym for Astronomy Picture of the Day)
Full working code:
using System.Text.Json;
using System.Text.Json.Serialization;
HttpClient client = new HttpClient();
const string BaseUrl = #"https://api.nasa.gov/";
var response = await client.GetAsync($"{BaseUrl}planetary/apod?start_date=2022-03-01&end_date=2022-03-08&api_key=DEMO_KEY");
if ((response.StatusCode != System.Net.HttpStatusCode.OK))
{
Console.Error.WriteLine("field to fetch data from server");
}
var responseBody = await response.Content.ReadAsStringAsync();
var pictuersList = JsonSerializer.Deserialize<List<Apod>>(responseBody);
Console.WriteLine($"there is {pictuersList?.Count} apod downloaded successflly");
Console.WriteLine("done");
public class Apod
{
[JsonPropertyName("copyright")]
public string Copyright { get; set; } = "";
[JsonPropertyName("date")]
public string Date { get; set; } = "";
[JsonPropertyName("explanation")]
public string Explanation { get; set; } = "";
[JsonPropertyName("hdurl")]
public string Hdurl { get; set; } = "";
[JsonPropertyName("media_type")]
public string MediaType { get; set; } = "";
[JsonPropertyName("service_version")]
public string ServiceVersion { get; set; } = "";
[JsonPropertyName("title")]
public string Title { get; set; } = "";
[JsonPropertyName("url")]
public string Url { get; set; } = "";
}

The object your JSON containing is not some container with the array in it, it IS the array. So, the correct code would be like this:
var responseObject = await response.Content.ReadFromJsonAsync<Class1[]>();
The correct JSON for your code would look like this:
{
"Property1": [{
"copyright": "Jeff DaiTWAN",
"date": "2022-03-01",
"url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2203/DuelingBands_Dai_960.jpg"
}]
}

Json class saving a value while containing other default values

Hey all I am trying to figure out how to go about saving just one value in my JSON class instead of having to write the whole JSON out again with "New". I am using the Newton JSON.Net.
This is my JSON structure:
public class GV
{
public class Data
{
[JsonProperty("pathForNESPosters")]
public static string PathForNESPosters { get; set; }
[JsonProperty("pathForSNESPosters")]
public static string PathForSNESPosters { get; set; }
[JsonProperty("pathForSEGAPosters")]
public static string PathForSEGAPosters { get; set; }
[JsonProperty("pathToNESContent")]
public static string PathToNESContent { get; set; }
[JsonProperty("pathToSNESContent")]
public static string PathToSNESContent { get; set; }
[JsonProperty("pathToSEGAContent")]
public static string PathToSEGAContent { get; set; }
[JsonProperty("lastSavedVolume")]
public static double LastSavedVolume { get; set; }
}
public class Root
{
public Data data { get; set; }
}
And I have no issues with loading that data from a file into my class:
GV.Root myDeserializedClass = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<GV.Root>(File.ReadAllText(
currentAssemblyPath + String.Format(#"\Resources\{0}", "dataForLinks.json")
));
But I have yet to find anything searching that will let me do one update to an object in the class without wiping it out doing a New statement.
What I am wanting to do is something like the following:
-Load the json into my class object [Done]
-Save a value thats in my class object [stuck here]
GV.pathToNESContent = "new value here";
-Save class object (with the one new value) back to the file for which it came from preserving the other original values. [not here yet]
When I update just that one class object I am wanting to contain the original values for all the other JSON data I read in from the file.
Anyone have a good example of the above you can share?
update

I'd ditch the inner class structure:
namespace GV
{
public class Data
{
[JsonProperty("pathForNESPosters")]
public string PathForNESPosters { get; set; }
[JsonProperty("pathForSNESPosters")]
public string PathForSNESPosters { get; set; }
[JsonProperty("pathForSEGAPosters")]
public string PathForSEGAPosters { get; set; }
[JsonProperty("pathToNESContent")]
public string PathToNESContent { get; set; }
[JsonProperty("pathToSNESContent")]
public string PathToSNESContent { get; set; }
[JsonProperty("pathToSEGAContent")]
public string PathToSEGAContent { get; set; }
[JsonProperty("lastSavedVolume")]
public double LastSavedVolume { get; set; }
}
public class Root
{
public Data Data { get; set; }
}
Deser (use Path.Combine to build paths, not string concat):
var x = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<GV.Root>(File.ReadAllText(
Path.Combine(currentAssemblyPath, "Resources", "dataForLinks.json"))
));
Edit:
x.Data.PathToNESContent = "...";
and re-ser

get deserialize json objects into list c#

I'm getting json string from webapi like this
{"page":1,"total_results":33,"total_pages":2,"results":
[{"vote_count":8017,"id":603,"video":false,"vote_average":7.9,"title":"The Matrix","popularity":7.82272,"poster_path":"\/lZpWprJqbIFpEV5uoHfoK0KCnTW.jpg","original_language":"en","original_title":"The Matrix","genre_ids":[28,878],"backdrop_path":"\/7u3pxc0K1wx32IleAkLv78MKgrw.jpg","adult":false,"overview":"Set in the 22nd century, The Matrix tells the story of a computer hacker who joins a group of underground insurgents fighting the vast and powerful computers who now rule the earth.","release_date":"1999-03-30"},
{"vote_count":2750,"id":605,"video":false,"vote_average":6.4,"title":"The Matrix Revolutions","popularity":5.073697,"poster_path":"\/sKogjhfs5q3azmpW7DFKKAeLEG8.jpg","original_language":"en","original_title":"The Matrix Revolutions","genre_ids":[12,28,53,878],"backdrop_path":"\/pdVHUsb2eEz9ALNTr6wfRJe5xVa.jpg","adult":false,"overview":"The human city of Zion defends itself against the massive invasion of the machines as Neo fights to end the war at another front while also opposing the rogue Agent Smith.","release_date":"2003-11-05"},
{"vote_count":0,"id":411948,"video":false,"vote_average":0,"title":"Matrix","popularity":1.004394,"poster_path":"\/cseRq8R9RGN66SNUgcD7RJAxBI7.jpg","original_language":"en","original_title":"Matrix","genre_ids":[],"backdrop_path":null,"adult":false,"overview":"John Whitney, Sr. (April 8, 1917 – September 22, 1995) was an American animator, composer and inventor, widely considered to be one of the fathers of computer animation.","release_date":"1971-05-18"}]}
I only want to get title from above string into list.
Here's my code
public List<string> ExtractMoviesList(string movieTitle)
{
using (var client = new HttpClient())
{
// HTTP GET
var response = client.GetAsync(string.Format("{0}{1}", movies_Url, movieTitle)).Result;
using (HttpContent content = response.Content)
{
var json = content.ReadAsStringAsync();
var result = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<List<Movies>>(json.Result);
return result.Select(p=>p.Title).ToList();
}
}
}
There's something wrong with this line of code: var result = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<List<Movies>>(json.Result); after this line executed the var result is getting just null.

Your problem is that you are trying to deserialize your JSON as a List<T>, but the root object in your JSON is not an array, it's an object. This is easy to see if you format and indent your JSON using, say, https://jsonformatter.curiousconcept.com/:
{
"page":1,
"total_results":33,
"total_pages":2,
"results":[
{
"title":"The Matrix",
// Other fields
},
// Other movies
]
}
The data model to which you are binding your JSON must reflect this outer container object for deserialization to succeed. Luckily http://json2csharp.com/ or Paste JSON as Classes will generate one for you:
public class Movie
{
public string title { get; set; }
public int vote_count { get; set; }
public int id { get; set; }
public bool video { get; set; }
public double vote_average { get; set; }
public double popularity { get; set; }
public string poster_path { get; set; }
public string original_language { get; set; }
public string original_title { get; set; }
public List<object> genre_ids { get; set; }
public string backdrop_path { get; set; }
public bool adult { get; set; }
public string overview { get; set; }
public string release_date { get; set; }
}
public class RootObject
{
public int page { get; set; }
public int total_results { get; set; }
public int total_pages { get; set; }
public List<Movie> results { get; set; }
}
Now you can do:
var result = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<RootObject>(json.Result);
return result.results.Select(m => m.title).ToList();
Incidentally, if you don't want to create a data model just to extract the titles from this JSON, you can use Json.NET's LINQ to JSON functionality to load and query the JSON directly:
var result = JToken.Parse(json.Result);
return result.SelectTokens("results[*].title").Select(t => (string)t).ToList();
Here I am using SelectTokens() with the JsonPATH wildcard operator [*] to find all entries in the results array.
Working .Net fiddle showing both options.

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));

Passing the object of FileUpload success callback to Controller Action Method

JSON String
[{"Program":"eBay
US","Date":"/Date(1384108200000)/","TimePlus":"/Date(-62135596800000)/","Campaign":"cwsi12","Clicks":0,"EPC":3.3799,"Earnings":6.7599,"CampaignID":"5337412363","Impression":"0","Status":"Duplicate
in Database"},{"Program":"eBay
US","Date":"/Date(1384108200000)/","TimePlus":"/Date(-62135596800000)/","Campaign":"cwsi12","Clicks":0,"EPC":3.3799,"Earnings":6.7599,"CampaignID":"5337412363","Impression":"0","Status":"Duplicate
in Database"},{"Program":"eBay
US","Date":"/Date(1384108200000)/","TimePlus":"/Date(-62135596800000)/","Campaign":"cwsi12","Clicks":0,"EPC":3.3799,"Earnings":6.7599,"CampaignID":"5337412363","Impression":"0","Status":"Duplicate
in Database"},{"Program":"eBay
US","Date":"/Date(1384108200000)/","TimePlus":"/Date(-62135596800000)/","Campaign":"cwsi12","Clicks":0,"EPC":3.3799,"Earnings":6.7599,"CampaignID":"5337412363","Impression":"0","Status":"Duplicate
in Database"}]
View Model
public class EbayEarnings_Temp
{
public String Program { get; set; }
public DateTime Date { get; set; }
public DateTime TimePlus { get; set; }
public String Campaign { get; set; }
public int Clicks { get; set; }
public decimal EPC { get; set; }
public decimal Earnings { get; set; }
public String CampaignID { get; set; }
public String Impression { get; set; }
public string Status { get; set; }
}
var serializer = new System.Runtime.Serialization.Json.DataContractJsonSerializer(typeof(EbayEarnings_Temp));
var c = (EbayEarnings_Temp)serializer.ReadObject(jsonString);
I am getting this error
Unexpected character encountered while parsing value: S. Path '', line 0, position 0.

Message is json object not list. You must have integrated serializer or serialize json object in action manually.
I think it must look like this:
public ActionResult action(Object Message)
{
// deserialise if Object Message is a string
var serializer = new JavaScriptSerializer();
var c = serializer.Deserialize<YourClass>(Message);
// deserialise if Object Message is a JsonObject
var serializer = new DataContractJsonSerializer(typeof(YourClass));
var c = (YourClass)serializer.ReadObject(Message);
return PartialView(Message);
}
or another solution:
I use library Newtonsoft.Json. If you're going to use it in your case it would look like:
...
MyClass m = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<Message>(message.ToString());
var status = m.Status; //...and so on