I am writing a program to access Mediafire's web API and it's all going well, the only issue remaining is the response text in JSON format that I have difficulty parsing.
With API calls like creating a folder, I get a simple response which can be deserialized into a Dictionary<string,Dictionary<string,string>> and searched for values:
{"response":
{
"action":"folder\/create.php",
"name":"blargh",
"folder_key":"mmttuu769djo0",
"result":"Success",
"current_api_version":"2.14"
}
}
I would use it like this:
Dictionary<string,string> json = DeserializeJSON(text)["response"];
//DeserializeJSON is a method to shorten:
//JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<Dictionary<string,Dictionary<string,string>>(text)
I can then query for json["result"] and whatnot. With other API calls I get complex structures that I'm not sure how to handle. It's basically a bunch of key:value pairs, but some of the values are key:value pairs as well, which can't be put into a dictionary like I'm currently doing. I'm fairly new to C# so I'm not sure what to do here, is there some other data type like a Dictionary which doesn't have static types?
Here's the response:
{"response":
{
"action":"upload\/upload.php",
"doupload":
{
"result":"0",
"key":"89lh7760x4l"
},
"server":"live",
"result":"Success",
"current_api_version":"2.14"
}
}
My question would be: What is a good way to get this kind of data into a list that I can query for values?
What about creating a new class(s) to deal with the json? You can generate classes by using json2csharp using the example json.
public class Doupload
{
public string result { get; set; }
public string key { get; set; }
}
public class Response
{
public string action { get; set; }
public Doupload doupload { get; set; }
public string server { get; set; }
public string result { get; set; }
public string current_api_version { get; set; }
}
public class RootObject
{
public Response response { get; set; }
}
Then you can deserialise the json using:
JavaScriptSerializer serializer = new JavaScriptSerializer();
var something = serializer.Deserialize<RootObject>(jsonString);
I ended up finding out about the dynamic type - Deserializing the text into a Dictionary<string,dynamic> allows it to have multiple types where some can be dictionaries as well. I can query it as I would expect but I just need to be sure what values are returned with each API call, and I need to cast it to a string.
string upload_key = (string)json["response"]["doupload"]["key"] //89lh7760x4l
Related
I have one specific issue, which I'm not able to handle.
I'm using HTTP Get API request and I'm getting JSON string, which I'm deserializing, this works perfectly. But then, I need to reuse just two pairs of this JSON file, but it needs to be pasted as JSON body for POST request. Let me show you the example:
Output of GET API Request:
{
"message":{
"value":[
{
"Reference":null,
"Key":"abc",
"IssueNumber":123
},
{
"Reference":null,
"Key":"def",
"IssueNumber":345
}
]
}
}
So now Im able to deserialize this JSON string (i.e.: jsonString("value)(0)("Key") and I will get "abc").
But now, I have no idea, how to serialize this deserialized object to use ReviewStatus and Key. This POST request JSON body looks like that:
{
"newStatus":"New"
"queueItems": [
{
"Key":"abc"
"IssueNumber":123
},
{
"Key":"def"
"IssueNumber":456
}
]
}
For loop works for me, but in that case, I will do API call for each item instead of doing just one POST API call. What would be the best solution in your opinion? I was trying to use Newtonsoft.Json.JsonConvert (SerializeObject Method), but it didn't work for me as I expected. I'm pretty sure, that there needs to be something much easier, but I need your help.
Thanks for any advice.
Frantisek
You can try to write two split species models, one for Receive JSON Modle, another for Response JSON Model.
Receive Modle
public class Value
{
public object Reference { get; set; }
public string Key { get; set; }
public int IssueNumber { get; set; }
}
public class Message
{
public List<Value> value { get; set; }
}
public class ReciveModel
{
public Message message { get; set; }
}
Response Model
public class QueueItem
{
public string Key { get; set; }
public int IssueNumber { get; set; }
}
public class ResponseModel
{
public string newStatus { get; set; }
public List<QueueItem> queueItems { get; set; }
}
Receive your JSON data and Deserialize to ReciveModel object, then let the data into another instance ResponseModel
final, you use JsonConvert.SerializeObject to serialize then instance to be JSON data.
var obj = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<ReciveModel>(JsonData);
var res = new ResponseModel() {
newStatus = "New",
queueItems = obj.message.value.Select(x => new QueueItem() {
IssueNumber = x.IssueNumber,
Key = x.Key
}).ToList()
};
var jsonResult = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(res);
Result
{"newStatus":"New","queueItems":[{"Key":"abc","IssueNumber":123},{"Key":"def","IssueNumber":345}]}
c# online
Note
There are two way can create model easily.
You can use Web Essentials in Visual Studio, use Edit > Paste special > paste JSON as class, you can easier to know the relation between Json and model.
If you can't use Web Essentials you can instead of use http://json2csharp.com/ online JSON to Model class.
You can try to use those models to carry your JSON Format.
An existing JSON-based web-service returns a fairly messy JSON object, where all the useful data is contained in the elements of an array which is itself the content of a 1-element array. Something like this (I'm anonymising it, hopefully no typos):
{"rows":[[
{"name":"John","time":"2016-03-20 01:00:00","id":"2","code":"1234"},
{"name":"Sam","time":"2016-03-20 01:00:00","id":"24","code":"999"},
{"name":"Paul","time":"2016-03-20 01:00:00","id":"12","code":"6512"}
]]}
Using JSON.net I need to access each of those row sub-elements but I'm not sure how to iterate over this and if I should be deserializing to a concrete type or just reading the raw data from my json object.
The data will be aggregated inside a method so the 'type' of each row is not something that needs to be known outside the method.
rows will always be a 1-element array containing an array of elements as shown.
#Fals's solution should work well, but if you want to do away with the RootObject, you can use Json.Net's LINQ-to-JSON API to parse the JSON and get the data into a simple list of items that is easy to work with.
Assuming you have a class defined for the item data like this:
public class Item
{
public string name { get; set; }
public DateTime time { get; set; }
public string id { get; set; }
public string code { get; set; }
}
Then you can do this to get your list of items:
List<Item> items = JObject.Parse(json)["rows"][0]
.Select(jt => jt.ToObject<Item>())
.ToList();
Fiddle: https://dotnetfiddle.net/FtB3Cu
If you want to avoid declaring any classes at all and instead use an anonymous type, you can change the code to this:
var items = JObject.Parse(json)["rows"][0]
.Select(jt => new
{
name = (string)jt["name"],
time = (DateTime)jt["time"],
id = (string)jt["id"],
code = (string)jt["code"]
})
.ToList();
Fiddle: https://dotnetfiddle.net/0QXUzZ
It's simple, your root object contains a List<List<>>:
Your object should look like:
public class InnerObject
{
public string name { get; set; }
public DateTime time { get; set; }
public string id { get; set; }
public string code { get; set; }
}
public class RootObject
{
public List<List<InnerObject>> rows { get; set; }
}
Then use JSON.NET:
string json = #"{'rows':[[
{'name':'John','time':'2016-03-20 01:00:00','id':'2','code':'1234'},
{'name':'Sam','time':'2016-03-20 01:00:00','id':'24','code':'999'},
{'name':'Paul','time':'2016-03-20 01:00:00','id':'12','code':'6512'}
]]}";
var rootObject = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<RootObject>(json);
By the way, this site json2csharp can generate the C# class from JSON, makes the life ease :)
EDIT:
You can also use dynamic, and then avoid the parser from the `RootObject:
var rootObject = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<dynamic>(json);
rootObject.rows[0] <--- should have what you need
I am returning a json string to a WebMethod in WebForms and I want to take the json string and parse it into custom Order objects.
I have a class:
public class Order
{
public string Item { get; set; }
public string Color { get; set; }
public string Qty { get; set; }
public string Size { get; set; }
}
And a WebMethod:
[WebMethod]
public static string SendOrder(string json)
{
List<Order> orders = new List<Order>();
return json;
}
I am passing this string:
{
json: [
{
"Item":"Nike Polo #286772 - Women's Dri-FIT Micro Pique Short Sleeved Polo",
"Size":"XL",
"Color":"Light Blue",
"Quantity":"3"
},
{
"Item":"Port Authority Women's Jacket #L790 - Black",
"Size":"Medium",
"Color":"Black",
"Quantity":"3"
}
]
}
I want to loop through this string and creating new Orders.
What is the best way to do this?
That JSON is a little oddly formatted as it maps to the following classes (using http://json2csharp.com):
public class Json
{
public string Item { get; set; }
public string Size { get; set; }
public string Color { get; set; }
public string Quantity { get; set; }
}
public class RootObject
{
public List<Json> json { get; set; }
}
I'm not sure why you have a top-level variable named json, but whatever.
At this point just use JSON.NET to deserialize into the structure.
JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<RootObject>(yourJsonString);
If you want to rename the object from Json to Order you'll need to use an attribute for that. I don't recall the name off the top of my head but it should be easy to find in the JSON.NET documentation.
I recently completed a Windows Phone app that retrieved info from a Web API-based server as Json strings. I ended up using the JsonConvert class to convert my lists of objects from Json strings to my custom objects. Here's an example of one of my client-side methods that receives and converts the Json strings:
public async void GetGames()
{
using (var client = new HttpClient())
{
client.BaseAddress = new Uri("base url");
client.DefaultRequestHeaders.Accept.Clear();
client.DefaultRequestHeaders.Accept.Add(new MediaTypeWithQualityHeaderValue("application/json"));
HttpResponseMessage response = await client.GetAsync("specific url extention (like api/Order)");
if (response.IsSuccessStatusCode)
{
string s = await response.Content.ReadAsStringAsync();
var deserializedResponse = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<List<Order>>(s);
//rest of code
}
}
}
Also, make sure that your web method is actually doing something. The example web method you posted creates creates a new list then just returns the parameter you passed in. Using Web API, you could return a list of all Order objects in your database via a method similar to the following:
public IQueryable<Order> GetOrders()
{
return db.Orders; //db is an instance of your DbContext class
}
I hope this is helpful. Let me know if you have any questions.
I'm currently using a beta API (http://developer.riotgames.com/api/methods) which returns JSON for all the exposed methods.
I've been able to use JSON.NET to deserialize all of these return values so far. However, today I consumed one of their function which returns a JSON that is valid but is in my opinion not correct.
You're probably wondering, why don't you ask it on the beta forum? I have but I haven't received an answer so far and in general this intrigues me.
A snippet of the JSON return:
"1001": {
"name": "Boots of Speed",
"plaintext": "Slightly increases Movement Speed",
"group": "BootsNormal",
"description": "<...
}
The problem I have with this structure is that the ID is used as a "group" without an identifier. I would be able to use this decently if it had
"ItemID" : "1001"
But it doesn't have that. I don't mind manually parsing it but I'd first like to know whether or not this JSON is correct (not just valid).
Do you agree that this is not a clean way of creating a JSON block that contains a list of elements or am I missing something here? So far I haven't seen any comments on the beta forum of this API so I'm really wondering why.
Edit "valid" vs "correct/usable":
I know it's a valid JSON statement. I'm questioning the fact whether this is usable with JSON.NET.
I have the following class definition (with two subclasses):
public class JSONItem
{
[JsonProperty("tags")]
public string[] Tags { get; set; }
[JsonProperty("plaintext")]
public string Plaintext { get; set; }
[JsonProperty("description")]
public string Description { get; set; }
[JsonProperty("name")]
public string Name { get; set; }
[JsonProperty("into")]
public string[] Into { get; set; }
[JsonProperty("image")]
public JSONItemImage Image { get; set; }
[JsonProperty("colloq")]
public string Colloq { get; set; }
[JsonProperty("gold")]
public JSONItemGold Gold { get; set; }
}
When giving the above JSON block to to JSONConvert.DeserializeObject(json) it throws an error because "1001" is not mentioned in JSONItem.
How do you handle this so that you can use JSON.NET?
A class like this won't work because you have no names to give the properties:
public class JSONItemWrapper
{
[JsonProperty("")]
public string ID { get; set; }
[JsonProperty("")]
public JSONItem MyProperty { get; set; }
}
Edit: "consistent with other methods"
The other methods return blocks where every property is within {} and has an identifier. The most recently added function have this "primary key outside of {}" style.
It is a valid json and you can use a type like Dictionary<string, SomeObject> to deserialize your json.
string json = #"{
""1001"": {
""name"": ""Boots of Speed"",
""plaintext"": ""Slightly increases Movement Speed"",
""group"": ""BootsNormal"",
""description"": ""desc...""
}
}";
var dict = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<Dictionary<string, MyObject>>(json);
and accesing an item later on by its key can be fast too.
public class MyObject
{
public string name { get; set; }
public string plaintext { get; set; }
public string group { get; set; }
public string description { get; set; }
}
It's annoying when APIs do things like this (using numbers as property names), but all is not lost. Simply deserialize the JSON using Json.NET and then access each of the items using the indexer operator on the parent object.
EDIT:
I almost never create DTOs when deserializing JSON. It's lots of unnecessary boilerplate in most cases. I prefer deserializing to a dynamic object, but that won't be as effective when dealing with property names that begin with digits.
Here is how I would deserialize your sample message:
using System;
using Newtonsoft.Json;
using Newtonsoft.Json.Linq;
namespace JsonExample
{
internal class Program
{
private static void Main()
{
const string json = #"
{
'1001': {
'name': 'Boots of Speed',
'plaintext': 'Slightly increases Movement Speed',
'group': 'BootsNormal',
'description': '<...'
}
}";
var jObject = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<JObject>(json);
var plaintext = jObject["1001"]["plaintext"].Value<string>();
Console.WriteLine(plaintext);
}
}
}
When put into http://JSONLint.com,
{
"1001": {
"name": "Boots of Speed",
"plaintext": "Slightly increases Movement Speed",
"group": "BootsNormal",
"description": "<..."
}
}
Validates as JSON.
I have a JSON data as follows
{"id": "367501354973","from": {
"name": "Bret Taylor",
"id": "220439" }
which is returned by an object(result) of IDictionary[String, Object]
In my C# code:
I have made a class for storing the JSON value which is as follows
public class SContent
{
public string id { get; set; }
public string from_name { get; set; }
public string from_id { get; set; }
}
My main C# function which stores the parses the JSON data and stores the value inside the class properties is as follows:
List<object> data = (List<object>)result["data"];
foreach (IDictionary<string, object> content in data)
{
SContent s = new SContent();
s.id = (string)content["id"];
s.from_name = (string)content["from.name"];
s.from_id = (string)content["from.id"];
}
When i execute this code, i get an exception saying System cannot find the Key "from.name" and "from.id"
When i comment the two lines (s.from_name = (string)content["from.name"];s.from_id = (string)content["from.id"];) my code runs fine.
I think i am not able to refer the nested JSON data properly.
Can anyone just validate it and please tell me how to refer nested data in JSON in C#?
Thanks
I'm not sure how you are parsing the JSON string. Are you using a class in the Framework to do the deserialization?
You could use the JavaScriptSerializer Class defined in the System.Web.Script.Serialization Namespace (you may need to add a reference to System.Web.dll)
Using that class, you would write your code like this:
public class SContent
{
public string id { get; set; }
public SFrom from { get; set; }
}
public class SFrom
{
public string name { get; set; }
public string id { get; set; }
}
Then deserialization looks like this:
var json = new JavaScriptSerializer();
var result = json.Deserialize<SContent>(/*...json text or stream...*/);
See JavaScriptSerializer on MSDN. You might also want to check out this similar question.