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.NET 6 “core” Create Dynamic Object containing List<MyOtherDynamicListObject> [duplicate]

For some of my unit tests I want the ability to build up particular JSON values (record albums in this case) that can be used as input for the system under test.
I have the following code:
var jsonObject = new JObject();
jsonObject.Add("Date", DateTime.Now);
jsonObject.Add("Album", "Me Against The World");
jsonObject.Add("Year", 1995);
jsonObject.Add("Artist", "2Pac");
This works fine, but I have never really like the "magic string" syntax and would prefer something closer to the expando-property syntax in JavaScript like this:
jsonObject.Date = DateTime.Now;
jsonObject.Album = "Me Against The World";
jsonObject.Year = 1995;
jsonObject.Artist = "2Pac";

Well, how about:
dynamic jsonObject = new JObject();
jsonObject.Date = DateTime.Now;
jsonObject.Album = "Me Against the world";
jsonObject.Year = 1995;
jsonObject.Artist = "2Pac";

You can use the JObject.Parse operation and simply supply single quote delimited JSON text.
JObject o = JObject.Parse(#"{
'CPU': 'Intel',
'Drives': [
'DVD read/writer',
'500 gigabyte hard drive'
]
}");
This has the nice benefit of actually being JSON and so it reads as JSON.
Or you have test data that is dynamic you can use JObject.FromObject operation and supply a inline object.
JObject o = JObject.FromObject(new
{
channel = new
{
title = "James Newton-King",
link = "http://james.newtonking.com",
description = "James Newton-King's blog.",
item =
from p in posts
orderby p.Title
select new
{
title = p.Title,
description = p.Description,
link = p.Link,
category = p.Categories
}
}
});
Json.net documentation for serialization

Neither dynamic, nor JObject.FromObject solution works when you have JSON properties that are not valid C# variable names e.g. "#odata.etag". I prefer the indexer initializer syntax in my test cases:
JObject jsonObject = new JObject
{
["Date"] = DateTime.Now,
["Album"] = "Me Against The World",
["Year"] = 1995,
["Artist"] = "2Pac"
};
Having separate set of enclosing symbols for initializing JObject and for adding properties to it makes the index initializers more readable than classic object initializers, especially in case of compound JSON objects as below:
JObject jsonObject = new JObject
{
["Date"] = DateTime.Now,
["Album"] = "Me Against The World",
["Year"] = 1995,
["Artist"] = new JObject
{
["Name"] = "2Pac",
["Age"] = 28
}
};
With object initializer syntax, the above initialization would be:
JObject jsonObject = new JObject
{
{ "Date", DateTime.Now },
{ "Album", "Me Against The World" },
{ "Year", 1995 },
{ "Artist", new JObject
{
{ "Name", "2Pac" },
{ "Age", 28 }
}
}
};

There are some environment where you cannot use dynamic (e.g. Xamarin.iOS) or cases in where you just look for an alternative to the previous valid answers.
In these cases you can do:
using Newtonsoft.Json.Linq;
JObject jsonObject =
new JObject(
new JProperty("Date", DateTime.Now),
new JProperty("Album", "Me Against The World"),
new JProperty("Year", "James 2Pac-King's blog."),
new JProperty("Artist", "2Pac")
)
More documentation here:
http://www.newtonsoft.com/json/help/html/CreatingLINQtoJSON.htm

Sooner or later you will have property with a special character. e.g. Create-Date. The hyphen won't be allowed in property name. This will break your code. In such scenario, You can either use index or combination of index and property.
dynamic jsonObject = new JObject();
jsonObject["Create-Date"] = DateTime.Now; //<-Index use
jsonObject.Album = "Me Against the world"; //<- Property use
jsonObject["Create-Year"] = 1995; //<-Index use
jsonObject.Artist = "2Pac"; //<-Property use

Simple way of creating newtonsoft JObject from Properties.
This is a Sample User Properties
public class User
{
public string Name;
public string MobileNo;
public string Address;
}
and i want this property in newtonsoft JObject is:
JObject obj = JObject.FromObject(new User()
{
Name = "Manjunath",
MobileNo = "9876543210",
Address = "Mumbai, Maharashtra, India",
});
Output will be like this:
{"Name":"Manjunath","MobileNo":"9876543210","Address":"Mumbai, Maharashtra, India"}

May I suggest using the nameof expression combined with a model for the structure you're trying to build?
Example:
record RecordAlbum(string Album, string Artist, int Year);
var jsonObject = new JObject
{
{ nameof(RecordAlbum.Album), "Me Against The World" },
{ nameof(RecordAlbum.Artist), "2Pac" },
{ nameof(RecordAlbum.Year), 1995 }
};
As an added benefit to removing the "magic string" aspect - this also will give you a little bit of refactor-ability. You can easily rename any given property name for the record and it should update the value returned by the nameof() expression.

You can use Newtonsoft library and use it as follows
using Newtonsoft.Json;
public class jb
{
public DateTime Date { set; get; }
public string Artist { set; get; }
public int Year { set; get; }
public string album { set; get; }
}
var jsonObject = new jb();
jsonObject.Date = DateTime.Now;
jsonObject.Album = "Me Against The World";
jsonObject.Year = 1995;
jsonObject.Artist = "2Pac";
System.Web.Script.Serialization.JavaScriptSerializer oSerializer =
new System.Web.Script.Serialization.JavaScriptSerializer();
string sJSON = oSerializer.Serialize(jsonObject );

Nested JSON in .NET

Trying to get address and its value to be curly brackets. means json object within a json object.
var jsonObject = new JObject();
dynamic j_obj = new JObject();
j_obj.jsonrpc = "1.0";
j_obj.id = "abc";
j_obj.method = "getrawtransaction";
j_obj.#params = new JArray() as dynamic;
dynamic info = new JObject();
info.txid = "myid";
info.vout = "0";
j_obj.#params.Add(info);
var address = "myaddress";
j_obj.Add(new JProperty(address, "0.01"));
Console.WriteLine(j_obj.ToString());
What I want is "address" and its value to be json object.
This is the output I am getting now.
Output Image

You are adding a value property here
var address = "myaddress";
j_obj.Add(new JProperty(address, "0.01"));
Instead create an object for the address then use that in the property:
dynamic addressItem = new JObject();
addressItem.line1 = "foo";
var address = "myaddress";
j_obj.Add(new JProperty(address, addressItem));
Alternatively, as you have gone down the dynamics route you could do this
j_obj.myaddress = new
{
line1 = "foo"
}
Either of these would create JSON that looks like this:
{
...
"myaddress": { "line1": "foo" }
...
}

C# elegant way to assign properties values rather then duplication

i have searched for something similiar in stackoverflow and couldnt find anything which will give me some hint.
i have following code:
DATA val1 = new DATA();
val1.Name = "KeyValue";
val1.Value = "805373069";
DATA val2 = new DATA();
val2.Name = "Tel";
val2.Value = "0123456789";
DATA val3 = new DATA();
val3.Name = "TargetID";
val3.Value = "43301";
DATA val4 = new DATA();
val4.Name = "ServiceLevel";
val4.Value = "Y";
DATA val5 = new DATA();
val5.Name = "TypeId";
val5.Value = "13505";
DATA val6 = new DATA();
val6.Name = "DateTime";
val6.Value = System.DateTime.Now.ToString("ddMMyyyyHHmmssffftt");
DATA val7 = new DATA();
val7.Name = "DbDateTime";
val7.Value = System.DateTime.Now.ToString("ddMMyyyyHHmmssffftt");
and once all the objects are populated i put them in Single array.
i.e. to be used somewhere else
DATA[] array = {val1,val2,val3,val4,val5,val6,val7};
and Proxy class which i cant change is:
public partial class DATA {
private string nameField;
private string valueField;
public string Name {
get {
return this.nameField;
}
set {
this.nameField = value;
this.RaisePropertyChanged("Name");
}
}
public string Value {
get {
return this.valueField;
}
set {
this.valueField = value;
this.RaisePropertyChanged("Value");
}
}
Now what i have tried and failed to make it easier is used Dictionary and also jagged array and multi dimensional array which didnt worked as i hoped.
can someone give me hint of a better solution then having 7 different objects created, as this data is dynamic i have to do this runtime data population.
suggestions please?

You could just declare the objects in-line as part of the array declaration, if all you're trying to do is avoid having the variables:
DATA[] array = {
new DATA { Name = "something", Value = "something else" },
new DATA { Name = "something", Value = "something else" },
new DATA { Name = "something", Value = "something else" },
new DATA { Name = "something", Value = "something else" }
};
Anywhere that you have a variable, you can instead have the operation which created that variable. The order of operations will result in evaluating to the same thing. Where you'd need a variable is where you want to use the same instance of something multiple times, or the same value without having to re-calculate it.

Put all data in a dictionary if you want to make sure names must not be duplicated:
var data = new Dictionary<string, string>();
// fill dictionary:
data.Add("name1", /*value*/);
data.Add("name2", /*value*/);
data.Add("name3", /*value*/);
data.Add("name4", /*value*/);
Then convert it to array:
return data.Select(d => new Data(){ Name = d.Key, Value = d.Value}).ToArray();
Make sure you have included using System.Linq in top.
UPDATE:
As #LukeH suggested, You can simply use collection initializer like this:
var data = new Data[]
{
new Data(){ Name = "Sylvester", Value = /*value*/ },
new Data(){ Name = "Whiskers", Value = /*value*/ },
new Data(){ Name = "Sasha", Value = /*value*/ }
};
Which doesn't prevent duplicate names for Data type instances.

You can create extension method something like this to overcome the problem of assign properties values rather then duplication,
static class Extensions
{
public static void AddDataObject(this List<DATA> dataList, params string[] values)
{
dataList.Add(new DATA() { Name = values[0], Value = values[1] });
}
}
and passing that values as per given below,
List<DATA> dataList = new List<DATA>();
dataList.AddDataObject("KeyValue", "805373069");
dataList.AddDataObject("Tel", "0123456789");
Here in above example I used List instead of array, you can change according to your requirements

You could initialize an anonymous object and then convert to an array of data like this:
var data = new {
KeyValue="805373069",
Tel="0123456789",
TargetID="43301",
ServiceLevel="Y",
TypeId="13505",
DateTime=System.DateTime.Now.ToString("ddMMyyyyHHmmssffftt"),
DbDateTime=System.DateTime.Now.ToString("ddMMyyyyHHmmssffftt")
};
var array = data.GetType()
.GetProperties()
.Select(x=>new DATA{Name=x.Name,Value=(string)x.GetValue(data)})
.ToArray();
You could also do it like this:
var data = new {
KeyValue="805373069",
Tel="0123456789",
TargetID="43301",
ServiceLevel="Y",
TypeId="13505",
DateTime=System.DateTime.Now.ToString("ddMMyyyyHHmmssffftt"),
DbDateTime=System.DateTime.Now.ToString("ddMMyyyyHHmmssffftt")
};
var array=System.Web.Mvc.HtmlHelper.AnonymousObjectToHtmlAttributes(data)
.Select(x=>new DATA {Name=x.Key,Value=(string)x.Value})
.ToArray();
If you need to take an array of data and convert it back into a class object (not anonymous), you can do the first method, just in reverse as well. Or put extension methods on it to convert from/to your data array.
static class Extensions
{
public static DATA[] ToDataArray(this object data)
{
return data.GetType()
.GetProperties()
.Select(x=>new DATA{Name=x.Name,Value=(string)x.GetValue(data)})
.ToArray();
}
}
var data = new {
KeyValue="805373069",
Tel="0123456789",
TargetID="43301",
ServiceLevel="Y",
TypeId="13505",
DateTime=System.DateTime.Now.ToString("ddMMyyyyHHmmssffftt"),
DbDateTime=System.DateTime.Now.ToString("ddMMyyyyHHmmssffftt")
};
var array=data.ToDataArray();
However, David's answer is better.

Helper method for testing JsonResult in Nunit

Here is my controller that returns a JSON.
public JsonResult GetValues()
{
return Json(
new{
title = new {
text = "Hello World"
},
xAxis = new {
type = "List of countries"
labels = new {
rotation = 90
}
}
},JsonRequestBehavior.AllowGet);
}
And in my Nunit, i am testing as follows:
[Test]
public void TestGetValues()
{
var controller = new HelloWorldController();
var values = controller.GetValues() as JsonResult;
Assert.IsNotNull(data);
var title = values.Data.GetType().GetProperty("title")
.GetValue(values.Data,null);
var text = title.GetType().GetProperty("text").GetValue(title);
Assert.IsNotNull(text);
}
This works fine but i have to test several methods that has same properties which will require me to write same thing over and over again. How to write a helper method so that i can just pass in the controller and the property i want to test.
Something like this:
var checkText = GetJSonProperties(controllername, "data/title/text");
var checkXais = GetJSonProperties(controllernmae, "data/xAxis/Type");
How can i achieve this ?

I would just use a dynamic type.
var controller = new HelloWorldController();
dynamic values = controller.GetValues();
var title = (string)values.title;
Saves you writing helper methods, which themselves may need to be tested!

Elastic search with Nest

I am working on below code, and what I want to do is query by object itself.
For example: I have a search form, that populates objects fields such as below. Then what I want to do is to search Elastic search based on whatever user filled the form with.
ie: below, I want to query the index by searchItem object. How can I do it easily?
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
var p = new Program();
var item1 = new Announcement() {Id=1, Title = "john", ContentText = "lorem", Bar = false, Num = 99, Foo = "hellow"};
//p.Index(item1, "add");
var searchItem = new Announcement() {Title="john",Num=99};
ElasticClient.Search<Announcement>();
Console.Read();
}
public void Index(Announcement announcement, String operation)
{
var uriString = "http://localhost:9200";
var searchBoxUri = new Uri(uriString);
var settings = new ConnectionSettings(searchBoxUri);
settings.SetDefaultIndex("test");
var client = new ElasticClient(settings);
if (operation.Equals("delete"))
{
client.DeleteById("test", "announcement", announcement.Id);
}
else
{
client.Index(announcement, "test", "announcement", announcement.Id);
}
}
private static ElasticClient ElasticClient
{
get
{
try
{
var uriString = "http://localhost:9200";
var searchBoxUri = new Uri(uriString);
var settings = new ConnectionSettings(searchBoxUri);
settings.SetDefaultIndex("test");
return new ElasticClient(settings);
}
catch (Exception)
{
throw;
}
}
}
}

You can't :)
NEST cannot infer how to best query only based on a partially filled POCO. Should it OR or AND should it do a nested term query or a term query wrapped in a has_child? You catch my drift.
Nest does have a slick feature called conditionless queries that allow you the write out to entire query like so:
ElasticClient.Search<Announcement>(s=>s
.Query(q=>
q.Term(p=>p.Title, searchItem.Title)
&& q.Term(p=>p.Num, searchItem.Num)
//Many more queries use () to group all you want
)
)
When NEST sees that the argument passed to Term is null or empty it simply wont render that part of the query.
Read more here on how this feature works http://nest.azurewebsites.net/concepts/writing-queries.html