Develop Reference

Problem Deserializing JSON to objects in C#

I have the below response from the API in a console application written in C#:
{
"d": {
"results": [
{
"__metadata": {
"id": "123",
"uri": "456",
"type": "789"
},
"PERNR": "1",
"USRID": "2"
},
{
"__metadata": {
"id": "159",
"uri": "951",
"type": "753"
},
"PERNR": "4",
"USRID": "6"
}
]
}
}
And used the below code to deserialize:
public class d
{
public results results { get; set; }
}
public class results
{
public string PERNR { get; set; }
public string USRID { get; set; }
public __metadata __metadata { get; set; }
}
public class __metadata
{
public string id { get; set;}
public string uri { get; set; }
public string type { get; set; }
}
var serilizer = new JavaScriptSerializer();
d output = serilizer.Deserialize<d>(response.Content);
But the result is null. Is there any problem in the definition of the classes?

The properties should start with a capital letter, to match the case of the properties in the JSON response. Change the class definitions as follows:
public class D
{
public Results[] results { get; set; }
}
public class Results
{
public string PERNR { get; set; }
public string USRID { get; set; }
public Metadata __metadata { get; set; }
}
public class Metadata
{
public string id { get; set;}
public string uri { get; set; }
public string type { get; set; }
}
Change deserialize line to:
var serilizer = new JavaScriptSerializer();
D output = serilizer.Deserialize<D>(response.Content);

The issue is results is an array in your json, where in your class, it is an object. Change it to
public class d
{
public Result[] results { get; set; }
}

If you use a JSON to C# converter like json2csharp or Visual Studio's Paste JSON As Classes you'll get :
public class Root
{
public D d { get; set; }
}
public class D
{
public List<Result> results { get; set; }
}
public class Metadata
{
public string id { get; set; }
public string uri { get; set; }
public string type { get; set; }
}
public class Result
{
public Metadata __metadata { get; set; }
public string PERNR { get; set; }
public string USRID { get; set; }
}
There are two important differences :
The JSON document contains a root element with an attribute named d, not a D object
D.results is a collection of Result objects, not a single object

Retrieve the values from json string

I have json string. I want to retrieve the contact from json string. Following json contains array of contacts. here is my json string.
{
   "contacts": {
      "contact": [
         {
            "isConnection": false,
            "id": 33554611,
            "fields": [
               {
                  "id": 33554748,
                  "type": "name",
                  "value": {
                     "givenName": "Jhon",
                     "middleName": "",
                     "familyName": "Scot",
                     "prefix": "",
                     "suffix": "",
                     "givenNameSound": "",
                     "familyNameSound": ""
                  },
                  "editedBy": "OWNER",
                  "flags": [],
                  "categories": [],
                  "updated": "2012-12-23T07:40:23Z",
                  "created": "2012-12-23T07:40:23Z",
               },
               {
                  "id": 33554749,
                  "type": "email",
                  "value": "someone#example.com",
                  "editedBy": "OWNER",
                  "flags": [],
                  "categories": [],
                  "updated": "2012-12-23T07:40:23Z",
                  "created": "2012-12-23T07:40:23Z",
               }
            ]
         }
}
}
Here I want to retrieves the values of givenName,familyName,email. How can I retrieve the values of these from json string.
Note: there are array of contact in json. I have posted only one contact from this json.
I tried something like this. But not worked.
JObject json = JObject.Parse(returnStr);
JArray fields = (JArray)json["contacts"]["contact"]["fields"][0];
JArray FValues = (JArray)json["contact"]["fields"]["value"];
I tried this
public class Field
{
public int id { get; set; }
public string type { get; set; }
public object value { get; set; }
public string editedBy { get; set; }
public List<object> flags { get; set; }
public List<object> categories { get; set; }
public string updated { get; set; }
public string created { get; set; }
public string uri { get; set; }
public bool? isConnection { get; set; }
}
public class contact
{
public bool isConnection { get; set; }
public int id { get; set; }
public List<Field> fields { get; set; }
public List<object> categories { get; set; }
public int error { get; set; }
public int restoredId { get; set; }
public string created { get; set; }
public string updated { get; set; }
public string uri { get; set; }
}
public class Contacts
{
public List<contact> contact { get; set; }
public int count { get; set; }
public int start { get; set; }
public int total { get; set; }
public string uri { get; set; }
public bool cache { get; set; }
}
public class RootObject
{
public Contacts contacts { get; set; }
}
and
JavaScriptSerializer serializer1 = new JavaScriptSerializer();
RootObject obje = serializer1.Deserialize<RootObject>(returnStr);
But it is giving me 0 value in obje.

First make sure your Json is in valid format using jsonlint
Then generate class base on it using json2csharp
public class Field
{
public int id { get; set; }
public string type { get; set; }
public object value { get; set; }
public string editedBy { get; set; }
public List<object> flags { get; set; }
public List<object> categories { get; set; }
public string updated { get; set; }
public string created { get; set; }
}
public class Contact
{
public bool isConnection { get; set; }
public int id { get; set; }
public List<Field> fields { get; set; }
}
public class Contacts
{
public List<Contact> contact { get; set; }
}
public class RootObject
{
public Contacts contacts { get; set; }
}
Use Newtonsoft JSON to deserialize your Json into object(s) then you may simply access its properties value.
JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<RootObject>(string json);

Class for json object (generated with http://jsonutils.com/ after correcting some syntax error):
public class Field
{
public int id { get; set; }
public string type { get; set; }
public object value { get; set; }
public string editedBy { get; set; }
public IList<object> flags { get; set; }
public IList<object> categories { get; set; }
public DateTime updated { get; set; }
public DateTime created { get; set; }
}
public class Contact
{
public bool isConnection { get; set; }
public int id { get; set; }
public IList<Field> fields { get; set; }
}
public class Contacts
{
public IList<Contact> contact { get; set; }
}
public class Example
{
public Contacts contacts { get; set; }
}
Deserialization (you will probably need to add a reference to System.Web.Extensions):
System.Web.Script.Serialization.JavaScriptSerializer deSer = new System.Web.Script.Serialization.JavaScriptSerializer();
JSonPrintSettingsToXml.Input.Example deserializedJSON = deSer.Deserialize<JSonPrintSettingsToXml.Input.Example>(yourJSON);
Here is the corrected JSON
{
"contacts": {
"contact": [
{
"isConnection": false,
"id": 33554611,
"fields": [
{
"id": 33554748,
"type": "name",
"value": {
"givenName": "Jhon",
"middleName": "",
"familyName": "Scot",
"prefix": "",
"suffix": "",
"givenNameSound": "",
"familyNameSound": ""
},
"editedBy": "OWNER",
"flags": [],
"categories": [],
"updated": "2012-12-23T07:40:23Z",
"created": "2012-12-23T07:40:23Z"
},
{
"id": 33554749,
"type": "email",
"value": "someone#example.com",
"editedBy": "OWNER",
"flags": [],
"categories": [],
"updated": "2012-12-23T07:40:23Z",
"created": "2012-12-23T07:40:23Z"
}
]
}
]
}
}

You need to go with the following structure:
public class Contact
{
public bool isConnection { get; set; }
public int id { get; set; }
public List<Field> fields { get; set; }
}
public class Field
{
public int id { get; set; }
public string type { get; set; }
public object value { get; set; }
public string editedBy { get; set; }
public string[] flags { get; set; }
public string[] categories { get; set; }
public DateTime updated { get; set; }
public DateTime created { get; set; }
}
public class Name
{
public string givenName { get; set; }
public string middleName { get; set; }
public string familyName { get; set; }
public string prefix { get; set; }
public string suffix { get; set; }
public string givenNameSound { get; set; }
public string familyNameSound { get; set; }
}
And then deserialize it and use LINQ to manipulate fields.

If you want to stick to JObject and not create classes, look at the example provided at http://weblog.west-wind.com/posts/2012/Aug/30/Using-JSONNET-for-dynamic-JSON-parsing
You'll have to enumerate over this
dynamic contacts = (JArray)json["contacts"]
foreach(dynamic contact in contacts.contact) {
// look at the fields...
}
PS. Give it a go, don't have VS on me so cant quite verify the exact syntax

Firstly, I think you'll find that your JSON is not well-formed. You don't need the extra commas after the two "created" dates and there is a right-square bracket missing before the second last curly brace. I recommend you always validate your JSON using this awesome site: http://jsonformatter.curiousconcept.com
Secondly, you are not referencing the array elements correctly. Although I agree with #grundy that you should be creating class definitions for managing JSON and using LINQ, there is absolutely nothing wrong with the Newtonsoft library. You can still persist with your method.
Try this:-
var json = JObject.Parse(returnStr);
var fields = (JArray)json["contacts"]["contact"][0]["fields"];
var givenName = fields[0]["value"]["givenName"];
var familyName = fields[0]["value"]["familyName"];
var email = fields[1]["value"];

Deserializing an array of different object types

Using the Json.NET library, I'm having trouble deserializing some json returned as an array. The json is an array containing some paging information as an object and array of country objects. Here's a sample of the returned json:
[
{
"page": 1,
"pages": 6,
"per_page": "50",
"total": 262
},
[
{
"id": "ABW",
"iso2Code": "AW",
"name": "Aruba",
"region": {
"id": "LCN",
"value": "Latin America & Caribbean (all income levels)"
},
"adminregion": {
"id": "",
"value": ""
},
"incomeLevel": {
"id": "NOC",
"value": "High income: nonOECD"
},
"lendingType": {
"id": "LNX",
"value": "Not classified"
},
"capitalCity": "Oranjestad",
"longitude": "-70.0167",
"latitude": "12.5167"
}
]
]
I am attempting to deserialize to the following types:
class CountriesQueryResults
{
public PagingInfo PageInfo { get; set; }
public List<CountryInfo> Countries { get; set; }
}
class PagingInfo
{
public int Page { get; set; }
public int Pages { get; set; }
[JsonProperty("per_page")]
public int ResultsPerPage { get; set; }
public int Total { get; set; }
}
class CountryInfo
{
public string Id { get; set; }
public string Iso2Code { get; set; }
public string Name { get; set; }
public string Longitude { get; set; }
public string Latitude { get; set; }
public string CapitalCity { get; set; }
public CompactIdentifier Region { get; set; }
public CompactIdentifier AdminRegion { get; set; }
public CompactIdentifier IncomeLevel { get; set; }
public CompactIdentifier LendingType { get; set; }
}
class CompactIdentifier
{
public string Id { get; set; }
public string Value { get; set; }
}
I am calling DeserializeObject as so:
var data = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<List<CountriesQueryResults>>(response);
I am getting the following error:
Cannot deserialize the current JSON object (e.g. {"name":"value"}) into type 'CountriesQueryResults' because the type requires a JSON array (e.g. [1,2,3]) to deserialize correctly.
I have been trying to get the answer from the documentation but I can't seem to figure it out. Any help would be appreciated.

Since your json is like this [ {....} , [{....}] ], You can only deserialize it to an object array(Where first item is an object and second, another array).
This simplest way I think to convert it to a c# object is:
var jArr = JArray.Parse(jsonstr);
var pageInfo = jArr[0].ToObject<PagingInfo>();
var countryInfos = jArr[1].ToObject<List<CountryInfo>>();
Class definitions would be:
public class PagingInfo
{
public int page { get; set; }
public int pages { get; set; }
[JsonProperty("per_page")]
public int ResultsPerPage { get; set; }
public int total { get; set; }
}
public class Region
{
public string id { get; set; }
public string value { get; set; }
}
public class AdminRegion
{
public string id { get; set; }
public string value { get; set; }
}
public class IncomeLevel
{
public string id { get; set; }
public string value { get; set; }
}
public class LendingType
{
public string id { get; set; }
public string value { get; set; }
}
public class CountryInfo
{
public string id { get; set; }
public string iso2Code { get; set; }
public string name { get; set; }
public Region region { get; set; }
public AdminRegion adminregion { get; set; }
public IncomeLevel incomeLevel { get; set; }
public LendingType lendingType { get; set; }
public string capitalCity { get; set; }
public string longitude { get; set; }
public string latitude { get; set; }
}
PS: You can change the property names' first char to Uppercase if you want. I used http://json2csharp.com/ to automatically generate those classes.

Deserializing Onedrive REST data

I'm working with OneDrive and need to get information about a folders contents back from the server. This is the type of data I am working with:
{
"data": [
{
"id": "folder.xxxx",
"from": {
"name": "john doe",
"id": "xxxx"
},
"name": "Files that are in a folder",
"description": "",
"parent_id": "folder.xxxx",
"size": 0,
"upload_location": "https://apis.live.net/v5.0/folder.xxxx/files/",
"comments_count": 0,
"comments_enabled": false,
"is_embeddable": true,
"count": 0,
"link": "xxxx",
"type": "folder",
"shared_with": {
"access": "Just me"
},
"created_time": "2014-03-06T18:48:16+0000",
"updated_time": "2014-03-06T18:48:16+0000",
"client_updated_time": "2014-03-06T18:48:16+0000"
}, {
"id": "file.xxxx",
(same as above for rest of data structure)
}, {
"id": "file.xxxx",
(Same as above for rest of data structure)
}
]
}
When doing a different request to the server you get back just the ("id" : "folder.xxx") info chunk and I was able to process that data using a class that looks like this:
[DataContract]
public class ResponseFolder
{
[DataMember(Name = "id")]
public string id { get; set; }
[DataMember(Name = "from")]
public from from { get; set; }
[DataMember(Name = "name")]
public string name { get; set; }
//etc.
And handling the entries like "from" with similar structures:
[DataContract]
public class from
{
public string name { get; set; }
public string id { get; set; }
}
I thought I could do the same for the data request at the top and so have this class which is not working for me:
[DataContract]
public class FolderRequest
{
[DataMember(Name = "data")]
public ResponseFolder data { get; set; }
}
And I try to use it on this line:
FolderRequest = jss.Deserialize<FolderRequest>(json);
But FolderRequest is null after that. I have also tried doing
jss.Deserialize<List<ResponseFolder>>(json);
after googling around how to handle arrays in json but that did not work either.
Any help would be appreciated!

Your complete model is
public class From
{
public string name { get; set; }
public string id { get; set; }
}
public class SharedWith
{
public string access { get; set; }
}
public class ResponseFolder
{
public string id { get; set; }
public From from { get; set; }
public string name { get; set; }
public string description { get; set; }
public string parent_id { get; set; }
public int size { get; set; }
public string upload_location { get; set; }
public int comments_count { get; set; }
public bool comments_enabled { get; set; }
public bool is_embeddable { get; set; }
public int count { get; set; }
public string link { get; set; }
public string type { get; set; }
public SharedWith shared_with { get; set; }
public string created_time { get; set; }
public string updated_time { get; set; }
public string client_updated_time { get; set; }
}
public class FolderRequest
{
public List<ResponseFolder> data { get; set; }
}
and you should serialize as
var obj = new JavaScriptSerializer().Deserialize<FolderRequest>(DATA);

Looks like data needs to be an array:
[DataContract]
public class FolderRequest
{
[DataMember(Name = "data")]
public ResponseFolder[] data { get; set; }
}

If you are ok with use Json.Net (http://james.newtonking.com/json), try this:
public class From
{
public string Name { get; set; }
public string Id { get; set; }
}
public class SharedWith
{
[JsonProperty(PropertyName = "access")]
public string AccessName { get; set; }
}
public class ResponseFolder
{
public string Id { get; set; }
public From From { get; set; }
public string Name { get; set; }
public string Description { get; set; }
[JsonProperty(PropertyName = "shared_with")]
public SharedWith SharedWith { get; set; }
}
public class RootObject
{
public List<ResponseFolder> data { get; set; }
}
And then your deserialization:
var result = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<RootObject>(json);
Hope this helps.

Get text in string between text in said string

Lets say i have a string that looks like this
{
"_links": {
"next": "https://api.twitch.tv/kraken/users/test_user1/follows/channels?direction=DESC&limit=25&offset=25",
"self": "https://api.twitch.tv/kraken/users/test_user1/follows/channels?direction=DESC&limit=25&offset=0"
},
"follows": [
{
"created_at": "2013-06-02T09:38:45Z",
"_links": {
"self": "https://api.twitch.tv/kraken/users/test_user1/follows/channels/test_channel"
},
"channel": {
"banner": null,
"_id": 1,
"url": "http://www.twitch.tv/test_channel",
"mature": null,
"teams": [
],
"status": null,
"logo": null,
"name": "test_channel",
"video_banner": null,
"display_name": "test_channel",
"created_at": "2007-05-22T10:37:47Z",
"delay": 0,
"game": null,
"_links": {
"stream_key": "https://api.twitch.tv/kraken/channels/test_channel/stream_key",
"self": "https://api.twitch.tv/kraken/channels/test_channel",
"videos": "https://api.twitch.tv/kraken/channels/test_channel/videos",
"commercial": "https://api.twitch.tv/kraken/channels/test_channel/commercial",
"chat": "https://api.twitch.tv/kraken/chat/test_channel",
"features": "https://api.twitch.tv/kraken/channels/test_channel/features"
},
"updated_at": "2008-02-12T06:04:29Z",
"background": null
}
},
...
]
}
The part in channel is gonna appear x amount of times with the "name" part having a different value. How would I, using regex or not get the value in "name" that in the code above has a value of "test_channel". All times that it appears and then print it to a textbox
The only part I think I've managed is the regex part
string regex = #"(""name"":)\s+(\w+)(,""video_banner"")";

Using Json.Net and this site
var obj = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<Krysvac.RootObject>(yourJsonString);
foreach(var item in obj.follows)
{
Console.WriteLine(item.channel.name);
}
public class Krysvac
{
public class Links
{
public string next { get; set; }
public string self { get; set; }
}
public class Links2
{
public string self { get; set; }
}
public class Links3
{
public string stream_key { get; set; }
public string self { get; set; }
public string videos { get; set; }
public string commercial { get; set; }
public string chat { get; set; }
public string features { get; set; }
}
public class Channel
{
public object banner { get; set; }
public int _id { get; set; }
public string url { get; set; }
public object mature { get; set; }
public List<object> teams { get; set; }
public object status { get; set; }
public object logo { get; set; }
public string name { get; set; }
public object video_banner { get; set; }
public string display_name { get; set; }
public string created_at { get; set; }
public int delay { get; set; }
public object game { get; set; }
public Links3 _links { get; set; }
public string updated_at { get; set; }
public object background { get; set; }
}
public class Follow
{
public string created_at { get; set; }
public Links2 _links { get; set; }
public Channel channel { get; set; }
}
public class RootObject
{
public Links _links { get; set; }
public List<Follow> follows { get; set; }
}
}
If you don't want to declare these classes, you can use dynamic keyword too
dynamic obj = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject(yourJsonString);
foreach(var item in obj.follows)
{
Console.WriteLine(item.channel.name);
}

If you build classes for your input string like the following using json2csharp.com, you'll get the following classes:
public class Links
{
public string next { get; set; }
public string self { get; set; }
}
public class Links2
{
public string self { get; set; }
}
public class Links3
{
public string stream_key { get; set; }
public string self { get; set; }
public string videos { get; set; }
public string commercial { get; set; }
public string chat { get; set; }
public string features { get; set; }
}
public class Channel
{
public object banner { get; set; }
public int _id { get; set; }
public string url { get; set; }
public object mature { get; set; }
public List<object> teams { get; set; }
public object status { get; set; }
public object logo { get; set; }
public string name { get; set; }
public object video_banner { get; set; }
public string display_name { get; set; }
public string created_at { get; set; }
public int delay { get; set; }
public object game { get; set; }
public Links3 _links { get; set; }
public string updated_at { get; set; }
public object background { get; set; }
}
public class Follow
{
public string created_at { get; set; }
public Links2 _links { get; set; }
public Channel channel { get; set; }
}
public class RootObject
{
public Links _links { get; set; }
public List<Follow> follows { get; set; }
}
Now you just have to deserialize the input json string to RootObject class and fetch all the names in the input string using another utility called Json.net
string json = "JSON STRING";
RootObject root = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<RootObject>(json);
List<string> names = root.follows.Select(follow => follow.channel.name).ToList();
foreach ( string name in names )
{
txtBox += name + "; ";
}

Ok, so i got it working now, however, if i use my username to get back json, i get a huge piece of code that you can view here: https://api.twitch.tv/kraken/users/krysvac/follows/channels
I folllow 31 people but when i use my program on it with the code
using (var w = new WebClient())
{
string json_data = w.DownloadString("https://api.twitch.tv/kraken/users/" + input + "/follows/channels");
dynamic obj = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject(json_data);
foreach (var item in obj.follows)
{
textBox1.AppendText(item.channel.name.ToString() + Environment.NewLine);
}
}
i get 25 out of my 31 people back in the textbox and i dont know why, i tried it on a person that should return more than 100 and got 6 people back.