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How to fix error Cannot deserialize the current JSON object? [duplicate]

Below is a (slightly) stripped down response I get from a REST API upon successful creation of a new "job code" entry. I need to deserialize the response into some classes, but I'm stumped.
For reference, I'm using JSON.NET in .NET 3.5 (running in a SSIS script in SQL Server 2008 R2) to attempt my deserialization. Here's the JSON - which I obviously have no control over as it's coming from someone else's API:
{
"results":{
"jobcodes":{
"1":{
"_status_code":200,
"_status_message":"Created",
"id":444444444,
"assigned_to_all":false,
"billable":true,
"active":true,
"type":"regular",
"name":"1234 Main Street - Jackson"
},
"2":{
"_status_code":200,
"_status_message":"Created",
"id":1234567890,
"assigned_to_all":false,
"billable":true,
"active":true,
"type":"regular",
"name":"4321 Some Other Street - Jackson"
}
}
}
}
In my C# code, I do have a "JobCode" class defined which only partially maps the JSON values to properties - I'm not interested in all of the data that's returned to me:
[JsonObject]
class JobCode
{
[JsonProperty("_status_code")]
public string StatusCode { get; set; }
[JsonProperty("_status_message")]
public string StatusMessage { get; set; }
[JsonProperty("id")]
public string Id {get; set;}
[JsonProperty("name")]
public string Name { get; set; }
//-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
// Empty constructor for JSON serialization support
//-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
public JobCode() { }
}
I'm attempting to deserialize the data via this call:
newResource = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<JobCode>(jsonResponse);
Where jsonResponse is the code outputted above.
When I execute the code, "newResource" always comes back as null - which is not unexpected because I know that there are actually multiple jobcodes in the data and this code is trying to deserialize it into a single JobCode object. I tried creating a new class called "JobCodes" that looks like this:
class JobCodes
{
[JsonProperty("jobcodes")]
public List<JobCode>_JobCodes { get; set; }
}
And then I tried calling this:
newResource = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<JobCodes>(jsonResponse);
But the issue persists - my return object is null.
What's throwing me off, I think, is the presence of the "1" and "2" identifiers. I don't know how to account for their presence in my object design and/or usage of the JSON.NET class / property attributes like [JsonObject],[JsonProperty], etc.
When I run the JSON data through JSON2CSharp, it constructs some weird-looking classes, so that hasn't proven too effective. I've validated the JSON with several different validators and it all checks out - I just don't know what I'm missing here.
Ultimately, I'd like to return a List from the JSON data, but I'm stumped on what I need to do to make that happen.

Your problem is twofold:
You don't have a class defined at the root level. The class structure needs to match the entire JSON, you can't just deserialize from the middle.
Whenever you have an object whose keys can change, you need to use a Dictionary<string, T>. A regular class won't work for that; neither will a List<T>.
Make your classes like this:
class RootObject
{
[JsonProperty("results")]
public Results Results { get; set; }
}
class Results
{
[JsonProperty("jobcodes")]
public Dictionary<string, JobCode> JobCodes { get; set; }
}
class JobCode
{
[JsonProperty("_status_code")]
public string StatusCode { get; set; }
[JsonProperty("_status_message")]
public string StatusMessage { get; set; }
[JsonProperty("id")]
public string Id { get; set; }
[JsonProperty("name")]
public string Name { get; set; }
}
Then, deserialize like this:
RootObject obj = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<RootObject>(json);
Working demo here

Excellent Answers!
For those out there that may need some more help with the JSON Class Configuration, try: http://json2csharp.com/#
An excellent way of Auto Generating the Classes!
Or even easier, in VS, Goto:
Edit -> Paste Special -> Paste as JSON Classes

Because you can't change the scheme of JSON, and you can't set constant No. of properties, I'd suggest you to use JObject
var jobject = JObject.Parse(json);
var results = jobject["results"];
var jobcodes = results["jobcodes"];
var output = jobcodes.Children<JProperty>()
.Select(prop => prop.Value.ToObject<JobCode>())
.ToList();
Warning: code assumes, that JSON is always in proper schema. You should also handle invalid schema (for example where property is not of JobCode scheme).

You can also deserialize your json to an object of your target class, and then read its properties as per normal:
var obj = DeSerializeFromStrToObj<ClassToSerialize>(jsonStr);
Console.WriteLine($"Property: {obj.Property}");
where DeSerializeFromStrToObj is a custom class that makes use of reflection to instantiate an object of a targeted class:
public static T DeSerializeFromStrToObj<T>(string json)
{
try
{
var o = (T)Activator.CreateInstance(typeof(T));
try
{
var jsonDict = JsonSerializer.Deserialize<Dictionary<string, string>>(json);
var props = o.GetType().GetProperties();
if (props == null || props.Length == 0)
{
Debug.WriteLine($"Error: properties from target class '{typeof(T)}' could not be read using reflection");
return default;
}
if (jsonDict.Count != props.Length)
{
Debug.WriteLine($"Error: number of json lines ({jsonDict.Count}) should be the same as number of properties ({props.Length})of our class '{typeof(T)}'");
return default;
}
foreach (var prop in props)
{
if (prop == null)
{
Debug.WriteLine($"Error: there was a prop='null' in our target class '{typeof(T)}'");
return default;
}
if (!jsonDict.ContainsKey(prop.Name))
{
Debug.WriteLine($"Error: jsonStr does not refer to target class '{typeof(T)}'");
return default;
}
var value = jsonDict[prop.Name];
Type t = Nullable.GetUnderlyingType(prop.PropertyType) ?? prop.PropertyType;
object safeValue = value ?? Convert.ChangeType(value, t);
prop.SetValue(o, safeValue, null); // initialize property
}
return o;
}
catch (Exception e2)
{
Debug.WriteLine(e2.Message);
return o;
}
}
catch (Exception e)
{
Debug.WriteLine(e.Message);
return default;
}
}
A complete working example class can be found in my enhanced answer to a similar question, here

Create json in UWP without JSON.Net

I am trying to create a json formatted string using c# in UWP without JSON.Net, but I am just not understanding how to get there. Let's say I wanted to create the following json dynamically:
[{"id":130},{"id":131},{"id":132},{"id":133},{"id":134}]
From everything I have read, it would seem that I need a class that defines the content of my json. For example:
class accountTypes
{
public int id { get; set; }
public string type { get; set; }
}
From there, it would seem that I only need to create a list of type "accountTypes" and then add each "id" to the list.
List<accountTypes> jsonList = new List<accountTypes>();
int numOfChildren = AccountTypesList.Children.Count;
for (int i = 0; i < numOfChildren; i++)
{
if (((CheckBox)AccountTypesList.Children[i]).IsChecked == true)
{
jsonList.Add(new accountTypes() { id = (int)(double)((CheckBox)AccountTypesList.Children[i]).Tag });
}
}
While I am 99% sure that the above code is very flawed, it does not crash on me, so that is a start at least. What I am struggling with now though is how I would serialize the list "jsonList". Everything I have read thus far either points to JSON.net or the JavaScriptSerializer Class, and not Windows.Data.Json. If I could see a simple example on how to serialize json using Windows.Data.Json, then I could at least visualize what is going on with my list and could correct it accordingly. That being said, how do I serialize an array or a list using Windows.Data.Json?

First of all, there's no built-in JSON-serializer that handles all the mapping for you. This is exactly what JSON.NET is doing for you. Therefore, you have to take the manual and long way.
To create exactly this result:
[{"id":130},{"id":131},{"id":132},{"id":133},{"id":134}]
You have to use the JsonArray class. For example, pass your jsonList object to a method like this:
public string ToJson(List<accountTypes> objectList)
{
var jArray = new JsonArray();
foreach (var at in objectList)
{
jArray.Add(ToJson(at));
}
return jArray.ToString();
}
Whereas you use this method to create a JsonObject for your class object itself (as manual step as well):
public JsonObject ToJson(accountTypes at)
{
var jObj = new JsonObject();
jObj.SetNamedValue("id", JsonValue.CreateNumberValue(at.id));
return jObj;
}

JSON Deserialization in .NET

I've had a look at a few threads but what I'm aiming for I can't seem to find.
I have the following JSON strings returned:
On success:
{"success":{"username":"key"}}
On Error:
{"error":{"type":101,"address":"/","description":"link button not pressed"}}
I need to be able to de-serialize these into a class and determine whether I've got an error or a success message to carry on doing it. Any ideas on how to achieve this?
thanks,
Adam

No need to declare a lot of tiny classes. dynamic keyword can help here.
dynamic jObj = JObject.Parse(json);
if (jObj.error!= null)
{
string error = jObj.error.description.ToString();
}
else
{
string key = jObj.success.username.ToString();
}

One option is to use http://nuget.org/packages/newtonsoft.json - you can either create your own custom class to deserialize into or use dynamic as the target type.
var result = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<Result>(jsonString);
class Result
{
public SuccessResult success { get; set; }
public ErrorResult error { get; set; }
}
class SuccessResult
{
public string username { get; set; }
}
class ErrorResult
{
public int type { get; set; }
public string address { get; set; }
public string description { get; set; }
}
If you need just to check for success, it is possible to just check result.StartsWith("{\"success\":") to avoid unnecessary parsing. But this should only be done if you have guarantee that the JSON string will always be exactly like this (no extra whitespaces etc.) - so it is usually only appropriate if you own the JSON generation yourself.

This answer covers most options, including rolling your own parser and using JSON.Net:
Parse JSON in C#
You could also just write a regex if the format is going to be that simple...

XML deserialize null elements?

trying to deserialize a Xml string, but always get problem for elements like these:
<Taxable />
<DefaultPurchasePrice />
My C# code snippet:
[XmlRoot(ElementName = "Product", Namespace = "http://api.test.com/version/1", IsNullable = false)]
public class Product
{
public Guid Guid { get; set; }
public string ProductName { get; set; }
public bool Taxable { get; set; }
public Decimal DefautSellPrice { get; set; }
[XmlElement("DefaultPurchasePrice")]
public string DefaultPurchasePriceElement
{
get
{
if (DefaultPurchasePrice == null)
return String.Empty;
else
return DefaultPurchasePrice.ToString();
}
set
{
if (value == null | value.Length == 0)
DefaultPurchasePrice = null;
else
DefaultPurchasePrice = Convert.ToDecimal(value);
}
}
[XmlIgnore]
public decimal? DefaultPurchasePrice{ get; set;}
}
Seems like
xsi:nil="true"
attribute in XML should solve my problem. But as we are using XML provided by from a REST server as part of an API testing. We don't have direct control how the XML be constructed, but we can give them feedback. So I think I should explicitly ask them to fix their XML, as it is their XML's problem right?
In the mean time, I could get individual elements deserialized by the following code:
[XmlElement("DefaultPurchasePrice")]
public string DefaultPurchasePriceElement
{
get
{
if (DefaultPurchasePrice == null)
return String.Empty;
else
return DefaultPurchasePrice.ToString();
}
set
{
if (value == null | value.Length == 0)
DefaultPurchasePrice = null;
else
DefaultPurchasePrice = Convert.ToDecimal(value);
}
}
[XmlIgnore]
public decimal? DefaultPurchasePrice{ get; set;}
But there are quite a few null elements in the XML string, and again, the other party could fix their XML so I don't need do anything to my deserialize code in that case right?
Anyway, could I do something in my code before deserialization so the XML could have proper xsi:nil="true" attribute for null elements so that I don't need do much in my C# code but can quickly fix their XML?
I am thinking about #Ryan's solution in the 2nd last from here: deserialize-xml-with-empty-elements-in-c, but not sure are there any better solutions?
EDIT:
Just did a small test, adding xsi:nill='true' in XML null elements will indeed working with my existing C# code.
But I do need make sure my C# class mapped from XML have nullable datattype for those null elements comeing from XML with xsi:nill='true'. But it make sense: when some datafield come from XML might be a null type, I need explicitly define the correspond datatype as nullable. I am much happy with that rather than my current solution.

I don't know the answer to your problem, but it seems to me that asking your colleagues to fix their XML isn't the right answer. It is common wisdom when writing network and file format code to "Be conservative in what you give, but accepting in what you receive", or some such.
That is, you should be prepared to receive just about ANYTHING in your incoming XML stream. If the XML is well-formed and contains the elements and attributes you require, you should be able to parse it correctly. If it has elements you don't permit, you should gracefully either ignore them or raise an error condition. If the XML is not well-formed, you should raise an error.
Otherwise your program won't be robust in the face of errors coming in from the other end, and could have security holes.

.NET serialization of JSON data with dynamic structure (schema)

The web service I consume responces with json data.
it gives resultObject as array:
resultObject:[{object1}, {object2},...] if there more then one object
and it returns
resultObject:{object1} if there only one object.
for serializing in .NET I created a "static" structure of classes to map json schema. But if in one case i've got an array (list) of objects an in other case just one object, how is it possible to handle this situation?

I have found a plethora of ugly solutions to this one, but so far goes:
If you use the System.Web.Script.Serialization.JavaScriptSerializer you have very limited control. If the result data type is simple, you could simply use the DeserializeObject method; it will translate everything into Dictionary and the "resultObject" property will in the first case be a Dictionary while the latter case will turn it into an array of such dictionary. It will not save you the headache of the final translation, but you will get the data into dictionaries which could be considered a first step.
I also attempted to use the KnownTypes and the DataContractJsonSerializer, but alas the datacontract serializer needs "hints" in the form of specially named properties to aid it deserializing. (Why am I using the KnownType attribute wrong?). This is a hopeless strategy if you don't have any control of the serialization which I guess is the case for you.
So now we are down to the butt-ugly solutions of which trial-and-error is my first choice:
When using the ScriptSerializer the conversion will fail with an InvalidOperationException if anything is wrong. I then created two data types one with data-as-arrays and one where data is a single instance (the DataClass is my invention since you do not specify the data types):
[DataContract]
public class DataClass
{
[DataMember]
public string FirstName { get; set; }
[DataMember]
public int BirthYear { get; set; }
public override string ToString()
{
return "FirstName : '" + FirstName + "', BirthYear: " + BirthYear;
}
}
[DataContract]
public class ResultSingle
{
[DataMember]
public DataClass Data { get; set; }
}
[DataContract]
public class ResultArray
{
[DataMember]
public List<DataClass> Data { get; set; }
}
Using these data types it is possible to translate using
JavaScriptSerializer jSer = new JavaScriptSerializer();
var one = jSer.Deserialize<ResultSingle>(jsonWithSingleInstance);
var many = jSer.Deserialize<ResultArray>(jsonWithArray);
But this of course require you to known the data type in advance and you get two different result types. Instead you could choose to always convert to ResultArray. If you get an exception you should convert as ResultSingle and then instantiate the ResultArray and manually add the data object to the Data list:
static ResultArray ConvertJson(string json)
{
ResultArray fromJson;
JavaScriptSerializer jSer = new JavaScriptSerializer();
try
{
fromJson = jSer.Deserialize<ResultArray>(json);
return fromJson;
}
catch (InvalidOperationException)
{
var single = jSer.Deserialize<ResultSingle> (json);
fromJson = new ResultArray();
fromJson.Data = new List<DataClass>();
fromJson.Data.Add(single.Data);
return fromJson;
}
}
static void Main(string[] args)
{
var jsonWithSingleInstance = "{\"Data\":{\"FirstName\":\"Knud\",\"BirthYear\":1928}}";
var jsonWithArray = "{\"Data\":[{\"FirstName\":\"Knud\",\"BirthYear\":1928},{\"FirstName\":\"Svend\",\"BirthYear\":1930}]}";
var single = ConvertJson(jsonWithSingleInstance);
var array = ConvertJson(jsonWithArray);
}
I do not say this is a beautiful solution (it isn't), but it should do the job.
You could also look at json.net which seem to be the json serializer of choice in .NET: How to install JSON.NET using NuGet?

Well, my service provider finally said that it is really a bug.
http://jira.codehaus.org/browse/JETTISON-102
says that is it because of java version that they use.