Develop Reference

Fail to serialize IConfigurationSection from Json

I have following Json-based configuration file:
{
"PostProcessing": {
"ValidationHandlerConfiguration": {
"MinimumTrustLevel": 80,
"MinimumMatchingTrustLevel": 75
},
"MatchingCharacterRemovals": [
"-",
"''",
":"
]
},
"Processing": {
"OrderSelection": {
"SelectionDaysInterval": 30,
"SelectionDaysMaximum": 365
}
}
}
As serialization framework I use Newtonsoft. To serialize this config into objects I have implemented following classes:
[JsonObject(MemberSerialization.OptIn)]
public class RecognitionConfiguration {
[JsonProperty(PropertyName = "PostProcessing", Required = Required.Always)]
public PostRecognitionConfiguration PostRecognitionConfiguration { get; set; }
[JsonProperty(PropertyName = "Processing", Required = Required.Always)]
public ProcessRecognitionConfiguration ProcessRecognitionConfiguration { get; set; }
}
[JsonObject(MemberSerialization.OptIn)]
public class PostRecognitionConfiguration {
[JsonProperty(Required = Required.Always)]
public ValidationHandlerConfiguration ValidationHandlerConfiguration { get; set; }
[JsonProperty] public List<string> MatchingCharacterRemovals { get; set; }
}
[JsonObject(MemberSerialization.OptIn)]
public class ProcessRecognitionConfiguration {
[JsonProperty(PropertyName = "OrderSelection", Required = Required.Always)]
public OrderSelectionConfiguration OrderSelectionConfiguration { get; set; }
}
In a class I try to serialize a specific configuration section into these class structures using IConfigurationSection.Get().
var serializedConfiguration = this.ConfigurationSection.Get<RecognitionConfiguration>();
But when I debug the code, I always get an "empty" variable serializedConfiguration which is not null, but all properties are null.
If I use
this.ConfigurationSection.GetSection("Processing").Get<ProcessRecognitionConfiguration>()
or change the naming of the properties in the json file to exactly match the property names in the classes like this:
{
"ProcessRecognitionConfiguration": {
"OrderSelectionConfiguration": {
"SelectionDaysInterval": 30,
"SelectionDaysMaximum": 365
}
}
}
it it works fine. Do you have any idea, why setting PropertyName on JsonProperty does not seem to have any effect?

That is by design. Binding to POCO via configuration is done by convention. Not like Model Binding to Controller Action parameters.
It matches property names on the POCO to keys in the provided JSON.
Reference Configuration in ASP.NET Core
So either you change the settings to match the class like you showed in the original question, or change the class to match the settings keys in the Json-based configuration file.
[JsonObject(MemberSerialization.OptIn)]
public class RecognitionConfiguration {
[JsonProperty(PropertyName = "PostProcessing", Required = Required.Always)]
public PostRecognitionConfiguration PostProcessing{ get; set; }
[JsonProperty(PropertyName = "Processing", Required = Required.Always)]
public ProcessRecognitionConfiguration Processing{ get; set; }
}
[JsonObject(MemberSerialization.OptIn)]
public class PostRecognitionConfiguration {
[JsonProperty(Required = Required.Always)]
public ValidationHandlerConfiguration ValidationHandlerConfiguration { get; set; }
[JsonProperty]
public List<string> MatchingCharacterRemovals { get; set; }
}
[JsonObject(MemberSerialization.OptIn)]
public class ProcessRecognitionConfiguration {
[JsonProperty(PropertyName = "OrderSelection", Required = Required.Always)]
public OrderSelectionConfiguration OrderSelection { get; set; }
}
public partial class ValidationHandlerConfiguration {
[JsonProperty("MinimumTrustLevel")]
public long MinimumTrustLevel { get; set; }
[JsonProperty("MinimumMatchingTrustLevel")]
public long MinimumMatchingTrustLevel { get; set; }
}
public partial class OrderSelectionConfiguration {
[JsonProperty("SelectionDaysInterval")]
public long SelectionDaysInterval { get; set; }
[JsonProperty("SelectionDaysMaximum")]
public long SelectionDaysMaximum { get; set; }
}

EDIT: I found this one is much more pleasant than my previous solutions: Bind everything in an ExpandoObject, write them to JSON and use JSON.NET to bind them back. Using the code of this article:
namespace Microsoft.Extensions.Configuration
{
public static class ConfigurationBinder
{
public static void BindJsonNet(this IConfiguration config, object instance)
{
var obj = BindToExpandoObject(config);
var jsonText = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(obj);
JsonConvert.PopulateObject(jsonText, instance);
}
private static ExpandoObject BindToExpandoObject(IConfiguration config)
{
var result = new ExpandoObject();
// retrieve all keys from your settings
var configs = config.AsEnumerable();
foreach (var kvp in configs)
{
var parent = result as IDictionary<string, object>;
var path = kvp.Key.Split(':');
// create or retrieve the hierarchy (keep last path item for later)
var i = 0;
for (i = 0; i < path.Length - 1; i++)
{
if (!parent.ContainsKey(path[i]))
{
parent.Add(path[i], new ExpandoObject());
}
parent = parent[path[i]] as IDictionary<string, object>;
}
if (kvp.Value == null)
continue;
// add the value to the parent
// note: in case of an array, key will be an integer and will be dealt with later
var key = path[i];
parent.Add(key, kvp.Value);
}
// at this stage, all arrays are seen as dictionaries with integer keys
ReplaceWithArray(null, null, result);
return result;
}
private static void ReplaceWithArray(ExpandoObject parent, string key, ExpandoObject input)
{
if (input == null)
return;
var dict = input as IDictionary<string, object>;
var keys = dict.Keys.ToArray();
// it's an array if all keys are integers
if (keys.All(k => int.TryParse(k, out var dummy)))
{
var array = new object[keys.Length];
foreach (var kvp in dict)
{
array[int.Parse(kvp.Key)] = kvp.Value;
}
var parentDict = parent as IDictionary<string, object>;
parentDict.Remove(key);
parentDict.Add(key, array);
}
else
{
foreach (var childKey in dict.Keys.ToList())
{
ReplaceWithArray(input, childKey, dict[childKey] as ExpandoObject);
}
}
}
}
}
Usage:
var settings = new MySettings();
this.Configuration.BindJsonNet(settings);
Here is my testing MySettings class:
public class MySettings
{
[JsonProperty("PostProcessing")]
public SomeNameElseSettings SomenameElse { get; set; }
public class SomeNameElseSettings
{
[JsonProperty("ValidationHandlerConfiguration")]
public ValidationHandlerConfigurationSettings WhateverNameYouWant { get; set; }
public class ValidationHandlerConfigurationSettings
{
[JsonProperty("MinimumTrustLevel")]
public int MinimumTrustLevelFoo { get; set; }
[JsonProperty("MinimumMatchingTrustLevel")]
public int MinimumMatchingTrustLevelBar { get; set; }
}
}
}
After the calling, I get everything as you desired:
Old Answer:
According to the source code here, it is simply (near) impossible to do what you are requiring. I have tried both JsonProperty and DataContract, none of which are honored by the Binder, simply because the source code itself simply use the property name.
If you still insist, there are 2 possibilities, however I do not recommend any as changing properties' names are much simpler:
Fork your source code there, or simply copy that file (in my attempt to trace the code, I rename all methods to something like Bind2, BindInstance2 etc), and rewrite the code accordingly.
This one is very specific to current implementation, so it's not future-proof: the current code is calling config.GetSection(property.Name), so you can write your own IConfiguration and provide your own name for GetSection method and tap it into the bootstrap process instead of using the default one.

Changing PropertyName on JsonProperty does have effect. Here is the same I tried and it did worked for me:
my JSON data:
{"name": "John","age": 30,"cars": [ "Ford", "BMW", "Fiat" ]}
and the Model:
public class RootObject
{
[JsonProperty(PropertyName ="name")]
public string Apple { get; set; }
public int age { get; set; }
public List<string> cars { get; set; }
}
and here is the code:
RootObject obj = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<RootObject>(json);
and this is the output i get
You need to set the PropertyName in JsonProperty same as json file property name but your C# model property can be what you wanted, just that they need to be decorated with [JsonProperty(PropertyName ="jsonPropertyName")] Hope this helps you solve your issue.
Happy coding...

JArray to c# Object

I have this json string:
[
{
"id":"EORDERING_GRE017",
"name":"DELIMITER",
"value":"|"
},
{
"id":"EORDERING_GRE017",
"name":"ENABLED",
"value":"Y"
},
{
"id":"EORDERING_GRE017",
"name":"EXTERNALERRORRECIPIENT",
"value":"jaymie#moo.co.uk; matt#moo.co.uk"
},
{
"id":"EORDERING_GRE017",
"name":"FILETYPE",
"value":"delimited"
},
{
"id":"EORDERING_GRE017",
"name":"INTERNALERRORRECIPIENT",
"value":"jaymie#moo.co.uk; matt#moo.co.uk"
},
{
"id":"EORDERING_GRE017",
"name":"USESOWNBRANCHCODES",
"value":"True"
},
{
"id":"EORDERING_GRE017",
"name":"USESOWNSKUS",
"value":"True"
}
]
And I would like to turn that json into my class, which looks like this:
public class Settings
{
public bool Enabled { get; set; }
public string FileType { get; set; }
public string Delimiter { get; set; }
public string OrderFileSuffix { get; set; }
public string ResultFileSuffix { get; set; }
public bool UseOwnBranchCodes { get; set; }
public bool UseOwnProductCodes { get; set; }
public string InternalContacts { get; set; }
public string ExternalContacts { get; set; }
}
But I am unsure which is the best way to do this. Can someone give me a hand? :)

You could create a NameValue object:
public class NameValuePair
{
public string Name { get; set; }
public string Value { get; set; }
}
And deserialize the json array to List and convert it to Dictionary:
var dict = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<List<NameValuePair>>(json).ToDictionary(x => x.Name, x => x.Value);
Then create a custom converter class with a method that accepts this dictionary and returns a Settings object:
public class SettingsConverter
{
public Settings Convert(IDictionary<string, string> data)
{
return new Settings
{
Enabled = data["ENABLED"].Equals("Y", StringComparison.Ordinal),
...
};
}
}

The JSON is an array of objects that would fit this class:
public class Setting
{
public string Id { get; set; }
public string Name { get; set; }
public string Value { get; set; }
}
So deserialize into that:
var settingList = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<Setting[]>(jsonString);
But then you want to map specific settings to specific properties of that Settings class. You could do that by trying to find the particular setting for each property in the list of settings:
var settingsObject = new Settings
{
FileType = settingList.FirstOrDefault(s => s.Name == "FILETYPE")?.Value,
Delimiter = settingList.FirstOrDefault(s => s.Name == "DELIMITER")?.Value,
// ...
}
You'll have to manually map the properties. If you don't want that, you could write a custom serializer, but that'll quickly become a maintenance nightmare.

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

C# - Clone a class into a dynamic [duplicate]

I have a class MyClass. I would like to convert this to a dynamic object so I can add a property.
This is what I had hoped for:
dynamic dto = Factory.Create(id);
dto.newProperty = "123";
I get the error:
WEB.Models.MyClass does not contain a definition for 'newProperty'
Is that not possible?

The following has worked for me in the past:
It allows you to convert any object to an Expando object.
public static dynamic ToDynamic<T>(this T obj)
{
IDictionary<string, object> expando = new ExpandoObject();
foreach (var propertyInfo in typeof(T).GetProperties())
{
var currentValue = propertyInfo.GetValue(obj);
expando.Add(propertyInfo.Name, currentValue);
}
return expando as ExpandoObject;
}
Based on: http://geekswithblogs.net/Nettuce/archive/2012/06/02/convert-dynamic-to-type-and-convert-type-to-dynamic.aspx

As my object has JSON specific naming, I came up with this as an alternative:
public static dynamic ToDynamic(this object obj)
{
var json = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(obj);
return JsonConvert.DeserializeObject(json, typeof(ExpandoObject));
}
For me the results worked great:
Model:
public partial class Settings
{
[JsonProperty("id")]
public int Id { get; set; }
[JsonProperty("runTime")]
public TimeSpan RunTime { get; set; }
[JsonProperty("retryInterval")]
public TimeSpan RetryInterval { get; set; }
[JsonProperty("retryCutoffTime")]
public TimeSpan RetryCutoffTime { get; set; }
[JsonProperty("cjisUrl")]
public string CjisUrl { get; set; }
[JsonProperty("cjisUserName")]
public string CjisUserName { get; set; }
[JsonIgnore]
public string CjisPassword { get; set; }
[JsonProperty("importDirectory")]
public string ImportDirectory { get; set; }
[JsonProperty("exportDirectory")]
public string ExportDirectory { get; set; }
[JsonProperty("exportFilename")]
public string ExportFilename { get; set; }
[JsonProperty("jMShareDirectory")]
public string JMShareDirectory { get; set; }
[JsonIgnore]
public string Database { get; set; }
}
I used it in this manner:
private static dynamic DynamicSettings(Settings settings)
{
var settingsDyn = settings.ToDynamic();
if (settingsDyn == null)
return settings;
settingsDyn.guid = Guid.NewGuid();
return settingsDyn;
}
And received this as a result:
{
"id": 1,
"runTime": "07:00:00",
"retryInterval": "00:05:00",
"retryCutoffTime": "09:00:00",
"cjisUrl": "xxxxxx",
"cjisUserName": "xxxxx",
"importDirectory": "import",
"exportDirectory": "output",
"exportFilename": "xxxx.xml",
"jMShareDirectory": "xxxxxxxx",
"guid": "210d936e-4b93-43dc-9866-4bbad4abd7e7"
}
I don't know about speed, I mean it is serializing and deserializing, but for my use it has been great. A lot of flexability like hiding properties with JsonIgnore.
Note: xxxxx above is redaction. :)

You cannot add members to class instances on the fly.
But you can use ExpandoObject. Use factory to create new one and initialize it with properties which you have in MyClass:
public static ExpandoObject Create(int id)
{
dynamic obj = new ExpandoObject();
obj.Id = id;
obj.CreatedAt = DateTime.Now;
// etc
return obj;
}
Then you can add new members:
dynamic dto = Factory.Create(id);
dto.newProperty = "123";

You can't add properties to types at runtime. However, there is an exception which is: ExpandoObject. So if you need to add properties at runtime you should use ExpandoObject, other types don't support this.

Just to add up my experience, if you are using JSON.NET, then below might be one of the solution:
var obj....//let obj any object
ExpandoObject expandoObject= JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<ExpandoObject>(JsonConvert.SerializeObject(obj));
Not tested performances etc.. but works.

Parse complex JSON: multiple loops vs. classes

I have a Json of type :
{
"JobProcessors": [
{
"JobName": "ArchivalJob",
"IsEnabled": true,
"Batching": {
"BatchSize": 0,
"DegreeOfParallelism": -1
},
"Settings": {
"ArchivalJobCollectionPageSize": 50
}
},
{
"JobName": "AuditLogJob",
"IsEnabled": false,
"Batching": {
"BatchSize": 10,
"DegreeOfParallelism": -1
},
"Settings": {}
}
],
"ScheduledJobs": [
{
"JobName": "RemoteStartClientCommandJob",
"PrimaryAction": {
"ConnectionString": "#JobProcessorsIntegrationSBConnectionStringValue#",
"Settings": {
"LeadTimeInSeconds": "600",
"MaxSrsJobCount": 25
}
},
"ErrorAction": {
"ConnectionString": "#PairedJobProcessorIntegrationSBConnectionStringValue#",
"EntityPath": "remotestartqueue",
"Settings": {
"LeadTimeInSeconds": "600",
"MaxSrsJobCount": 25
}
}
}
]
}
I want to check the "IsEnabled" property for all "JobName" for which come under "JobProcessors" category.
In C# what i Have used till now is :
dynamic parsedJson = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject(reader.GetString(1));
foreach (var item in parsedJson)
{
foreach (var smallitem in item)
{
foreach (var tag in smallitem)
{
if(tag.IsEnabled.toString()=="true"){
Console.WriteLine("true");
}
}
}
}
This is giving me correct result except the fact that it also iterates for "ScheduledJobs" . But the main issue is :
Is this the right or most efficient way to do this ? If possible suggest some better method .
One that i know of is using classes , but i may not know the json structure beforehand. Also the json is very huge so making classes can be cumbersome !!

Given that you are already doing JObject.Parse(jsonstring); to parse your JSON string, you can use SelectTokens() with a JSONPath query to find all "JobName" objects under "JobProcessors":
// I want to check the "IsEnabled" property for all "JobName" for which come under "JobProcessors"
foreach (var job in root.SelectTokens("..JobProcessors[?(#.JobName)]"))
{
var isEnabled = (bool?)job["IsEnabled"];
Debug.WriteLine(string.Format("Job {0}: IsEnabled={1}", job["JobName"], isEnabled));
}
Notes:
.. is the recursive descent operator: it recursively descends the JToken hierarchy returning each item, subsequently to be matched against the remaining parts of the query string.
JobProcessors returns values of properties of that name.
[?(#.JobName)] returns array items (of JobProcessors in this case) that are objects with a JobName property.
(bool?) casts the value of "IsEnabled" to a boolean or null if missing.
And the output of this is:
Job ArchivalJob: IsEnabled=True
Job AuditLogJob: IsEnabled=False

As in your code snippet we are using two foreach it may take time for large object. So we can do the same thing in a single foreach or if you have some specific node to fetch or search we can use linq, and for this first we need to convert our json object into c# object. For converting Json object to C# you can use this site "http://json2csharp.com/" then we can Deserialize Json object into c#.
It will be something like this
string jsonString = "your Json Object as string";
var jsonObject = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<RootObject>(jsonString);
foreach (JobProcessor obj in jsonObject.JobProcessors)
{
string JobName = obj.JobName;
bool value=obj.IsEnabled;
}
And I also converted given Json in c# object if the Json object is same you can directly use these classes.
public class Batching
{
public int BatchSize { get; set; }
public int DegreeOfParallelism { get; set; }
}
public class Settings
{
public int ArchivalJobCollectionPageSize { get; set; }
}
public class JobProcessor
{
public string JobName { get; set; }
public bool IsEnabled { get; set; }
public Batching Batching { get; set; }
public Settings Settings { get; set; }
}
public class Settings2
{
public string LeadTimeInSeconds { get; set; }
public int MaxSrsJobCount { get; set; }
}
public class PrimaryAction
{
public string ConnectionString { get; set; }
public Settings2 Settings { get; set; }
}
public class Settings3
{
public string LeadTimeInSeconds { get; set; }
public int MaxSrsJobCount { get; set; }
}
public class ErrorAction
{
public string ConnectionString { get; set; }
public string EntityPath { get; set; }
public Settings3 Settings { get; set; }
}
public class ScheduledJob
{
public string JobName { get; set; }
public PrimaryAction PrimaryAction { get; set; }
public ErrorAction ErrorAction { get; set; }
}
public class RootObject
{
public List<JobProcessor> JobProcessors { get; set; }
public List<ScheduledJob> ScheduledJobs { get; set; }
}
Hope this will help.
Thank you

I have a c# class that returns some fields....but I want it to return a list of custom objects (I think!!!)

This is a very noob question, but I have been googling and can't seem to work out the solution myself.
I have created a class that has a number of fields (below). I am grabbing data from a .JSON file.
public class WeatherData
{
//WeatherDatas
public string airtemp { get; set; }
public string apparenttemp { get; set; }
public string windspeedkph { get; set; }
public string windgustskph { get; set; }
public string humidity { get; set; }
public string dewpoint { get; set; }
public string deltaT { get; set; }
public string pressure { get; set; }
public WeatherData(string json, int index)
{
JObject jsonObject = JObject.Parse(json);
JToken jObbs = jsonObject["observations"];
JToken jData = jObbs["data"];
airtemp = (string)jData[index]["air_temp"];
apparenttemp = (string)jData[index]["apparent_t"];
windspeedkph = (string)jData[index]["wind_spd_kmh"];
windgustskph = (string)jData[index]["gust_kmh"];
humidity = (string)jData[index]["rel_hum"];
pressure = (string)jData[index]["press_qnh"];
}
}
Using the above I can get the "airtemp" from "WeatherData.airtemp". But due to some bells and whistles I want to add later what I really want to do is return not just the airtemp value but a field/property indicating the type of the value. For example something like:
WeatherData.WeatherDatas.airtemp.value & WeatherData.WeatherDatas.airtemp.type
Where .value would be air temp and .type be the string "airtemp".
I just can't seem to work out how to describe to google what I am trying to do.

I think you may want to look into using a dictionary. Dictionaries in c# use Key, Value pairs, so you may wish to create a dictionary of Your key values would be the type, such as airtemp and the value values would be the value such as 32.54.
I recommend looking up this page if you're new to C# and want to learn Dictionaries, or any other cool C# things. http://www.dotnetperls.com/dictionary

What you can do here is to use a struct to represent your instance attributes. S.t like this:
public struct Data
{
public Type type; // if you want a string type (I don't know why) you can use a string type
public string Value;
}
Then you class will look like this:
public class WeatherData
{
//WeatherDatas
public Data airtemp { get; set; }
...
public WeatherData(string json, int index)
{
JObject jsonObject = JObject.Parse(json);
JToken jObbs = jsonObject["observations"];
JToken jData = jObbs["data"];
airtemp.Value = new Data((string)jData[index]["air_temp"], typeof(string));
...
}
}
Note that: If you have too many properties in your class, consider using a class istead of struct.

You need to explore types:
Type myType;
Object windy = "strong";
myType = windy.GetType();
Then use typeof() to see what you've got.
Not sure that dictionary is the way forward.

You can get property name without change your structure:
by example: PropertyUtil<WeatherData>.GetName(x => x.airtemp);
https://stackoverflow.com/a/6043028/440030
(source code)
public static class PropertyUtil<TSource>
{
public static string GetPropertyName<TResult>(
Expression<Func<TSource, TResult>> propertyExpression)
{
return (propertyExpression.Body as MemberExpression).Member.Name;
}
}

You can create your own data type, instead of using string use something else Like;
public class UserString
{
public Type _type{ get; set; }
public string value{ get; set; }
public UserString()
{
_type = null;
value = string.Empty;
}
}
public class WeatherData
{
//WeatherDatas
public UserString airtemp { get; set; }
public UserString apparenttemp { get; set; }
public UserString windspeedkph { get; set; }
public UserString windgustskph { get; set; }
public UserString humidity { get; set; }
public UserString dewpoint { get; set; }
public UserString deltaT { get; set; }
public UserString pressure { get; set; }
public WeatherData(string json, int index)
{
JObject jsonObject = JObject.Parse(json);
JToken jObbs = jsonObject["observations"];
JToken jData = jObbs["data"];
airtemp.value = (string)jData[index]["air_temp"];
// airtemp._type = typeof(string); //Something like that.
apparenttemp = (string)jData[index]["apparent_t"];
windspeedkph = (string)jData[index]["wind_spd_kmh"];
windgustskph = (string)jData[index]["gust_kmh"];
humidity = (string)jData[index]["rel_hum"];
pressure = (string)jData[index]["press_qnh"];
}
}