C# deserialize dynamic JSON

Question

I have the following Json string that I need to deserialize.

{"123456789":
  {"short_description":"Delivered",
     "detail_description":"Your item has been delivered"
   }
}

The first field "123456789" is an id number, so basically this value can be different depending on the data being queried.

I'm using C# in visual studio. Obviously because the value of the first field can change I can't use a predefined class to deserialize the JSON into because this field will be used as the class name but the field value won't match the class name.

Is there a way to deserialize this into some sort of dynamic class but still access the fields as if it was a predefined class?

Alternatively is there a way to deserialize this into a predefined class even thought the class name doesn't match?

The service providing this data is a third party one so i don't have any control over it.

Answer 1

Here is one way which I use in production code. It might not be perfect, but it gets the job done.

using using System.Web.Script.Serialization;

// .....

    public object GetJson(string url)
    {
        var json = Get(url); // I have code that makes this work, it gets a JSON string

        try
        {
            var deserializer = new JavaScriptSerializer();
            var result = deserializer.DeserializeObject(json);

            return result;
        }
        catch (ArgumentException e)
        {
            // Error handling....
        }            
    }

The object you receive back will be a generic Map, List, or whatever depending on the structure of the JSON. If you know what structure to expect, this is very useful without writing a customized parser or target object type.

You could then enumerate the keys of the Map, for example, to find your key that varies. A wrapper or conversion would then provide a consistent API to the rest of your application layer. Something like:

public class Order {
     public string OrderNum { private set; get; }
     public string ShortDesc { private set; get; }
     public string Desc { private set; get; }

     public static Order FromJson(object jsonResult) 
     {
          var m = jsonResult as Map<string, object>;

          // Handle errors, but I am not

          var firstPair = m.First();

          var detail = firstPair.Value as Map<string, object>;

          var dummy = new Order()
          {
              OrderNum = firstPair.Key,
              ShortDesc = detail["short_description"].ToString();
              Desc = detail["detail_description"].ToString();
          }

          return dummy;
     }
}

Answer 2

I liked answer above so I refactored it a bit. You'll need references to System.Web.Extensions.dll and System.Web.Script.Serialization.

Here's the class:

public class Order
{
    public string OrderNum { private set; get; }
    public string ShortDesc { private set; get; }
    public string Desc { private set; get; }

    public static Order FromJson(string jsonResult) 
    {
        JavaScriptSerializer js = new JavaScriptSerializer();
        // Should deserialize right to Dictionary<string, object>
        // var result = ((Dictionary<string, object>)js.Deserialize<dynamic>(jsonResult)).First();
        var result = js.Deserialize<Dictionary<string, object>>(jsonResult).First();
        var detail = (Dictionary<string, object>)result.Value;

        return new Order()
        {
            OrderNum = result.Key,
            ShortDesc = detail["short_description"].ToString(),
            Desc = detail["detail_description"].ToString()
        };
    }
}

And how to call it:

string json = "{\"123456789\": {\"short_description\":\"Delivered\", \"detail_description\":\"Your item has been delivered\" } }";
Order o = Order.FromJson(json);

You'll need to implement error handling on your own however.