RestSharp Serialize/Deserialize Naming Conversion

Question

I am attempting to wrap the Plivo API (yes I'm aware it's been done) using RestSharp.

However, I cannot find a method to translate the API Naming conventions to my own, for example:

A "Call` (https://www.plivo.com/docs/api/call/#make-an-outbound-call) requires a minimum of:

to, from, and answer_url parameters be provided.

These parameters are also case-sensitive.

I would like to be able to provide a CallRequest Class, wrapping the data required in my preferred naming conventions, and then somehow translate these prior to serialization by RestSharp.

Example:

public class CallRequest
{

    /// <summary>
    /// The phone number to be used as the caller id (with the country code).For e.g, a USA caller id number could be, 15677654321, with '1' for the country code.
    /// </summary>
    public string From { get; set; }

    /// <summary>
    ///  The regular number(s) or sip endpoint(s) to call. Regular number must be prefixed with country code but without the + sign). For e.g, to dial a number in the USA, the number could be, 15677654321, with '1' for the country code. Multiple numbers can be sent by using a delimiter. For e.g. 15677654321<12077657621<12047657621. Sip endpoints must be prefixed with sip: E.g., sip:john1234@phone.plivo.com. To make bulk calls, the delimiter < is used. For eg. 15677654321<15673464321<sip:john1234@phone.plivo.com Yes, you can mix regular numbers and sip endpoints.
    /// </summary>
    public string To { get; set; }

    /// <summary>
    /// The URL invoked by Plivo when the outbound call is answered.
    /// </summary>
    public string AnswerUrl { get; set; }

}

This data would then be translated to Plivo's convention in the following functions:

    private T Execute<T>(IRestRequest request) where T : new()
    {
        var client = new RestClient
        {
            BaseUrl = new Uri(BaseUrl),
            Authenticator = new HttpBasicAuthenticator(_accountId, _authToken),
            UserAgent = "PlivoSharp"
        };
        request.AddHeader("Content-Type", "application/json");
        request.AddParameter("auth_id", _accountId, ParameterType.UrlSegment);
        request.RequestFormat = DataFormat.Json;
        client.AddHandler("application/json", new JsonDeserializer());


        var response = client.Execute<T>(request);
        if (response.ErrorException == null) return response.Data;
        const string message = "Error retrieving response.  Check inner details for more info.";
        var plivoException = new ApplicationException(message, response.ErrorException);
        throw plivoException;
    }

    public CallResponse MakeCall(CallRequest callRequest)
    {
        var request = new RestRequest
        {
            RequestFormat = DataFormat.Json,
            Resource = "Account/{auth_id}/Call/",
            Method = Method.POST
        };

        //SOMEHOW TRANSLATE THE PROPERTIES INTO THE DATA BELOW 

        request.AddBody(new
        {
            to = "17#####",
            from = "18#####",
            answer_url = "http://m------.xml"
        });

        return Execute<CallResponse>(request);
    }

Answer 1

Unfortunately it looks as though JSON property renaming is not implemented out of the box in RestSharp. You have a couple of options:

1. Download Restsharp from https://github.com/restsharp/RestSharp and rebuild it yourself enabling the compiler option SIMPLE_JSON_DATACONTRACT. Then you will be able to rename properties using data contract attributes. For more, see here: RestSharp JsonDeserializer with special characters in identifiers

   I just rebuilt the most recent version of RestSharp (version 105.1.0) with this option enabled. Using the following version of your class:

   [DataContract]
   public class CallRequest
   {
       [DataMember(Name = "from")]
       public string From { get; set; }
   
       [DataMember(Name = "to")]
       public string To { get; set; }
   
       [DataMember(Name = "answer_url")]
       public string AnswerUrl { get; set; }
   }
   

   I was able to generate the following JSON:

       var request = new CallRequest { AnswerUrl = "AnswerUrl", From = "from", To = "to" };
       var json = SimpleJson.SerializeObject(request);
       Debug.WriteLine(json);
       // Prints {"from":"from","to":"to","answer_url":"AnswerUrl"}
   

   I'm not sure how thoroughly tested this option is, however, since it's compiled out by default.

2. Manually serialize and deserialize with a different serializer such as Json.NET that supports property renaming. To do this, see RestSharp - using the Json.net serializer (archived here.)