jsonreaderexception unexpected character encountered

Question

I have a web project using angular and C#.
In a C# controller, I want to read in the contents of a local json file that is used for testing.

This is the code that I run to read the JSON from my working directory.

string path = HttpContext.Current.Server.MapPath("~/testing/testData.json");
JObject jsonData = JObject.Parse(path);
string jsonString = jsonData.ToString();
List<orResult> result = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<List<orResult>>(jsonString);
return result;

The JSON can be seen here. Json

When I run the app, I get the following error.

An exception of type 'Newtonsoft.Json.JsonReaderException' occurred in Newtonsoft.Json.dll but was not handled in user code

Additional information: Unexpected character encountered while parsing value: M. Path '', line 0, position 0.

When I hover look at the path variable, it points to the right spot. If I copy and paste the path variable in to my browser, I see the JSON. The error is something with Parsing the data or something... I have no idea. Need help!

I've looked at other solutions on Stack and none of them resolved my problem.

Answer 1

JObject.Parse() expects the actual JSON content (string), not a path.

Your JSON is really an array so you could use JArray.Parse() instead. Also, converting JSON string to JObject and then back ToString() is really not adding any "value" here.

---

This should do it.

string json = File.ReadAllText(HttpContext.Current.Server.MapPath("~/testing/testData.json"));
var result = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<List<orResult>>(json);

Answer 2

You are attempting to deserialize the translated path ("c:\whatever\...\testing\testData.json") that MapPath returns, i.e. not the content of the file.

Try something like this instead:

JObject jsonData = JObject.Parse(File.ReadAllText(path));

... but then again, there is no need to use Parse() as you don't need the JObject. Just deserialize directly to a List<orResult>:

var result = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<List<orResult>>(File.ReadAllText(path));