JSON Deserialization is not setting C# Object

Question

I am new to JSON. I am trying to deserialize a JSON object into a C# Object. I do not get an error. After deserialization, the C# object properties are all null. The C# Object that I defined has all possible properties. But the JSON object does not have all of these properties.
This is my C# Object:

[DataContract]
internal class Name
{
private string strFamilyName = string.Empty;
private string strGivenName = string.Empty;
private string strMiddleName = string.Empty;
private string strHonorificPrefix = string.Empty;
private string strHonorificSuffix = string.Empty;

[DataMember]
public string familyName
{
    get { return strFamilyName; }
    set { strFamilyName = value; }
}

[DataMember]
public string givenName
{
    get { return strGivenName; }
    set { strGivenName = value; }
}

[DataMember]
public string middleName
{
    get { return strMiddleName; }
    set { strMiddleName = value; }
}

[DataMember]
public string honorificPrefix
{
    get { return strHonorificPrefix; }
    set { strHonorificPrefix = value; }
}

[DataMember]
public string honorificSuffix
{
    get { return strHonorificSuffix; }
    set { strHonorificSuffix = value; }
}
}

[DataContract]
internal class UserProperties
{
private Name objName = null;
private string strEmail = string.Empty;
private string strMobile = string.Empty;
private string strPager = string.Empty;
private string strDegree = string.Empty;
private string strRole = string.Empty;
private string strSpecialty = string.Empty;
private string strDepartment = string.Empty;

[DataMember]
public Name name
{
    get { return objName; }
    set { objName = value; }
}

[DataMember]
public string email
{
    get { return strEmail; }
    set { strEmail = value; }
}

[DataMember]
public string mobile
{
    get { return strMobile; }
    set { strMobile = value; }
}

[DataMember]
public string pager
{
    get { return strPager; }
    set { strPager = value; }
}

[DataMember]
public string degree
{
    get { return strDegree; }
    set { strDegree = value; }
}

[DataMember]
public string role
{
    get { return strRole; }
    set { strRole = value; }
}

[DataMember]
public string specialty
{
    get { return strSpecialty; }
    set { strSpecialty = value; }
}

[DataMember]
public string department
{
    get { return strDepartment; }
    set { strDepartment = value; }
}
}

[DataContract]
internal class CortextUser
{
private string strCUID = string.Empty;
private string strInviteStatus = string.Empty;
private bool bIsEnabled = false;
private UserProperties objUserProperties = null;

[DataMember]
public string cuid
{
    get { return strCUID; }
    set { strCUID = value; }
}

[DataMember]
public string invitationStatus
{
    get { return strInviteStatus; }
    set { strInviteStatus = value; }
}

[DataMember]
public bool isEnabled
{
    get { return bIsEnabled; }
    set { bIsEnabled = value; }
}

[DataMember]
public UserProperties userProperties
{
    get { return objUserProperties; }
    set { objUserProperties = value; }
}       
}

This is the JSON object returned when I use the code:

HttpWebResponse resp = (HttpWebResponse)httpWebRequest.GetResponse();
Stream resStream = resp.GetResponseStream();
StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(resStream);
System.Diagnostics.Debug.WriteLine("JSON form of User object: ");
System.Diagnostics.Debug.WriteLine(reader.ReadToEnd());

JSON form of User object: 
[
    {   
        "cuid":"1338857734894",
        "invitationStatus":"invite_accepted",
        "isEnabled":true,
        "userProperties":
        {
            "name":
            {
                "familyName":"Smith",
                "givenName":"John"
            },
            "email":"jsmith@test.org",
            "mobile":"(111) 333-4444",
            "role":"Developer",
            "specialty":"Development",
            "department":"IS"
        }
    }
]

When I run this code:

HttpWebResponse resp = (HttpWebResponse)httpWebRequest.GetResponse();
Stream resStream = resp.GetResponseStream();
UserResult = (CortextUser)jsonSerializer.ReadObject(resStream);

The UserResult object has all of the properties set to their initialized properties.

Do all properties need to be present in the JSON object when it is deserialized to the C# object?

You Json Appears to be an array of the UserResult Type. Take a look at this, http://stackoverflow.com/questions/16856846/deserialize-a-json-array-in-c-sharp Serialize it to a list and grab your first result based upon your example. — Bearcat9425, Nov 25 '15 at 16:58
No. It is not an array of UserResult type. The UserResult object has nested objects, ie UserProperties and UserProperties has a Name object. — Gloria Santin, Nov 25 '15 at 17:00
Yes and i can see User properties defined in the object above but at a top level your entire response is wrapped in [ ] which means start of an array. yours just happens to be an array of 1. — Bearcat9425, Nov 25 '15 at 17:02
Thank you. You are correct. I will look into how to deserialize an array. — Gloria Santin, Nov 25 '15 at 17:05
Once you serialized to a list you can simply call first on it and you should get your UserResult Object you need, however I would probably do a check on the list count to make sure you don't get back more than 1 object. :) hope that works for you! — Bearcat9425, Nov 25 '15 at 17:06

score 2 · Accepted Answer · edited May 04 '20 at 20:13

Putting your JSON into https://app.quicktype.io/ results in these classes:

public class Name
{
    public string familyName { get; set; }
    public string givenName { get; set; }
}

public class UserProperties
{
    public Name name { get; set; }
    public string email { get; set; }
    public string mobile { get; set; }
    public string role { get; set; }
    public string specialty { get; set; }
    public string department { get; set; }
}

public class RootObject
{
    public string cuid { get; set; }
    public string invitationStatus { get; set; }
    public bool isEnabled { get; set; }
    public UserProperties userProperties { get; set; }
}

Once you have the JSON as a string you can deserialize it using JSON.NET with:

var root = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<IEnumerable<RootObject>>(json);

You need to deserialize into an IEnumerable because your JSON is enclosed in square brackets (i.e. [ ... ]) which means it's a list/array/collection.

Here's a fiddle showing it working https://dotnetfiddle.net/hTM7EQ.

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 25 '15 at 17:26

0

Tried

CortextUser user = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<CortextUser>(text);

With Newtwonsoft Json library and get a valid object

answered Nov 25 '15 at 17:26

Mulflar

424
9
22

IT is an array, so I had to add as listed in first answer. – Gloria Santin Nov 25 '15 at 18:32

JSON Deserialization is not setting C# Object

2 Answers2