cant figure out how to map this json into C# classes

Question

So I have the json below that I want to Deseralize into Classes so I can work with it. But the issues is that the top two fields are a different type to all the rest

"items": {
    "averageItemLevel": 718,
    "averageItemLevelEquipped": 716,
    "head": { ... },
    "chest": { ... },
    "feet": { ... },
    "hands": { ... }
    }

Where ... is a the Item class below, but the problem is that 2 of the fields are ints and the rest are Item, there are about 20 fields in total. So what I'd like to do is put them into a Dictionary<string, Item> but the 2 int fields are preventing me from Deseralizing it into that. I'm using JavaScriptSerializer.Deserialize<T>() to do this.

I could have each item as it's own class with the name of the item as the name of the class, but I find that to be very bad, repeating so much each time, also very hard to work with later since I cant iterate over the fields, where as I could a Dictionary. Any idea how I could overcome this?

public class Item
{
    public ItemDetails itemDetails { get; set; }
    public int id { get; set; }
    public string name { get; set; }
    public string icon { get; set; }
    public int quality { get; set; }
    public int itemLevel { get; set; }
    public TooltipParams tooltipParams { get; set; }
    public List<Stat> stats { get; set; }
    public int armor { get; set; }
    public string context { get; set; }
    public List<int> bonusLists { get; set; }
}

Update: from the comments I came up with this solution

JObject jsonObject = JObject.Parse(json);

jsonObject["averageItemLevel"] = int.Parse(jsonObject["items"]["averageItemLevel"].ToString());
jsonObject["averageItemLevelEquipped"] = int.Parse(jsonObject["items"]["averageItemLevelEquipped"].ToString());
jsonObject["items"]["averageItemLevel"].Parent.Remove();
jsonObject["items"]["averageItemLevelEquipped"].Parent.Remove();

var finalJson = jsonObject.ToString(Newtonsoft.Json.Formatting.None);
var character = _serializer.Deserialize<Character>(finalJson);
character.progression.raids.RemoveAll(x => x.name != "My House");

return character

If you are going down the classes route, there are tools available that you just paste in the json and it generates the classes for you. here is one such tool: http://jsonutils.com/ — Nkosi, Apr 10 '16 at 03:38
@Nkosi yeah i'm aware of these kinda of tools, as great as they are they will simply make a class for each `Item` as I mentioned which makes it rather messy and hard to work with the data — Toxicable, Apr 10 '16 at 03:40
Ok I understand. You could try `Dictionary` and see if it will parse the other complex objects as dictionaries as well — Nkosi, Apr 10 '16 at 03:41
The following answer works with Json.net and deserializes the json to `IDictionary` http://stackoverflow.com/a/20728229/5233410 — Nkosi, Apr 10 '16 at 03:53
@Nkosi Hey, that's an idea. Parse it all into `objects`, which `int` is, then I'll move the `int` entries and reparse the other ones into items — Toxicable, Apr 10 '16 at 03:57
@Nkosi So from what you suggested I ended up with the solution above, not sure how efficient it is but I guess it'll do now untill I think of something better. — Toxicable, Apr 10 '16 at 04:32

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 10 '16 at 07:31

If I add these two classes to match your JSON I can serialize and deserialize the objects:

public class root
{
    public Items items { get; set; }
}

public class Items
{
    public int averageItemLevel { get; set; }
    public int averageItemLevelEquipped { get; set; }
    public Item head {get;set;}
    public Item chest {get;set;}
    public Item feet {get;set;}
    public Item hands {get;set;}
}

Test rig with the WCF Serializer:

var obj = new root();
obj.items = new Items
{
    averageItemLevel = 42,
    feet = new Item { armor = 4242 },
    chest = new Item { name = "super chest" }
};

var ser = new DataContractJsonSerializer(typeof(root));

using (var ms = new MemoryStream())
{
    ser.WriteObject(ms, obj);

    Console.WriteLine(Encoding.UTF8.GetString(ms.ToArray()));
    Console.WriteLine("and deserialize");

    ms.Position = 0;
    var deserializeObject = (root) ser.ReadObject(ms);

    Console.WriteLine(deserializeObject.items.feet.armor);
}

And with the JavaScriptSerializer:

var jsser = new JavaScriptSerializer();
var json = jsser.Serialize(obj);

Console.WriteLine(json);
Console.WriteLine("and deserialize");

var djson = jsser.Deserialize<root>(json);

Console.WriteLine(djson.items.feet.armor);

Both serializers give the same result for your given JSON.

cant figure out how to map this json into C# classes

1 Answers1