JObject to anonymous object with unkown type structure | C#

Question

Im trying to convert a JObject to an object. I have a WEB-API with ASP.NET framework where I get an Request-Object which has a object-property. This object-property has a completely unkown structure and can have different properties or child-objects (this depends on the sending system). My problem is to parse/convert these JObject´s to a object.

The serialization of an anonymous object is super easy, cause the object definition is clear, but how can I do this the other way around?

I have the following controller:

[HttpPost]
[Route("insert")]
public IHttpActionResult Insert(RequestObject ro)
{
}

This controller receives the following JSON-Body:

{
 "SystemName":"S1_K3",
 "MetaInformation":{
  "Prop1":"X1",
  "Prop3": 12,
  "X1":{
   "User":"XYZ",
   "Session":4
  }
 }
}

This JSON-Body is defined as a class in my code as the following:

public class RequestObject {
 public string SystemName { get; set;}
 public object MetaInformation { get; set;}
}

As you can see MetaInformation is from type 'object' so it can be filled up with the informations provided inside the json. But when I receive the object inside my controller, the property MetaInformation is an object of type JObject. How can I achieve that my object looks like the following:

object metaInformation = new{
 Prop1="X1",
 Prop3=12,
 X1=new{
  User="XYZ", 
  Session=4
 }
};

Please keep in mind, that I does not know the object structure at runtime.

Thanks to everyone who can help!

A `JObject` _is_ an object - you just don't know its properties at compile-time. Does this help? https://stackoverflow.com/questions/16097768 — D Stanley, Mar 19 '20 at 20:50
if you can serialize it to some well-known structure like xml or json, there are popular library to parse and deserialize them. You could get a dictionary for instance, or have some predefined options. At _worst_ there is `dynamic` type, but that would be avoided if possible (no compile time check) — Pac0, Mar 19 '20 at 20:58
If you need static / strong typed objects, you can have `JsonConverter`s. Otherwise, `dynamic` or `JObject` should be good. — weichch, Mar 19 '20 at 21:03
Is this what you are asking? [How do I use JSON.NET to deserialize into nested/recursive Dictionary and List?](https://stackoverflow.com/q/5546142/10263) — Brian Rogers, Mar 19 '20 at 21:11
I´ve updated the description, so it should be more understandable now. — Robert Wolf, Mar 20 '20 at 06:28
*Anonymous* objects can only be defined at compile time. So if you don't know the structure beforehand, there is not a way to create one at run time. That is exactly what [`JObject`](https://www.newtonsoft.com/json/help/html/T_Newtonsoft_Json_Linq_JObject.htm) is for. It gives you a way to handle an unknown JSON object at runtime. — Brian Rogers, Mar 20 '20 at 07:23
@BrianRogers I´ve no problem with this, but the object is serialized later to be saved in a MongoDB and there it serializes into JValue etc. but there I need the original JSON. — Robert Wolf, Mar 20 '20 at 07:28
You need the original JSON of what? The whole RequestObject, or just the MetaInformation? If the former, then use `JsonConvert.SerializeObject` to serialize it. If the latter and it is a JObject, then use `MetaInformation.ToString()` to get the JSON. — Brian Rogers, Mar 20 '20 at 07:35

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 20 '20 at 08:01

I found a solution for my problem, cause every system could send me other informations I created an IEnumerable<KeyValuePair<string,string>> property instead of my object. So every system can send me their meta informations and the type is clear for serializing and deserializing.

JObject to anonymous object with unkown type structure | C#

1 Answers1