Deserialization of a Facebook JSON string?

Question

I am not able to get my head around extracting the work_history, affiliations and current_loc of the facebook user from the JSON string that is generated after i run my fql query

I have made this class :

public class Data
{
    public CurrentLocation current_location { get; set; }
    public WorkHistory[] work_history { get; set; }
    public EducationHistory[] education_history { get; set; }
}

public class EducationHistory
{
    public string name { get; set; }
    public int? year { get; set; }
    public string school_type { get; set; }
}

public class WorkHistory
{
    public string company_name { get; set; }
    public Location location { get; set; }
}

public class CurrentLocation
{
    public string city { get; set; }
    public string state { get; set; }
    public string country { get; set; }
}

public class Location
{
    public string city { get; set; }
    public string state { get; set; }
}

The format of my JSON string is :

   {"current_location":{"city":"Delhi","state":"Delhi","country":"India","zip":"","id":102161913158207,"name":"Delhi, India"}

,"education_history":[{"name":"I E T , Alwar (Raj.)","year":2007,"concentrations":[],"school_type":"College"},{"name":"Institute of Engineering and Technology, Alwar","concentrations":[],"school_type":"College"}],

"work_history": [{"location":{"city":"","state":""},"company_name":"Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO)","description":"","start_date":"0000-00","end_date":"0000-00"}]}

How do i extract this Data i get a null when i use this code :

Data soap = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<Data>(ser);

Edit : I did change the code according to what an answer suggested i still get no values

enter image description here

Edit 2: the solution that is provided would have worked if i had only one user however i have several users having these details how do i get this data? There are several like these values given below for different users

   {
    "data": [
        {
            "uid": 54456565,
            "name": "dgfg Barma",
            "pic_square": "https://fbcdn-profile-a.akamaihd.net/hprofile-ak-ash2/275277_513046358_147089990_q.jpg",
            "affiliations": [
                {
                    "nid": 33605704,
                    "name": "Our Lady Queen of the Missions School",
                    "type": "high school"
                }
            ],
            "birthday_date": null,
            "sex": "female",
            "relationship_status": null,
            "current_location": {
                "city": "Delhi",
                "state": "Delhi",
                "country": "India",
                "zip": "",
                "id": 102161913158207,
                "name": "Delhi, India"
            },
            "education_history": [
                {
                    "name": "Amity University",
                    "concentrations": [],
                    "school_type": "College"
                },
                {
                    "name": "Amity School of Engineering & Technology",
                    "concentrations": [],
                    "school_type": "College"
                }
            ],
            "work_history": []
        },
        {
            "uid": 520310824,
            "name": "Mamta Meena",
            "pic_square": "https://fbcdn-profile-a.akamaihd.net/hprofile-ak-snc4/370835_520310824_553662476_q.jpg",
            "affiliations": [],
            "birthday_date": "12/03/1986",
            "sex": "female",
            "relationship_status": "Married",
            "current_location": {
                "city": "Delhi",
                "state": "Delhi",
                "country": "India",
                "zip": "",
                "id": 102161913158207,
                "name": "Delhi, India"
            },
            "education_history": [
                {
                    "name": "I E T , Alwar (Raj.)",
                    "year": 2007,
                    "concentrations": [],
                    "school_type": "College"
                },
                {
                    "name": "Institute of Engineering and Technology, Alwar",
                    "concentrations": [],
                    "school_type": "College"
                }
            ],
            "work_history": [
                {
                    "location": {
                        "city": "",
                        "state": ""
                    },
                    "company_name": "Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO)",
                    "description": "",
                    "start_date": "0000-00",
                    "end_date": "0000-00"
                }
            ]
        },
        {
            "uid": 6565767,
            "name": "gfgfg Agarwal",
            "pic_square": "https://fbcdn-profile-a.akamaihd.net/hprofile-ak-ash2/372433_529863326_1656605196_q.jpg",
            "affiliations": [
                {
                    "nid": 16827518,
                    "name": "Amity University",
                    "type": "college"
                }
            ],
            "birthday_date": "07/18",
            "sex": "female",
            "relationship_status": null,
            "current_location": {
                "city": "Delhi",
                "state": "Delhi",
                "country": "India",
                "zip": "",
                "id": 102161913158207,
                "name": "Delhi, India"
            },
            "education_history": [
                {
                    "name": "Amity University, Noida",
                    "year": 2012,
                    "concentrations": [],
                    "school_type": "College"
                },
                {
                    "name": "Amity University",
                    "concentrations": [],
                    "school_type": "Grad School"
                }
            ],
            "work_history": []
        },
        {
            "uid": 542580357,
            "name": "bnnm Gupta",
            "pic_square": "https://fbcdn-profile-a.akamaihd.net/hprofile-ak-snc4/372576_542580357_1330958366_q.jpg",
            "affiliations": [],
            "birthday_date": "04/30",
            "sex": "female",
            "relationship_status": "Single",
            "current_location": {
                "city": "New Delhi",
                "state": "Delhi",
                "country": "India",
                "zip": "",
                "id": 106517799384578,
                "name": "New Delhi, India"
            },
            "education_history": [
                {
                    "name": "Amity University",
                    "concentrations": [],
                    "school_type": "College"
                },
                {
                    "name": "Amity University, Noida",
                    "concentrations": [],
                    "school_type": "College"
                }
            ],
            "work_history": [
                {
                    "location": {
                        "city": "",
                        "state": ""
                    },
                    "company_name": "Oracle India Pvt Ltd",
                    "position": "Intern",
                    "description": "",
                    "start_date": "2011-05"
                }
            ]
        },
        {
            "uid": 544204117,
            "name": "pos Gupta",
            "pic_square": "https://fbcdn-profile-a.akamaihd.net/hprofile-ak-snc4/275346_544204117_594313449_q.jpg",
            "affiliations": [
                {
                    "nid": 16827518,
                    "name": "Amity University",
                    "type": "college"
                }
            ],
            "birthday_date": "05/17/1990",
            "sex": "female",
            "relationship_status": "Single",
            "current_location": {
                "city": "Noida",
                "state": "Uttar Pradesh",
                "country": "India",
                "zip": "",
                "id": 130646063637019,
                "name": "Noida, India"
            },
            "education_history": [
                {
                    "name": "Amity University, Noida",
                    "year": 2012,
                    "concentrations": [],
                    "school_type": "College"
                },
                {
                    "name": "Amity University",
                    "concentrations": [],
                    "school_type": "Grad School"
                }
            ],
            "work_history": []
        },
        {
            "uid": 4567786,
            "name": "orr Makhijani",
            "pic_square": "https://fbcdn-profile-a.akamaihd.net/hprofile-ak-snc4/372443_555253796_244086438_q.jpg",
            "affiliations": [
                {
                    "nid": 16827518,
                    "name": "Amity University",
                    "type": "college"
                }
            ],
            "birthday_date": null,
            "sex": "female",
            "relationship_status": null,
            "current_location": null,
            "education_history": [
                {
                    "name": "Amity University",
                    "concentrations": [],
                    "school_type": "College"
                }
            ],
            "work_history": []
        },
        {
            "uid": 556773604,
            "name": "Nazima Khalid",
            "pic_square": "https://fbcdn-profile-a.akamaihd.net/hprofile-ak-ash2/372542_556773604_1472126324_q.jpg",
            "affiliations": [],
            "birthday_date": "03/22",
            "sex": "female",
            "relationship_status": "Married",
            "current_location": {
                "city": "Toronto",
                "state": "Ontario",
                "country": "Canada",
                "zip": "",
                "id": 110941395597405,
                "name": "Toronto, Ontario"
            },
            "education_history": [
                {
                    "name": "AMU",
                    "concentrations": [],
                    "school_type": "College"
                }
            ],
            "work_history": [
                {
                    "location": {
                        "city": "Oakville",
                        "state": "Ontario"
                    },
                    "company_name": "SNC-Lavalin Inc.",
                    "position": "Contracts",
                    "description": "",
                    "start_date": "0000-00"
                }
            ]
        }
    ]
}

Please help

score 4 · Answer 1 · answered Feb 18 '12 at 14:50

4

Instead of declaring a lot of tiny classes I would go dynamic way. Here is the code for dynamic json object. And the usage would be something like this:

dynamic obj = JsonUtils.JsonObject.GetDynamicJsonObject(jsonString);

Console.WriteLine("{0} , {1}", obj.current_location.city, obj.current_location.state);

Console.WriteLine("EDUCATION");
foreach (var eduHist in obj.education_history)
{
    Console.WriteLine("{0} , {1}", eduHist.name, eduHist.year);
}

Console.WriteLine("WORK");
foreach (var workHist in obj.work_history)
{
    Console.WriteLine("{0}  {1}-{2}", workHist.company_name, workHist.start_date, workHist.end_date);
}

answered Feb 18 '12 at 14:50

L.B

114,136
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My code is not able to read JsonUtils what namespace does it belong to? – vini Feb 18 '12 at 15:16
you can use this: dynamic data = Newtonsoft.Json.JsonConvert.DeserializeObject(json); as explained on http://stackoverflow.com/questions/8738031/deserializing-json-using-json-net-with-dynamic-data – dc2009 Apr 17 '13 at 09:40

Darin Dimitrov · Accepted Answer · 2012-02-19T09:08:32.233

You need to use correct property names that match your JSON structure:

using System;
using Newtonsoft.Json;

public class Data
{
    public CurrentLocation current_location { get; set; }
    public WorkHistory[] work_history { get; set; }
    public EducationHistory[] education_history { get; set; }
}

public class EducationHistory
{
    public string name { get; set; }
    public int? year { get; set; }
    public string school_type { get; set; }
}

public class WorkHistory
{
    public string company_name { get; set; }
    public Location location { get; set; }
}

public class CurrentLocation
{
    public string city { get; set; }
    public string state { get; set; }
    public string country { get; set; }
}

public class Location
{
    public string city { get; set; }
    public string state { get; set; }
}

class Program
{
    static void Main()
    {
        var json = 
        @"
        {
            ""current_location"": {
                ""city"": ""Delhi"",
                ""state"": ""Delhi"",
                ""country"": ""India"",
                ""zip"": """",
                ""id"": 102161913158207,
                ""name"": ""Delhi, India""
            },
            ""education_history"": [
                {
                    ""name"": ""I E T , Alwar (Raj.)"",
                    ""year"": 2007,
                    ""concentrations"": [],
                    ""school_type"": ""College""
                },
                {
                    ""name"": ""Institute of Engineering and Technology, Alwar"",
                    ""concentrations"": [],
                    ""school_type"": ""College""
                }
            ],
            ""work_history"": [
                {
                    ""location"": {
                        ""city"": """",
                        ""state"": """"
                    },
                    ""company_name"": ""Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO)"",
                    ""description"": """",
                    ""start_date"": ""0000-00"",
                    ""end_date"": ""0000-00""
                }
            ]
        }";

        Data soap = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<Data>(json);
        Console.WriteLine(soap.current_location.city);
    }
}

As far as the affiliations property is concerned, I don't see any relation to it with your JSON, so I simply removed it from the Data object and replaced it with the EducationHistory type.

UPDATE:

And to handle multiple nodes you could adapt your models:

public class Result
{
    public Data[] data { get; set; }
}

public class Data
{
    public CurrentLocation current_location { get; set; }
    public WorkHistory[] work_history { get; set; }
    public EducationHistory[] education_history { get; set; }
}

public class EducationHistory
{
    public string name { get; set; }
    public int? year { get; set; }
    public string school_type { get; set; }
}

public class WorkHistory
{
    public string company_name { get; set; }
    public Location location { get; set; }
}

public class CurrentLocation
{
    public string city { get; set; }
    public string state { get; set; }
    public string country { get; set; }
}

public class Location
{
    public string city { get; set; }
    public string state { get; set; }
}

and then:

Result soap = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<Result>(json);
Console.WriteLine(soap.data[0].current_location.city);

@vini, which property is null? I have tested the code with the JSON strong you showed in your question and it worked perfectly fine. — Darin Dimitrov, Feb 18 '12 at 14:42
@vini, sorry, I am unable to reproduce your issue. I have updated my answer to provide a full working example. — Darin Dimitrov, Feb 18 '12 at 14:52
the solution that is provided would have worked if i had only one user however i have several users having these details thus it doesn't work :/ — vini, Feb 18 '12 at 16:48
Say if i have the same JSON code u provided once again would the output still come? thats how my condition is — vini, Feb 18 '12 at 18:36
@vini, I don't understand what you mean. Given a JSON with this structure, the code I have shown will always deserialize it successfully. — Darin Dimitrov, Feb 18 '12 at 18:37
She means that its not giving results when the JSON structure is expanded as illustrated above — Aviral Kumar, Feb 18 '12 at 18:43
the code you provided will deserealize the values for one person, what if Json string consists of information of many people and not only one person info. Hope its clear now. — Aviral Kumar, Feb 18 '12 at 18:49
@aviral, how will the JSON look in this case? You will have to adapt the C# class to match your JSON structure. — Darin Dimitrov, Feb 18 '12 at 18:50
How do we adapt the c# class according to multiple entries ? — vini, Feb 19 '12 at 03:56
@vini, I cannot help you without knowing how your JSON structure look like. The JSON you have shown in your `Edit2` is invalid JSON. — Darin Dimitrov, Feb 19 '12 at 08:28
@vini, try putting it in http://jsonlint.com/ and you will see that it is invalid. — Darin Dimitrov, Feb 19 '12 at 08:40
@vini, great, at last, see my updated answer for a solution now. — Darin Dimitrov, Feb 19 '12 at 09:08

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Nov 03 '16 at 10:46

Here's another example that's working for retrieving id, name, picture and friends. You must include reference to newtonsoft.json package.

[TestClass]
public class FbRequestParserTests
{
    [TestMethod]
    public void ParseFacebookResponse()
    {
        var response =
            @"{
              ""id"": ""123123"",
              ""name"": ""My name"",
              ""picture"": {
                            ""data"": {
                                ""is_silhouette"": false,
                                ""url"": ""https://scontent.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-1/p50x50/14572785_123""
                            }
                        },
              ""friends"": {
                ""data"": [
                    {
                    ""name"": ""Friend 1"",
                    ""id"": ""123""
                  },
                  {
                    ""name"": ""Friend 2"",
                    ""id"": ""234""
                  }
                ],
                ""paging"": {
                  ""cursors"": {
                    ""before"": ""QVFIUk1yRE9zTkhFdkc1TFV2SHVpaE1IYUJ4V2ljbUJSbjYxaGhnX05IcTNYWHp0ekNHZAnh6LThs"",
                    ""after"": ""QVFIUjFFQW5kVmJiTmMxZAHN6cWNDdUl5VnVJVl91UG0yV2hMOVl5N21GTDVxQ2JVQ2hjQVlRYXBxNDNkWWI3YjZAkZAFBV""
                  }
                },
                ""summary"": {
                  ""total_count"": 456
                }
              }
            }";

        var result = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<FbResponse>(response);

        Assert.AreEqual(result.Id, 123123);
        Assert.AreEqual(result.Name, "My Name");
    }
}

public class FbResponse
{
    public long Id { get; set; }
    public string Name { get; set; }
    public Picture Picture { get; set; }
    public Friends Friends { get; set; }
}
public class Friends
{
    public List<FriendsData> Data { get; set; }
    public Paging Paging { get; set; }
    public Summary Summary { get; set; }
}
public class Summary
{
    public int Total_Count { get; set; }
}
public class Paging
{
    public Cursors Cursors { get; set; }
}
public class Cursors
{
    public string Before { get; set; }
    public string After { get; set; }
}
public class FriendsData
{
    public int Id { get; set; }
    public string Name { get; set; }
}
public class Picture
{
    public PictureData Data { get; set; }
}
public class PictureData
{
    public bool Is_Silhouette { get; set; }
    public string Url { get; set; }
}

Deserialization of a Facebook JSON string?

3 Answers3

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