Newtonsoft JSON .NET Nuget Nugget

Most API payloads are in XML or JSON; it is best to know both of these data structures, and how to serialize/deserialize them

The JSON parsing utilities found in Newtonsoft.Json are very. very useful and should be common knowledge for any .NET developer who works with API data or anything producing or derived from JSON (JavaScript Object Notation).

In general, to use Newtonsoft.Json you simply need to create a .NET class hierarchy that mimics the structure and hierarchy of the target JSON. Once that is setup, serializing in-memory objects to JSON and deserializing the JSON back to in-memory objects is a breeze.

You achieve this by normal class hierarchy and making List<> of child objects, array properties, etc. Newtonsoft's 'JsonProperty' class property decorator maps JSON properties and the builtin serialization and deserialization methods facilitate working between JSON strings and the in-memory objects they represent.

The C# source code below demonstrates serialization from a SQL Server 2017 SSRS API v2 JSON response and then serializing that object back into JSON.

Source Code:

 using System;  
 using Microsoft.VisualStudio.TestTools.UnitTesting;  
 using Newtonsoft.Json;  
 using System.Collections.Generic;  
 using System.Net.Http;  
 using System.Threading.Tasks;  
 namespace DemoTests  
 {  
   [TestClass]  
   public class DemoTestJSON  
   {  
     [TestMethod]  
     public async Task TestDeserializeJSON()  
     {  
       HttpClient client = new HttpClient(new HttpClientHandler() { UseDefaultCredentials = true });  
       client.BaseAddress = new Uri("http://localhost/reports/api/v2.0/reports");  
       var response = await client.GetAsync(client.BaseAddress);  
       var deserial = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<APIGenericItemsResponse>(await response.Content.ReadAsStringAsync());       
       TestSerializeJSON(deserial);  
       Assert.IsNotNull(deserial);  
     }  
     [TestMethod]  
     public void TestSerializeJSON(APIGenericItemsResponse genericObject)  
     {      
       string serial = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(genericObject);  
       Assert.IsNotNull(null);  
     }  
   }  
   public class APIGenericItemsResponse  
   {  
     [JsonProperty("@odata.context")]  
     public string Context { get; set; }  
     [JsonProperty("value")]  
     public List<GenericItem> GenericItem { get; set; }  
   }  
   public class GenericItem  
   {  
     [JsonProperty("Id")]  
     public string Id { get; set; }  
     [JsonProperty("Name")]  
     public string Name { get; set; }  
     [JsonProperty("Path")]  
     public string Path { get; set; }  
   }  
 }  

SSRS API v2 /Reports JSON Response:

JSON Deserialization with Newtonsoft.Json:

The deserial variable holds an in-memory .NET object of type APIGenericResponse, derived (deserialized) from the SSRS API JSON response

JSON Serialization with Newtonsoft.Json:

The serial variable is simply the serialization APIGenericItemsResponse object serialized into a JSON string

Reference: https://www.newtonsoft.com/json/help/html/Introduction.htm

Serialization and Deserialization in .NET

Definition: "Serialization is the process of going from in-memory representation of an object to a disk-based format which can be in any form like binary, JSON, BSON, XML, etc. Deserialization is the reverse process, in which you recreate an object from disk storage and store it in RAM"

Purpose: "This is mainly used in document store, ORM style databases, storing config files etc. The main benefit is the speed in populating an object as opposed to querying multiple tables in the case of database storage."

Serialization saves object state so that the object can be persisted and recreated without the need for inserting/updating one or more records across several tables in an RDBMS.

.NET Example: The following is an example of serialization of a simple C# object to XML, and deserialization from the XML back into the same C# object:

 using System;  
 using System.IO;  
 using System.Xml;  
 using System.Xml.Serialization;  
 namespace SerializationDeserializationSimpl  
 {  
   class Program  
   {  
     static void Main(string[] args)  
     {  
       Album album = new Album(){ AlbumId = 1, AlbumName = "James Vincent McMorrow", ArtistName="Post Tropical", CurrentBillboardRank=1045, HighestBillboardRank=102, SoundScanUnits=207000};  
       Console.WriteLine("Original object in memory:");  
       album.WriteSummary();  
       Console.WriteLine("Press Enter to Serialize this object to XML");  
       Console.ReadLine();  
       //Serialize it to XML file (disk) form  
       var serializer = new XmlSerializer(album.GetType());  
       using (var writer = XmlWriter.Create("album.xml"))  
       {  
         serializer.Serialize(writer, album); //serializes to XmlWriter for later deserialization back into Album obj  
         var sWriter = new StringWriter();  
         serializer.Serialize(sWriter, album); //serializes to StringWriter for display in the Console via WriteLine  
         Console.WriteLine(sWriter.ToString());  
         Console.WriteLine("------------------------------------");  
         Console.WriteLine("------------------------------------");  
         Console.WriteLine("------------------------------------");  
       }  
       Console.WriteLine("Serialization to XML sucessfull!");  
       Console.WriteLine("------------------------------------");  
       album.WriteSummary();  
       Console.WriteLine("------------------------------------");  
       Console.WriteLine("Press Enter to Deserialize from the XML");  
       Console.ReadLine();  
       //Deserialize from that XML back into object (RAM) form  
       using (var reader = XmlReader.Create("album.xml"))  
       {  
         var albumDeserialized = (Album)serializer.Deserialize(reader);  
         Console.WriteLine("Deserialization from XML sucessfull!");  
         Console.WriteLine("------------------------------------");  
         albumDeserialized.WriteSummary();  
         Console.WriteLine("------------------------------------");  
         Console.WriteLine("Press any key to exit");  
         Console.ReadLine();  
       }  
     }  
   }  
   public class Album  
   {  
     public int AlbumId;  
     public string AlbumName;  
     public string ArtistName;  
     public int SoundScanUnits;  
     public int CurrentBillboardRank;  
     public int HighestBillboardRank;  
     public void WriteSummary()  
     {  
       Console.WriteLine("AlbumId: " + AlbumId);  
       Console.WriteLine("Album: " + AlbumName);  
       Console.WriteLine("Artist: " + ArtistName);  
       Console.WriteLine("SoundScanUnits: " + SoundScanUnits);  
       Console.WriteLine("CurrentBillboardRank: " + CurrentBillboardRank);  
       Console.WriteLine("HighestBillboardRank: " + HighestBillboardRank);  
     }  
   }  
 }  

Program.cs

Console Output

GitHub: https://github.com/Radagast27/SerializationDeserializationSimpl

Quote Attribution: Mehdi Gholam

References:

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/11447529/convert-an-object-to-an-xml-string?utm_medium=organic&utm_source=google_rich_qa&utm_campaign=google_rich_qa

https://www.codeproject.com/Questions/277995/What-is-serialization-and-deserialization-in-cshar

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3356976/how-to-serialize-deserialize-simple-classes-to-xml-and-back