Question

I am serializing a Multidimensional list using JSON.Net, and I am having problems making it serialize correctly.

Here is the result I expected from this:

     "children": [ {
        "children": [ {
           "children": [ {
              "date_added": "12995911618983970",
              "id": "8",
              "name": "NestedNestedURL",
              "type": "url",
              "url": "http://url.com/"
           } ],
           "date_added": "12995911579845538",
           "date_modified": "12995911618983970",
           "id": "5",
           "name": "NestedNestedFolder",
           "type": "folder"
        }, {
           "date_added": "12995911609609970",
           "id": "7",
           "name": "NestedURL",
           "type": "url",
           "url": "http://url.com/"
        } ],
        "date_added": "12995911570603538",
        "date_modified": "12995911609609970",
        "id": "4",
        "name": "NestedFolder",
        "type": "folder"
     }, {
        "children": [ {
           "date_added": "12995911631570970",
           "id": "9",
           "name": "NestedURL2",
           "type": "url",
           "url": "http://url.com/"
        } ],
        "date_added": "12995911589790970",
        "date_modified": "12995911631570970",
        "id": "6",
        "name": "NestedFolder2",
        "type": "folder"
     }

However, this is very different than the result I actually get. The issue here, I believe, is that multiple URL’s can belong to a single folder, and multiple folders to one folder, but I am unsure of how to implement this. Here is the code I currently use:

public void Sync()
{
    Browser browser = new Chrome();
    SortableBindingList<Bookmark> marks = browser.ReturnBookmarks();
    SortableBindingList<object> newmarks = new SortableBindingList<object>();
    int count = 0;
   newmarks.Add(new json_top());
    json_top top = newmarks[0] as json_top;

    top.roots = new json_root();
    List<object> roots = new List<object>();

    Folder bookmarks_bar = new Folder();
    Folder other = new Folder();
    List<Object> barlist = new List<Object>();
    List<object> otherlist = new List<object>();
    List<object> children = new List<object>();
    List<string> existingFolders = new List<string>();

    bookmarks_bar.date_added = ToChromeTime(marks[0].added);
    bookmarks_bar.name = "Bookmarks bar";
    other.date_added = ToChromeTime(marks[0].added);
    other.name = "Other bookmarks";

    bool isBookmarkBar = true;

    Folder folder = new Folder();
    foreach (Bookmark mark in ordered)
    {
        List<string> fullpathlist = mark.fullPath.Split('\\').ToList();
        int count1 = 0;
        if (currentPath != mark.fullPath)
        {
            folder = (createFolder(fullpathlist, fullpathlist[0], mark));
            folder.children.Add(setChild(fullpathlist, folder, mark, 1));
            count++;
        }
        json_URL u = new json_URL();
        u.date_added = ToChromeTime(mark.added);
        u.id = id;
        u.name = mark.title;
        u.url = mark.url;
        folder.children.Add(u);
        if(isBookmarkBar)
            barlist.Add(folder);
        else
        {
            otherlist.Add(folder);
        }
    }
    bookmarks_bar.children = barlist;
    other.children = otherlist;
    top.roots.bookmark_bar = (bookmarks_bar);
    top.roots.other = other;
    string json = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(newmarks, Formatting.Indented);
    File.WriteAllText(@"c:\person.json", json);
}

    Folder setChild(List<string> fullPathList, Folder parent, Bookmark mark, int count )
    {
        if (count < fullPathList.Count)
        {
            Folder child = new Folder();
            child.date_added = ToChromeTime(mark.added);
            child.id = id;
            child.name = fullPathList[count];
            Folder LIST = setChild(fullPathList, child, mark, count + 1);
            child.children= LIST;
            return child;
        }            
    }

    public class Folder
    {
        public List<folderAndURL> children { get; set; }
        public long date_added { get; set; }
        public long date_modified
        {
            get { return 0; }
        }
        public int id { get; set; }
        public string name { get; set; }
        public string type
        {
            get { return "folder"; }
        }
    }

And here is the output I get from that code:

    "children": [
      {
        "children": {
          "date_added": 12995893609609970,
          "id": 0,
          "name": "NestedURL",
          "type": "url",
          "url": "http://url.com/"
        },
        "date_added": 12995893609609970,
        "date_modified": 0,
        "id": 0,
        "name": "NestedFolder",
        "type": "folder"
      },
      {
        "children": {
          "date_added": 12995893618983970,
          "id": 1,
          "name": "NestedNestedURL",
          "type": "url",
          "url": "http://url.com/"
        },
        "date_added": 12995893618983970,
        "date_modified": 0,
        "id": 1,
        "name": "NestedFolder",
        "type": "folder"
      },
      {
        "children": {
          "date_added": 12995893631570970,
          "id": 2,
          "name": "NestedURL2",
          "type": "url",
          "url": "http://url.com/"
        },
        "date_added": 12995893631570970,
        "date_modified": 0,
        "id": 2,
        "name": "NestedFolder2",
        "type": "folder"
      }

So, how can I change my code to match the input and the output? Like I said, it seems to be something about multiple folders not being applied to one parent folder.

Edit: I have uploaded a full version of the code here, because I cut out some parts due to space.

Answer 1

I don’t know if this is what you want:

/// <summary>
/// Load file from
/// C:\Users\XXXX\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Bookmarks
/// </summary>
[TestFixture]
public class ChromeBookmarks
{
    [Test]
    public void RoundTripBookmarksTest()
    {
        JsonSerializer jsonSerializer = JsonSerializer.Create(
            new JsonSerializerSettings
                {
                    MissingMemberHandling = MissingMemberHandling.Error,
                });
        RootObject rootObject;
        using (JsonTextReader jsonTextReader = new JsonTextReader(new StringReader(Properties.Resources.Bookmarks))) //I added my bookmars as an embedded txt file for convenience
        {
            rootObject = jsonSerializer.Deserialize<RootObject>(jsonTextReader);
        }
        //Here you have the contents of the bookmarks file in rootObject if you need to do manipulations
        StringBuilder stringBuilder = new StringBuilder();
        using (JsonTextWriter jsonTextWriter = new JsonTextWriter(new StringWriter(stringBuilder)))
        {
            jsonTextWriter.Formatting = Formatting.Indented;
            jsonTextWriter.Indentation = 3;
            jsonSerializer.Serialize(jsonTextWriter, rootObject);
        }
        var json = stringBuilder.ToString();
        File.WriteAllText(@"C:\person.json", json);
    }
}

public class Child
{
    [JsonProperty(PropertyName = "children")]
    public List<Child> Children { get; set; }
    [JsonProperty(PropertyName = "date_added")]
    public string DateAdded { get; set; }
    [JsonProperty(PropertyName = "id")]
    public string Id { get; set; }
    [JsonProperty(PropertyName = "name")]
    public string Name { get; set; }
    [JsonProperty(PropertyName = "type")]
    public string Type { get; set; }
    [JsonProperty(PropertyName = "url")]
    public string Url { get; set; }
    [JsonProperty(PropertyName = "date_modified")]
    public string DateModified { get; set; }
}

public class Roots
{
    [JsonProperty(PropertyName = "bookmark_bar")]
    public Child BookmarkBar { get; set; }
    [JsonProperty(PropertyName = "other")]
    public Child Other { get; set; }
    [JsonProperty(PropertyName = "synced")]
    public Child Synced { get; set; }
}

public class RootObject
{
    [JsonProperty(PropertyName = "checksum")]
    public string Checksum { get; set; }
    [JsonProperty(PropertyName = "roots")]
    public Roots Roots { get; set; }
    [JsonProperty(PropertyName = "version")]
    public int Version { get; set; }
}

I used this to generate the classes, did not read the docs just passed my bookmarks so there is a chance some field is missing.