Question

I am using OpenRasta provide an API for my .NET application.

I have a problem with the format of the JSON it produces when using Dictionaries.

I have the following config:

 ResourceSpace.Has.ResourcesOfType<Dictionary<String,String>>()
.AtUri("/test")
.HandledBy<ProductHandler>()
.AsXmlDataContract()
.And.AsJsonDataContract();

The ProductHandler returns the following Dictionary:

        Dictionary<String, String> dict = new Dictionary<string, string>();
        dict.Add("foo1", "bar1");
        dict.Add("foo2", "bar2");
        dict.Add("foo3", "bar3");

I would like the following JSON:

{
    "foo1": "bar1",
    "foo2": "bar2",
    "foo3": "bar3"
}

But instead I get the following:

[
    {
        "Key": "foo1",
        "Value": "bar1"
    },
    {
        "Key": "foo2",
        "Value": "bar2"
    },
    {
        "Key": "foo3",
        "Value": "bar3"
    }
]

Any suggestions how to fix this?

Answer 1

I ended up using the Newtonsoft.Json library for serialization, which provides the format I wanted.

The code for the codec is:

[MediaType("application/json;q=0.3", "json")]
[MediaType("text/html;q=0.3", "html")]
public class NewtonsoftJsonCodec : IMediaTypeReader, IMediaTypeWriter
{
    public object Configuration { get; set; }

    public object ReadFrom(IHttpEntity request, IType destinationType, string destinationName)
    {
        using (var streamReader = new StreamReader(request.Stream))
        {
            var ser = new JsonSerializer();

            return ser.Deserialize(streamReader, destinationType.StaticType);
        }

    }

    public void WriteTo(object entity, IHttpEntity response, string[] parameters)
    {
        if (entity == null)
            return;
        using (var textWriter = new StreamWriter(response.Stream))
        {
            var serializer = new JsonSerializer();
            serializer.NullValueHandling = NullValueHandling.Include;
            serializer.Serialize(textWriter, entity);
        }
    }
}

And the config looks like:

ResourceSpace.Uses.UriDecorator<ContentTypeExtensionUriDecorator>();
ResourceSpace.Has.ResourcesOfType<MeasurementDataFile[]>()
    .AtUri("/test")
    .HandledBy<MeasurementHandler>()
    .TranscodedBy<NewtonsoftJsonCodec>()
    .And.AsXmlDataContract();