Question

I have a simple JSON object graph I’m trying to render using a Mustache template in an ASP.NET MVC 3 site using Nustache (Nustache.Core and Nustache.Mvc).

My object graph represents a simple list of Franchises, each has one or more owners (if active and operating) and each owner contains a Name object with First, Last, Middle, Suffix, Title:

{
  "Count": 39,
  "Franchises": [
    {
      "Id": "81e5e91b-37eb-4f60-ac5f-d2d9a2c1b8fc",
      "Name": "My Franchise, Inc.",
      "Number": "001",
      "Owners": [],
      "Status": {
        "Id": 4,
        "Name": "Terminated"
      }
    },
    {
      "Id": "98887526-5b1d-4db9-9ddb-2be2cd6af957",
      "Name": "My Other Franchise, Inc.",
      "Number": "0002",
      "Owners": [
        {
          "Id": "cffd8de3-aa12-4dbf-b129-0886aea7d1b1",
          "Name": {
            "FirstName": "James",
            "LastName": "Drew",
            "MiddleName": null,
            "Suffix": null,
            "Title": null
          }
        }
      ],
      "Status": {
        "Id": 2,
        "Name": "Operating"
      }
    }.
    ...
  ]
}

My MVC action method is very simple. Uses a WebClient to grab the JSON from the service and the JavaScriptSerializer to convert the JSON to a dictionary and passes that to the view:

public ActionResult Index()
{
    var json = null as String;
    var serializer = new System.Web.Script.Serialization.JavaScriptSerializer();

    using (var client = new System.Net.WebClient())
    {
        json = client.DownloadString(@"http://my.service.com/franchises");
    }

    return PartialView(serializer.Deserialize<Dictionary<string, object>>(json));
}

And here is my basic Mustache template:

<ul>
  {{#Franchises}}
    <li><a id="{{Id}}" href="/franchises/details/{{Id}}">{{Number}}</a>
      {{#Owners}}
        TODO: Print Name Here
      {{/Owners}}
    </li>
  {{/Franchises}}
</ul>

The problem I’m having is printing the name of each owner. The template renders everything but the owner’s name and I’ve tried several template variations with no luck; replacing TODO: Print Name Here with:

• {{Name}} prints out System.Collections.Generic.Dictionary'2[System.String,System.Object]
for each owner object

• {{#Name}}{{FirstName}} {{LastName}}{{/Name}} prints blank

• {{> Name}} that points to a template with {{#Name}}{{FirstName}} {{LastName}}{{/Name}} or {{FirstName}} {{LastName}} both print blank

• Both {{Name.FirstName}} or {{Name/FirstName}} print blank

I don’t know what else to try. It can’t be this difficult to navigate through an object graph. Can someone please let me know what I’m doing wrong?

Answer 1

The problems I’m having are definitely within Nustache as pointed out by Gazler in the comments. Unfortunately, I can’t seem to find any other implementations of Mustache in .NET so I’ll probably have to roll my own (or at least add to Nustache) to enable the expected functionality.