Question

I have added a custom property to some of my objects like this:

[JsonCustomRoot("status")]
public class StatusDTO 
{
    public int StatusId { get; set; }
    public string Name { get; set; }
    public DateTime Created { get; set; }
}

The attribute is very simple:

public class JsonCustomRoot :Attribute
{
    public string rootName { get; set; }

    public JsonCustomRoot(string rootName)
    {
        this.rootName = rootName;
    }
}

The default output from JSON.NET when serializing an instance of an object is this:

{"StatusId":70,"Name":"Closed","Created":"2012-12-12T11:50:56.6207193Z"}

Now the question is: How can I add a root-node to the JSON with the value of the custom attribute like so:

{status:{"StatusId":70,"Name":"Closed","Created":"2012-12-12T11:50:56.6207193Z"}}

I have found several articles mentioning the IContractResolver interface, but I cannot grasp how to do it. My attempts include this unfinished piece of code:

protected override JsonObjectContract CreateObjectContract(Type objectType)
{
    JsonObjectContract contract = base.CreateObjectContract(objectType);

    var info = objectType.GetCustomAttributes()
                   .SingleOrDefault(t => (Type)t.TypeId==typeof(JsonCustomRoot));
    if (info != null)
    {
        var myAttribute = (JsonCustomRoot)info;
        // How can i add myAttribute.rootName to the root from here?
        // Maybe some other method should be overrided instead?
    }

    return contract;
}

Answer 1

Here’s a solution specifically for Web API, which I am also using: RootFormatter.cs

I wrote it based on Creating a JSONP Formatter for ASP.NET Web API.

Instead of using a custom attribute I am reusing Title field of JsonObjectAttribute. Here’s a usage code:

using Newtonsoft.Json

[JsonObject(Title = "user")]
public class User
{
    public string mail { get; set; }
}

Then, add RootFormatter to your App_Start and register it as follows in WebApiConfig:

GlobalConfiguration.Configuration.Formatters.Insert(0, new RootFormatter());

I was able to get a wrapped response similar to WCF’s WebMessageBodyStyle.Wrapped:

{"user":{
  "mail": "[e-mail]"
}}