Question

I have the following Dictionary<> object:

Dictionary<String, object> parameters = new Dictionary<string, object>();
parameters.Add("username", "mike");
parameters.Add("password", "secret");
parameters.Add("persist", false);

When I serialize it:

using (MemoryStream stream = new MemoryStream())
{
   DataContractJsonSerializer serializer = new DataContractJsonSerializer(parameters.GetType());
   serializer.WriteObject(stream, parameters);

   byte[] bytes = stream.ToArray();
   string json = Encoding.UTF8.GetString(bytes, 0, bytes.Length);

   return json;
}

I get the following:

"[{\"Key\":\"username\",\"Value\":\"mike\"},{\"Key\":\"password\",\"Value\":\"secret\"},{\"Key\":\"persist\",\"Value\":false}]"

What I want to get is a raw key/value pair map, like so:

"{\"username\":\"mike\", \"password\":\"secret\", \"persist\": false}"

I’ve tried setting UseSimpleDictionaryFormat to true, but this property has no effect nor is its intended use documented anywhere I can find.

I can’t use a custom class, since the parameter key/value pairs is not known at compile time.

I also cannot use a third party library, such as JSon.NET. I’m using the Silverlight framework and the Windows Phone 8 runtime.

Answer 1

Try serializing this

var parameters = new
{
    username = "mike",
    password = "secret",
    persist = false
}