Question

I’m trying to convert some older work to use Newtonsoft JSON.NET. The default handling using the System.Web.Script.Serialization.JavaScriptSerializer.Deserialize method (e.g. if no target type is specified) is to return a Dictionary<string,object> for inner objects.

This is actually a really useful basic type for JSON since it also happens to be the underlying type used by ExpandoObjects and is the most sensible internal implementation for dynamic types.

If I specify this type, e.g.:

 var dict = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<Dictionary<string,object>>(json);

JSON.NET will deserialize the outermost object structure correctly, but it returns a JObject type for any inner structures. What I really need is for the same outer structure to be used for any inner object-type structures.

Is there a way to specify a type to be used for inner objects, and not just the outermost type returned?

Answer 1

When Deserializing your complex objects using Json, you need to add a JsonSerializer Settings as a parameter. This will ensure that all of the inner types get deserialized properly.

    private JsonSerializerSettings _jsonSettings = new JsonSerializerSettings
    {
        TypeNameHandling = TypeNameHandling.All,
        TypeNameAssemblyFormat = FormatterAssemblyStyle.Full
    };

When Serializing your object, you can use the SerializerSettings:

    string json= JsonConvert.SerializeObject(myObject, _jsonSettings)

Then when you are deserializing, use:

    var dict = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<Dictionary<string, object>>(json, _jsonSettings);

Also, when you serialize, add the JsonSerializerSettings to your SerializeObject(object, settings)

Edit: You can also change the TypeNameHandling and TypeNameAssemblyFormat if you need to. I have them set at ‘All’ and ‘Full’ respectively to ensure that my complex objects get serialized and deserialized properly without doubt, but intellisense provides you with other alternatives