Question

I’m trying to use JSON.Net to deserialize a JSON object into a C# object.

The object I want to create is MonthlyPerformance which contains a list of Type, which contains a list of Categories, which in turn contains a list of Funds. They are defined as:

public class MonthlyPerformance
{
    public List<Type> Types { get; set; }
}

public class Type
{
    public int Id { get; set; }
    public string CountryId { get; set; }
    public string Name { get; set; }

    public List<Category> Categories { get; set; }

    public Type()
    {

    }
}

public class Category
{
    public int Id { get; set; }
    public string CountryId { get; set; }
    public string Name { get; set; }

    public List<ConfigurationFund> Funds { get; set; }

    public Category()
    {

    }
}

public class Fund
{
    public int Id { get; set; }
    public string CountryId { get; set; }
    public string Name { get; set; }

    public Fund()
    {

    }
}

I thought the following would do it, but it’s not. It’s just creating an instance of the Type object with everything null:

var file = File.ReadAllText(filePath);

var types = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<Type>(file);

This is the JSON that I’m using:

{
  "MonthlyPerformance": {
    "Type": [
      {
        "id": "65",
        "countryId": "IE",
        "name": "Irish Domestic Funds (Gross)",
        "Category": [
          {
            "id": "25003334",
            "countryId": "IE",
            "name": "UK Equity",
            "ConfigurationFund": [
              {
                "id": "25000301",
                "countryId": "IE",
                "name": "Aviva Irl UK Equity Fund"
              },
              {
                "id": "25000349",
                "countryId": "IE",
                "name": "New Ireland UK Equity 9"
              }
            ]
          },
          {
            "id": "25003339",
            "countryId": "IE",
            "name": "Irish Equity",
            "Fund": [
              {
                "id": "25000279",
                "countryId": "IE",
                "name": "Friends First Irish Equity G"
              },
              {
                "id": "25000305",
                "countryId": "IE",
                "name": "Irish Life Celticscope 2 G"
              }
            ]
          }
        ]
      },
      {
        "id": "80",
        "countryId": "IE",
        "name": "Irish Individual Pensions",
        "Category": [
          {
            "id": "25003347",
            "countryId": "IE",
            "name": "Asia Pacific Ex-Japan Equity",
            "Fund": [
              {
                "id": "25001789",
                "countryId": "IE",
                "name": "Aviva Irl Pacific Basin Eq"
              },
              {
                "id": "25002260",
                "countryId": "IE",
                "name": "Ir Life Pacific Eq Indexed  P"
              }
            ]
          },
          {
            "id": "25003365",
            "countryId": "IE",
            "name": "Flexible Equity",
            "Fund": [
              {
                "id": "25003238",
                "countryId": "IE",
                "name": "Friends First Protected Equity Plus Fund S2"
              },
              {
                "id": "25003267",
                "countryId": "IE",
                "name": "Friends First Protected Equity Plus Bond G"
              }
            ]
          }
        ]
      }
    ]
  }
}

What do I need to do to get this to work?

edited to include MonthlyPerformance

Answer 1

I believe the problem is in your Json string.

"Type": [ ... ] 

Should be

"Types": [ ... ]  

Types is the name of property that should be deserialized, you mistakenly put Type the class name instead.

The same goes for Categories property in the Type class.

Also I simply removed "MonthlyPerformance" root from the Json string and it worked like a charm. With Json.NET of course.

Here is a snippets of the modified Json with appropriate property names (notice, Types, Categories, Funds and the absence of MonthlyPerformance root)

{
    "Types": [ 
    { 
    "id": "65", 
    "countryId": "IE", 
    "name": "Irish Domestic Funds (Gross)", 
    "Categories": [ 
        { 
        "id": "25003334", 
        "countryId": "IE", 
        "name": "UK Equity", 
        "Funds": [ 
            { 
            "id": "25000301", 
            "countryId": "IE", 
            "name": "Aviva Irl UK Equity Fund" 
            }, 
            { 
            "id": "25000349", 
            "countryId": "IE", 
            "name": "New Ireland UK Equity 9" 
        } 
    ] 
}