Question

This is my first try to deserialize a JSON string returned by Facebook.
I want to make sure future developers can maintain my code comfortably so I would like to know if this is okay way to do it. I am concerned that if the JSON string change then I will need to rewrite some of my classes.
Is the JSON string returned from Facebook likely to change? For example if location became a different object I will need to make changes right?

using System;
using System.Collections;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Globalization;
using System.Text;
using System.Web;
//--- If you are not able to add reference dont worry. You probably need to install ASP.NET Ajax or target higher .NET Framework (3.5 or 4).
//---   There are Stack Overflow threads about this.
using System.Web.Script.Serialization;

//--- Our Facebook Person class.
public class FBPerson
{
    public string id { get; set; }
    public string email { get; set; }
    public string name { get; set; }
    public string gender { get; set; }
    public IDName location { get; set; }
    public List<FBObject> work { get; set; }
    public List<FBObject> education { get; set; }
}
//-- In some cases only id and name will be accessed
public class IDName
{
    public string id { get; set; }
    public string name { get; set; }
    public string type { get; set; }
}
//-- work and education presently are array of json strings
public class FBObject
{
    public IDName employer { get; set; }
    public IDName school { get; set; }
}
static class Program
{
    //-- Sample JSON string returned by Facebook
    const string json2 = @"{
        ""id"":""11111111111111111"",
        ""name"":""Tester Test"",
        ""first_name"":""Tester"",
        ""last_name"":""Test"",
        ""link"":""http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/profile.php?id=11111111111111111"",
        ""location"":
            {""id"":""107991659233606"",""name"":""Atlanta, Georgia""},
        ""work"":
            [{""employer"":{""id"":""222222222222222222"",""name"":""Various""}}],
        ""education"":
            [
                {""school"":{""id"":""108000000000000"",""name"":""Test High School""},""type"":""High School""},
                {""school"":{""id"":""105000000000000"",""name"":""Tester College""},""type"":""College""}
            ],
        ""gender"":""male"",
        ""email"":""tester\u0040gmail.com"",
        ""timezone"":-5,""locale"":""en_US"",
        ""verified"":true,
        ""updated_time"":""2011-11-21T21:10:20+0000""
    }";

    static void Main()
    {
        JavaScriptSerializer ser = new JavaScriptSerializer();
        FBPerson fperson = ser.Deserialize<FBPerson>(json2);

        //-- Display the user info from the JSON string
        Console.WriteLine(fperson.id.ToString());
        Console.WriteLine(fperson.name.ToString());
        Console.WriteLine(fperson.gender.ToString());
        Console.WriteLine(fperson.email.ToString());
        Console.WriteLine(fperson.location.name.ToString());
        Console.WriteLine(fperson.work[0].employer.name.ToString());
        Console.WriteLine(fperson.education[0].school.name.ToString());
        Console.ReadLine();
    }
}

Answer 1

This seems fine. No matter how you do deserialization, changes to the JSON data format would break you. For that reason, API authors try very hard to avoid making such changes.