Deserialise dynamic json types - json

Question

I want to deserialize json which returns different data for different parameters.
Mostly I get:
{"posts": [{ "id" : 1, "name":"post1" },{ "id" : 1, "name":"post1" }]}
But sometimes the data returned is
{"posts": false}
I want to deserialize this as the following class
public class GetReaderResponse
{
public IEnumerable<ReaderPost> posts {get; set;}
}
public class ReaderPost
{
public int id {get; set;}
public string name{get; set;}
}
I am using C#,json.net but not able to do this correctly.
Newtonsoft.Json.JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<GetReaderResponse>(dataString);

Answer 1

You could build a custom converter, but an easy way to handle this would be to write an error handler that detects errors with the posts property:
var settings = new JsonSerializerSettings();
settings.Error += (sender, args) =>
{
if (string.Equals("posts", args.ErrorContext.Path, StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase))
{
var currentObject = args.CurrentObject as GetReaderResponse;
currentObject.posts = Enumerable.Empty<ReaderPost>();
args.ErrorContext.Handled = true;
}
};
GetReaderResponse resp =
JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<GetReaderResponse>(json, settings);
This sets posts to Enumerable.Empty<ReaderPost>. This is still a little unsatisfying because if any error occurs, the property will be set. You could build a full custom converter to do this as a more complete solution.
Here's a converter that will take care of this:
public class PostsConverter : JsonConverter
{
public override object ReadJson(
JsonReader reader,
Type objectType,
object existingValue,
JsonSerializer serializer)
{
JToken val = JValue.ReadFrom(reader);
object result = null;
if (val.Type == JTokenType.Array)
{
result = val.ToObject<IEnumerable<ReaderPost>>();
}
else if (val.Type == JTokenType.Boolean)
{
result = Enumerable.Empty<ReaderPost>();
}
return result;
}
public override void WriteJson(
JsonWriter writer,
object value,
JsonSerializer serializer)
{
throw new NotImplementedException();
}
public override bool CanConvert (Type type)
{
return typeof(IEnumerable<ReaderPost>).IsAssignableFrom(type);
}
public override bool CanRead
{
get { return true; }
}
}
Usage:
var settings = new JsonSerializerSettings();
settings.Converters = new [] { new PostsConverter() };
GetReaderResponse resp =
JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<GetReaderResponse>(json, settings);
Example: https://dotnetfiddle.net/i9CXwp

Answer 2

By using JSON.NETs built in LINQ to JSON, you can try someting like this:
JObject jObject = JObject.Parse(json);
GetReaderResponse response = new GetReaderResponse();
if (jObject["posts"] is JArray)
response = jObject.ToObject<GetReaderResponse>();
// Do something with the response object.
where json variable is the json string you need to deserialize.

Answer 3

try this:
public class GetReaderResponse
{
public bool posts { get; set; }
public ReaderPost[] post { get; set; }
}

Answer 4

After reading #Ilija's comment I think I might have found a answer. I did not want not use string literals so I modified my class GetReaderResponse to look like below:
public class GetReaderResponse
{
public dynamic posts {get; set;}
public IEnumerable<ReaderPost> Posts
{
get
{
if (posts is bool )
return new ReaderPost[0];
return posts.ToObject<IEnumerable<ReaderPost>>();
}
}
}
Does this sound fine or does it look messy?