C# Json Interface Serialization

Question

is there someone who can help me with the serialization of IList<IShows>. I managed to serialize it with help of JsonConvert.SerializeObject but ... Let's say I have classes like:

public class Show : IShow
{
    public string Name { get; set; }
    public IList<IEpisode> Episodes { get; set; }
    public int Count { get; set; }       
}
public class Episode : IEpisode
{
    public string Name { get; set; }
    public DateTime Date { get; set; }
    public IList<ILink> Links { get; set; }
}
public class Link : ILink
{
    public string URL { get; set; }
    public string Name { get; set; }
    public string Quality { get; set; }
}

I'm getting something like:

[
  {
    "Name": "Supernatural",
    "Episodes": [
      {
        "Name": "There's Something About Mary",
        "Date": "2017-05-12T02:20:05+01:00",
        "Links": [
          {
            "URL": "url",
            "Name": "HDTV",
            "Quality": "480p"
          },
          {
            "URL": "url",
            "Name": "HDTV",
            "Quality": "720p"
          }
        ]
      }
    ]
  }
]

but I would like to add additional tag before each show (show) and another tag (shows) before all shows.

Does someone know how to do it?

earloc · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-12 22:48:53Z

2

That´s probably not the way JSON was meant to be, the structure looks fine to me.

But if you really need to, you could do something like this:

public class Root {
    public IList<ShowWrapper> Shows { get; set;}
}
public class ShowWrapper { //silly name though ;)
    public IShow Show { get; set;}
}

and serialize instance of Root instead of

IList<IShow>.

This should produce the desired structure, but feels very unnatural.

What serializer are you using btw. Maybe someone out there knows a less "manual" way to achieve this.

answered May 12, 2017 at 22:48

earloc

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3 Comments

Ondřej Dlesk Over a year ago

I'm new to JSON so it might not be the best way. I'll take your advice and I'll keep that JSON. BTW I'm using JsonConvert.SerializeObject. Thank you for your answer.

Rob Over a year ago

@OndřejDlesk As a word of advice, unless you're explicitly trying to match a specified JSON format, or you're dealing with third party's format, you shouldn't care what the JSON looks like. As long as you design your class structure logically (which you have here), that's all you should worry about.

earloc Over a year ago

good advice @Rob! @OndřejDlesk: Would help future reader when you edit the question and leave the hint about JsonConvert there.

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