C# Json.net Unexpected character encountered while parsing value:

Question

I am getting the above error while trying to get the Json format from a url.

  public class Product
{
    public int Id { get; set; }
    [JsonProperty("externalId")]
    public int ExternalId { get; set; }
    [JsonProperty("code")]
    public string Code { get; set; }
    [JsonProperty("description")]
    public string Description { get; set; }
    [JsonProperty("name")]
    public string Name { get; set; }
    [JsonProperty("barcode")]
    public int Barcode { get; set; }
    [JsonProperty("retailPrice")]
    public double RetailPrice { get; set; }
    [JsonProperty("wholesalePrice")]
    public double WholesalePrice { get; set; }
    [JsonProperty("discount")]
    public double Discount { get; set; }
}

public class Products
{
    public List<Product> GetProducts { get; set; }
}

and in my controller I have:

        public async Task<ActionResult> Index()
    {
        string url = "https://cloudonapi.oncloud.gr/s1services/JS/updateItems/cloudOnTest";
        HttpClient client = new HttpClient();

        var httpResponseMessage = await client.GetAsync(url);
        httpResponseMessage.EnsureSuccessStatusCode();
        string jsonResponse = await httpResponseMessage.Content.ReadAsStringAsync();

        var list = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<Products>(jsonResponse);

        return View(list);

    }

I keep getting the Unexpected character encountered while parsing value: . Path '', line 0, position 0. error

Have you inspected the jsonResponse string to see what it is? — James Gould
– James Gould, Commented Apr 14, 2022 at 7:53
@JamesGould Yes it's a string, formatted wrong, like: "\u001f‹\b\0\0\0\0\0\0\0µ•έnΪ0\u0014Η_ε(WT¥Αv0\u001f½\vΑ΄Ρ\f±’\u008c±M»Θ \u0090\u0018L@5¤―Τwh¥ξ««iκϋμ8”¬$™ΤNτ*Ρ±}\u008e\u007fηγοScq2\u001cΖ‹…qΈ\u009c\u009fΔe0FΡ22\u000eί\u009e\u001aρj\u0019Ο§ΡΔ\u001d\u0019p\b†Ε\u001aΌV5ΚΖp6\u00\0" etc.. — Sally
– Sally, Commented Apr 14, 2022 at 7:56
well there you have it, you need to request the data with the right encoding, and you need to adjust your Products Object to match the json structure — Isparia
– Isparia, Commented Apr 14, 2022 at 7:58
I think you also need to change the Products to public class Products { public bool success { get; set; } public List<Product> data { get; set; } } — Tiny Wang
– Tiny Wang, Commented Apr 14, 2022 at 8:35

canton7 · Accepted Answer · 2022-04-14 08:04:36Z

2

So. \u001f means you received the byte 1F. ‹ is in the range of extended ASCII with encoding 8B. \b is the ASCII backspace character with encoding 08.

1F 8B is the magic number for GZIP (and the 08 is the compression method: DEFLATE).

So, the server's one of the broken ones which gives you back a gzip-compressed response, even though you didn't say you could accept gzip-compressed responses.

You can tell HttpClient to automatically decompress gzip-compressed responses:

HttpClientHandler handler = new HttpClientHandler()
{
    AutomaticDecompression = DecompressionMethods.GZip | DecompressionMethods.Deflate
};
using var client = new HttpClient(handler));

var httpResponseMessage = await client.GetAsync(url);
// ...

answered Apr 14, 2022 at 8:04

canton7

43.3k4 gold badges81 silver badges96 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

C# Json.net Unexpected character encountered while parsing value:

1 Answer 1

Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

1 Answer 1

Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related