Deserialize complex JSON with Newtonsoft.Json

Need help to deserialize complex json file using Visual Basic and Newtonsoft.Json library. Here is the sample of Json file:

{
"value":  [
              {
                  "Id":  12345,
                  "Name":  "Test",
                  "CardCount":  0,
                  "DailySpendLimit":  0.00,
                  "WeeklySpendLimit":  50.00,
                  "MonthlySpendLimit":  100.00,
                  "YearlySpendLimit":  1000.00,
                  "LifetimeSpendLimit":  0.00,                      
                  "MerchantCategories":  [
                                             "@{Id=11111; Name=Associations \u0026 Organizations; Description=Post Office, local and federal government services, religious organizations.; TransactionLimit=0.00; DailySpendLimit=0.00; WeeklySpendLimit=0.00; MonthlySpendLimit=0.00; YearlySpendLimit=0.00; LifetimeSpendLimit=0.00}",
                                             "@{Id=22222; Name=Automotive Dealers; Description=Vehicle dealerships (car, RV, motorcycle, boat, recreational).; TransactionLimit=0.00; DailySpendLimit=0.00; WeeklySpendLimit=0.00; MonthlySpendLimit=0.00; YearlySpendLimit=0.00; LifetimeSpendLimit=0.00}"                                              
                                         ]
              }
          ],
"Count":  1

}

I had setup classes:

Public Class TEST_AdvRules
<JsonProperty("value")>
Public Property ValueDetails As ValueList()
Public Class ValueList
    <JsonProperty("Id")>
    Public Property RuleId As Integer
    <JsonProperty("Name")>
    Public Property RuleName As String = ""
    Public Property CardCount As Integer
    Public Property DailySpendLimit As Double
    Public Property WeeklySpendLimit As Double
    Public Property MonthlySpendLimit As Double
    Public Property YearlySpendLimit As Double
    Public Property LifetimeSpendLimit As Double
    <JsonProperty("MerchantCategories")>
    Public Property MerchantCategories() As List(Of MerchantCategoriesList)       
End Class
Public Class MerchantCategoriesList
    Public Property Id As Integer
    Public Property Name As String = ""
    Public Property Description As String = ""
    Public Property TransactionLimit As Double
    Public Property DailySpendLimit As Double
    Public Property WeeklySpendLimit As Double
    Public Property MonthlySpendLimit As Double
    Public Property YearlySpendLimit As Double
    Public Property LifetimeSpendLimit As Double
End Class

End Class

The code for deserilization:

Dim jsonStringP = IO.File.ReadAllText(PathJson & SecFileName)
    Dim serSettings = New JsonSerializerSettings()
    serSettings.ContractResolver = New CamelCasePropertyNamesContractResolver()

    Dim RulesPEX = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject(Of TEST_AdvRules)(jsonStringP, serSettings)

But it errors out on the deserialization line - can't convert MerchantCategories. I have never dealt with Json with [ "@ array sequence. Am I processing it wrong? Also - there is a character sequence '\u0026 ' within Merchant categories. Does it require special handling? Thank you!

CodePudding user response：

let Visual Studio create the class for you:

copy the whole json file content to the clipboard
in VS, add a new empty class -> Edit -> Paste Special -> paste json as class

I tend to add a shared Read-Method for easier construction. Of course you can rename your classes as you wish :-)

I'm on german VS but you get the idea :-)

CodePudding user response：

The problem is that MerchantCategories is a string collection. You will have to convert each string to object using a custom string analyzer. Last time I worked with Vb.net was more then 10 years ago, so I can give you a solution in C# , your part would be to convert it to VB.Net. I don't feel like installing VB.NET compilliar at my mashine.

using Newtonsoft.Json;

var jsonObject = JObject.Parse(jsonStringP);
var jsonArr=new JArray();
    
    foreach (var item in   (JArray) jsonObject["value"][0]["MerchantCategories"])
    {
        jsonArr.Add(ConvertToJObject(item.ToString()));
    }
    jsonObject["value"][0]["MerchantCategories"]=jsonArr;
    TEST_AdvRules RulesPEX = jsonObject.ToObject<TEST_AdvRules>();

this function converts a string to a JObject

public JObject ConvertToJObject(string str)
{
    var strStart=str.IndexOf("{") 1;
    var strEnd=str.IndexOf("}")-2;
    var arr = str.Substring(strStart, strEnd).Split(";").Select(c => c.Split("="));
    var jObj = new JObject();
    foreach (var item in arr)
        jObj.Add(new JProperty(item[0].Trim(), item[1].Trim()));

    return jObj;
}

CodePudding user response：

Translating Serge's answer into VB (note untested code so it's possible there are some minor errors)...

Imports Newtonsoft.Json

'...

Dim jsonObject = JObject.Parse(jsonStringP)
Dim jsonArr = new JArray()

For Each item In CType(jsonObject("value")(0)("MerchantCategories"), JArray)
    jsonArr.Add(ConvertToJObject(item.ToString()))
Next

jsonObject("value")(0)("MerchantCategories") = jsonArr
Dim RulesPEX As TEST_AdvRules = jsonObject.ToObject(Of TEST_AdvRules)()

and

Public Function ConvertToJOBject(ByVal str As String) As JObject
    Dim strStart = str.IndexOf("{")   1
    Dim strEnd = str.IndexOf("}") - 2

    Dim arr = str.Substring(strStart, strEnd).Split(";").Select(Function(c) c.Split("="))
    Dim jObj = New JObject()

    For Each item In arr
        jObj.Add(New JProperty(item(0).Trim(), item(1).Trim()))
    Next

    Return jObj
End Function