Does JavaScriptSerializer support any sort of type-hinting?

Question

Take a simple, somewhat cliche example:

public interface IShape
{
  public void Draw();
}

public class Rectangle : IShape
{
  public Double X;
  public Double Y;
  public Double Width;
  public Double Height;

  public void Draw()
  {
    // draw the rectangle ... 
  }
}

public class Circle : IShape
{
  public Double X;
  public Double Y;
  public Double Radius;

  public void Draw()
  {
    // draw the Circle ... 
  }
}

Using a JavaScriptSerializer , what format, if any, of type-hinting can be added to this to property deserialize it?

JavaScriptSerializer js = new JavaScriptSerializer();
Shape s = js.Deserialize<Shape>("{ \"X\": 1.0, \"Y\": 1.0, \"Radius\": 3.0 }");

The documentation briefly mentions using a __type property:

JavaScript object that uses JSON dictionary syntax. A special metadata property named "__type" is included to ensure correct deserialization. Make sure that public instance properties have get and set accessors to ensure correct deserialization.

But, I can't find any documentation specific to JavaScriptSerializer that specifies the proper format -- or how to get Serialize() to include the property.

---

• What do I need to do to make Serialize() include the proper type-hinting?
• In what format, if written manually, do I need to include type-hinting for Deserialize() ?

Answer 1

I think you don't need the __type because these are plain types. the hinting is so a javascript nested object can be assigned to a type, which in c# might be more generic, so type could preserve the specifics

here JavaScriptSerializer with custom Type is an example where code does actually create the __type item.