Deserializing a complex JSON object

Question

I use JavaScript.Serializer.Deserializer to deserialize a complex JSON object, as below:

{
    "name": "rule 1",
    "enabled": true,
    "conditions": [{
        "type": "time",
        "time": "17:23:10",
        "days": "125"
    }, {
        "type": "sensor",
        "uid": "10.2.0.1",
        "setpoint1": 12,
        "setpoint2": 18,
        "criterion": 1
    }, {
        "type": "sensor",
        "uid": "10.3.0.1",
        "setpoint1": 12,
        "setpoint2": 18,
        "criterion": 2
    }],
    "actions": {
        "period": 100,
        "single": false,
        "act": [{
            "type": "on",
            "uid": "10.1.0.1"
        }, {
            "type": "sms",
            "message": "Hello World"
        }]
    }
}

And I want to convert it to some classes, like below:

public class Rule
{
    public string name { get; set; }
    public bool enabled { get; set; }
    public List<Condition> conditions { get; set; }
    public List<Action> actions { get; set; }
}

public class Condition
{
    public string type { get; set; }
    public string uid { get; set; }
    public DateTime? time { get; set; }
    public string days { get; set; }
    public double setpoint1 { get; set; }
    public double setpoint2 { get; set; }
    public int criterion { get; set; }
}

public class Action
{
    public int period { get; set; }
    public bool single { get; set; }
    public List<Act> act { get; set; }
}

public class Act
{
    public string type { get; set; }
    public string uid { get; set; }
    public string message { get; set; }
}

The deserialization snippet:

json = new JavaScriptSerializer();
Rule rule = (json.Deserialize<Rule>(jsonStr));

If I simplify the Rule class and declare conditions and actions as simple strings , it works fine.

But if I use the classes like above, it throws an exception:

Cannot convert object of type 'System.String' to type 'System.Collections.Generic.List`1[IoTWebApplication.Condition]'

Answer 1

The structure you create does not fit to the JSON you posted.

It should look like

public class Rule
{
    public string name { get; set; }
    public bool enabled { get; set; }
    public Condition[ ] conditions { get; set; }
    public Actions actions { get; set; }
}

public class Actions
{
    public int period { get; set; }
    public bool single { get; set; }
    public Act[ ] act { get; set; }
}

public class Act
{
    public string type { get; set; }
    public string uid { get; set; }
    public string message { get; set; }
}

public class Condition
{
    public string type { get; set; }
    public string time { get; set; }
    public string days { get; set; }
    public string uid { get; set; }
    public int setpoint1 { get; set; }
    public int setpoint2 { get; set; }
    public int criterion { get; set; }
}

It is (in most cases) very easy in VS to get the classes direct out of the JSON

• Copy JSON to clipboard
• In VS EDIT/Special Paste/Paste JSON as Classes (the code above was created by this)

Answer 2

The problem was that the inner (nested) json was quoted and therefore was processed as a string. So when I removed the quotes, it worked fine:

json = new JavaScriptSerializer();
Rule rule = (json.Deserialize<Rule>(jsonStr));