Convert Dictionary to multi-level JSON

Question

Today I am trying to convert a Dictionary<string, string> to a multi-level JSON object/string. The Dictionary contains keys like namespaces.

The class can be as follows:

public static class SettingsConverter
{
    public static string Convert()
    {
        Dictionary<string, string> settings = new Dictionary<string, string>
        {
            { "settings.common.enabled", "true" },
            { "settings.common.welcome", "Welcome {0}" },
            { "settings.ui.style", "dark" },
            { "properties.help", "www.google.com" },
            { "properties.user.firstname", "John" },
            { "properties.user.lastname", "Doe" }
        };

        string json = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(settings, Formatting.Indented);

        return json;
    }
}

The result I want, should be:

{
    "settings":{
        "common":{
            "enabled":"true",
            "welcome":"Welcome {0}"
        },
        "ui":{
            "style":"dark"
        }
    },
    "properties":{
        "help": "www.google.com",
        "user":{
            "firstname":"John",
            "lastname":"Doe"
        }
    }
}

How it is possible to perform this and do I need a custom JsonConverter for this?

Answer 1

Rather than a flat dictionary of <string, string>, create a multi-level dictionary...

var settings = new Dictionary<string, object>()
            {
                {
                    "settings", new Dictionary<string, object>()
                    {
                        {
                            "common", new Dictionary<string, object>()
                            {
                                {"enabled", "false"},
                                {"welcome", "Welcome {0}"}
                            }
                        }
                    }
                }
            };

That should serialize how you require.