Reading values from dynamic JSON

Question

Something is making my head in,

I have an API that returns me JSON, the JSON can have a slight different format depending on the endpoint is sending it. Example.

{
  "PayLoad": {
    "Method1": [
      {
        "TimeStamp": "2020-06-03T13:25:25",
        "Id": 4235411
      }
    ],
    "Timestamp": "2020-06-03T13:26:57.1316371+00:00",
    "Signature": "113af0a218b0497ff6f160fcd1b13a7b",
    "Hookid": "526ed776-2l71-4c2a-b11f-de8cb2057b1c"
  }
}

So what I am looking for is to have returned

Method : Method1
TimeStamp: 2020-06-03T13:25:25
id: 4235411
Signature: 113af0a218b0497ff6f160fcd1b13a7b
HookID: 526ed776-2l71-4c2a-b11f-de8cb2057b1c

Can someone please give me an hint?

I've tried a bunch of code examples I've seen, and can't make it work.

Answer 1

Without getting more information it is hard to know exactly what you are asking but I would look at the examples in JSON.net's Linq to JSON documentation:

https://www.newtonsoft.com/json/help/html/LINQtoJSON.htm

https://www.newtonsoft.com/json/help/html/QueryingLINQtoJSON.htm

string json = @"
{
    'PayLoad': {
        'Method1':
            [
                {
                'TimeStamp': '2020-06-03T13:25:25',
                'Id': 4235411
                }
            ],
        'Timestamp': '2020-06-03T13:26:57.1316371+00:00',
        'Signature': '113af0a218b0497ff6f160fcd1b13a7b',
        'Hookid': '526ed776-2l71-4c2a-b11f-de8cb2057b1c'
    }
}";

JObject obj = JObject.Parse(json);

string method1_timestamp = (string)obj["PayLoad"]["Method1"][0]["TimeStamp"];
// "2020-06-03T13:25:25"
// Use technique to parse out other values if needed

Answer 2

You can try creating a class compatible with the expected JSON format:

public class Payload
{
   public int Id {get; set;}
   public Guid HookID {get; set;}
   public string Signature {get; set;}
   public Method[] Methods {get; set;}
   public DateTime TimeStamp {get; set;}
}

public class Method
{
   public int Id {get; set;}
   public DateTime TimeStamp{get; set;}
}

Than you can parse the JSON data as a Payload object.

Payload payload = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<Payload>(json);