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shoren
shoren

Reputation: 121

The difference between Converter and MemberConverter properties of Json.NET's JsonProperty

The JsonProperty class returned by DefaultContractResolver.CreateProperty has two properties about converter, Converter and MemberConverter. I don't find enough explanation about them, so what's the difference between them? When to use each one? What property to set in the contract resolver? "Gets or sets the member converter" from the official documentation isn't helpful.

Upvotes: 10

Views: 1077

Answers (2)

asgerhallas
asgerhallas

Reputation: 17724

I've opened an issue about the docs on this here github.com/JamesNK/Newtonsoft.Json/issues/363.

But one obvious difference between them (obvious from the source code, that is) is that Converter is only used when serializing and MemberConverter only when deserializing. I don't know if that's the full story though, and the naming does not say much.

Upvotes: 2

antiduh
antiduh

Reputation: 12425

It would seem that NS.Json supports overridable converters; presumably this is so that each individual property doesn't have to specify a JsonConverter, but they may override it if need be.

Hints can be found in the source:

From DefaultContractResolver.cs, line 1254: 

private void SetPropertySettingsFromAttributes(JsonProperty property, object attributeProvider, string name, Type declaringType, MemberSerialization memberSerialization, out bool allowNonPublicAccess)
{
    ...
    // resolve converter for property
    // the class type might have a converter but the property converter takes presidence
    property.Converter = JsonTypeReflector.GetJsonConverter(attributeProvider);
    property.MemberConverter = JsonTypeReflector.GetJsonConverter(attributeProvider);

And from JsonSerializerInternalReader.cs, line 348:

    private JsonConverter GetConverter(JsonContract contract, JsonConverter memberConverter, JsonContainerContract containerContract, JsonProperty containerProperty)
    {
        JsonConverter converter = null;
        if (memberConverter != null)
        {
            // member attribute converter
            converter = memberConverter;
        }
        else if (containerProperty != null && containerProperty.ItemConverter != null)
        {
            converter = containerProperty.ItemConverter;
        }
        else if (containerContract != null && containerContract.ItemConverter != null)
        {
            converter = containerContract.ItemConverter;
        }
        else if (contract != null)
        {
            JsonConverter matchingConverter;
            if (contract.Converter != null)
                // class attribute converter
                converter = contract.Converter;
            else if ((matchingConverter = Serializer.GetMatchingConverter(contract.UnderlyingType)) != null)
                // passed in converters
                converter = matchingConverter;
            else if (contract.InternalConverter != null)
                // internally specified converter
                converter = contract.InternalConverter;
        }
        return converter;
    }

Upvotes: 3

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