Parsing JSON into Object

Question

Trying to get the result from a webservice call to return a Model. I eep getting the error: Cannot deserialize the current JSON array (e.g. [1,2,3]) into type 'CI.Models.Schedule' because the type requires a JSON object (e.g. {"name":"value"}) to deserialize correctly.

public Schedule getCourseSchedule()
{
    var obj = new
    {
        States = new[] { new { State = "MX" } },
        Zip = "",
        Miles = "",
        PaginationStart = 1,
        PaginationLimit = 3
    };
    using (var client = new WebClient())
    {
        client.Headers[HttpRequestHeader.ContentType] = "apoplication/json";
        var url = "http://192.168.1.198:15014/ShoppingCart2/CourseSchedule";
        var json = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(obj);
        byte[] data = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(json);
        byte[] result = client.UploadData(url, data);
        string returnjson = Encoding.UTF8.GetString(result);
        Schedule sched = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<Schedule>(returnjson);
        return sched;
    }
}

Schedule Model:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Web;
using System.Globalization;

namespace CI.Models
{
    public class Schedule
    {
        public IEnumerable<Course> Courses { get; set; }
    }

    public class Course
    {

/*
JSON Data returned from web service:        
{
   "ProgramGroup":"MR",
   "ProgramCode":"RM",
   "EventCode":"20160901MXMR",
   "FormalDate":"September 1-2, 2016",
   "StartDate":"2016\/09\/01",
   "Price":5,
   "LocName":"WB Hotel",
   "LocAddress":"Av. Speedy Gonzales 220",
   "LocCity":"Monterrey",
   "LocState":"MX",
   "LocZipCode":null,
   "LicenseeURL":null,
   "AgendaURL":"NA",
   "SeatsAreAvailable":"2",
   "GeneralInfoHTML":"General Info goes here.",
   "GateKeeperHTML":null,
   "EventType":"SS",
   "TotalCourses":3
}
*/
        public string ProgramGroup { get; set; }
        public string ProgramCode { get; set; }
        public string EventCode { get; set; }
        public string FormalDate { get { return FormalDate; } set { FormalDate = convertFormalDateToSpanish(value); } }
        public string StartDate { get; set; }
        public double Price { get; set; }
        public string LocName { get; set; }
        public string LocAddress { get; set; }
        public string LocCity { get ; set; }
        public string LocState { get; set; }
        public string LocZipCode { get; set; }
        public string LicenseeURL { get; set; }
        public string AgendaURL { get { return AgendaURL; } set { AgendaURL = buildAgendaLink(value); } }
        public string SeatsAreAvailable { get; set; }
        public string GeneralInfoHTML { get; set; }
        public string GateKeeperHTML { get; set; }
        public string EventType { get; set; }
        public int TotalCourses { get; set; }

        public string convertFormalDateToSpanish(string val) 
        {
            DateTime TheDate = DateTime.Parse(StartDate);
            string[] FormalDate = val.Split(" ".ToCharArray());
            CultureInfo ci = new CultureInfo("es-ES");
            string _Date = FormalDate[1].Replace("-", " al ").Replace(",", "");
            string _Month = ci.TextInfo.ToTitleCase(TheDate.ToString("MMMM", ci));
            val = string.Concat(_Date, " ", _Month);
            return val;
        }

        private string buildAgendaLink(string val)
        {
            if (val.Trim() != "")
            {
                val = string.Concat("<a href=\"/pdfs/", EventCode, "_Agenda.pdf\">Agenda</a>");
            }
            else
            {
                val = "Agenda";
            }
            return val;
        }

    }


}

Answer 1

Note that this is not an answer to your original problem, but I added it like an answer in order to explain my comment above with some actual code.

First problem with your code is that FormalDate and AgendaUrl properties simply won't work. Accessing them will result in a StackOverflowException, because you basically defined them recursively.

A property is merely syntax sugar for two separate getter/setter methods, so by writing this:

public class Course
{
    public string FormalDate
    {
        get { return FormalDate; }
    }
}

You are basically writing this:

public class Course
{
    public string GetFormalDate()
    {
        // recursive call, with no terminating condition,
        // will infinitely call itself until there is no
        // more stack to store context data (and CLR
        // will then throw an exception)
        return GetFormalDate(); 
    }
}

To fix that, you need to add an actual backing field, e.g.:

public class Course
{
    private string _formalDate; // <-- this is a backing field;

    // and this property uses the backing field to read/store data
    public string FormalDate 
    { 
        get { return _formalDate; } 
        set { _formalDate = convertFormalDateToSpanish(value); } 
    }
}

Additionally, it's unusual for a property getter to return a different value than the one set through a setter. In other words, I would never expect this from a class:

var course = new Course();
course.StartDate = "2016/09/01";
course.FormalDate = "September 1-2, 2016";

Console.WriteLine(course.FormalDate); // prints "1 al 2 Septiembre" ?

I would rather move this functionality into a different class, or at least create different properties which return these values:

public class CourseInfo
{
    // this is now a "dumb" auto-implemented property
    // (no need for a backing field anymore)
    public string FormalDate { get; set; }

    // this read-only property returns the converted value
    public string LocalizedFormalDate
    {
        get 
        {
            return convertFormalDateToSpanish(FormalDate);
        }
    }
}

Answer 2

Your server returns an array. Just try

Course[] courses = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<Course[]>(returnjson);