CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c#json.net
Anders
Anders

Reputation: 499

Json Deserialize to a sub class's "new" property

I've searched for a solution to my problem for quite a while now and seen some ideas that I thought might work out, but I haven't been able to put it all together. Worth mentioning is that I'm quite new to C#.

I have a library that defines a bunch of model classes that is used to deserialize JSON-data into. One of these models are Application that has the property public List<ApplicationField> Fields { get; set; }

I've been able to make a sub class of Application that I call MyApplication. Since I have MyApplication I would also like to have MyApplicationField that extends ApplicationField

I've tried a few approaches and below is the one that I thought had the best chance of succeeding (Unfortunately it didn't):

public class MyApplication : Application
{
    new public List<MyApplicationField> Fields { get; set; }
}

The Json is then deserialized by the code:

JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<MyApplication>

I was hoping that the value of the JSON Fields property would be mapped into the Fields property of type List<MyApplicationField> that I've defined in my subclass MyApplication. However it is deserialized into the base class' Fields property (Which is of type List<ApplicationField>)

Note: I am not able to alter the base classes.

Is it possible to achieve the behavior I'm looking for?

Upvotes: 0

Views: 372

Answers (1)

Tim S.
Tim S.

Reputation: 56566

Works for me, as the default behavior. Can you provide an example demonstrating the issue?

void Main()
{
    {
        var jsonData = @"{""Fields"":[{""MyProp"":""my prop value"",""Prop1"":""prop 1 value""}]}";
        var myApp = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<MyApplication>(jsonData);
        Console.WriteLine(myApp.Fields[0].MyProp); // "my prop value"
        Console.WriteLine(((Application)myApp).Fields == null); // "True"
    }
    {
        // just to make sure it's not being clever because "MyProp" is specified
        // we'll try this also, which could be deserialized as an Application
        var jsonData = @"{""Fields"":[{""Prop1"":""prop 1 value""}]}";
        var myApp = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<MyApplication>(jsonData);
        Console.WriteLine(myApp.Fields[0].Prop1); // "prop 1 value"
        Console.WriteLine(((Application)myApp).Fields == null); // "True"
    }
}

public class MyApplication : Application
{
    public new List<MyApplicationField> Fields { get; set; }
}
public class Application
{
    public List<ApplicationField> Fields { get; set; }
}
public class MyApplicationField : ApplicationField
{
    public string MyProp { get; set; }
}
public class ApplicationField
{
    public string Prop1 { get; set; }
}

Upvotes: 1

Related Questions