.NET - Omit Fields from JSON Web Service Call

Question

I'm working on a .NET application for my company to interact with the Nutshell CRM. They have documentation provided for their JSON API here. I'm slowly building out all the classes in my application, but I've run into the issue of only needing to update one field on a call, but having the application include every field that I have on that class.

So for a condensed example of the editLead method, where I'm only modifying the customFields:

Nutshell documentation states that all fields are optional. My classes are set up as the following, where my custom fields in Nutshell are Division, Product, Country:

    public class editLead
    {
          public Customfields customFields { get; set; }
    }

    public class Customfields
    {
        public string Division { get; set; }
        public string Product { get; set; }
        public string Country { get; set; }
    }

EDIT (adding more code):

    [DataContract(Name = "params")]
    public class EditLeadParams
    {
        public string leadId { get; set; }
        public editLead lead { get; set; }
        public string rev { get; set; }
    }

I'm using RestSharp to make the following call:

            var editleadclient = new RestClient();
            Method editleadMethod = new Method();
            editleadMethod = Method.POST;
            var editleadrequest = new RestRequest(editleadMethod);
            editleadrequest.RequestFormat = DataFormat.Json;
            editleadclient.BaseUrl = new Uri(apiuri);
            editleadrequest.Credentials = new NetworkCredential(login, apikey);

            leadJSON.EditLeadParams lead1 = new leadJSON.EditLeadParams()
            {
                leadId = foundlead[0],
                lead = new leadJSON.editLead()
                {
                    customFields = new leadJSON.Customfields()
                    {
                        Division = "AMERICAS",
                    }
                },
                rev = foundlead[1],
            };

            leadJSON.EditLeadRequest editreq = new leadJSON.EditLeadRequest()
            {

                @params = lead1,
                method = "editLead",
            };

            editleadrequest.AddBody(editreq);
            IRestResponse editResponse = editleadclient.Execute(editleadrequest);

If I only want to update the Division, it will use the following JSON {"customFields":{"Division":"AMERICAS","Product":null,"Country":null}}, and overwrite the Product and Country fields and make them blank. However, if I comment out the Product and Country, in the Customfields definition, it will update the Division and leave the Product and Country alone.

Is there another way to define these classes so that I can have it all defined, but only update what needs to be?

Answer 1

I am leaving my initial answer because it does return only non-null properties as a Json string. However here is your answer when using RestSharp.

On your request add:

editleadrequest.JsonSerializer.Options = new SerializerOptions()
{
    SkipNullProperties = true
};

Answer 2

Declaration:

//JsonSerializer.cs
public static class JsonSerializer
{
    public static string Serialize(object target, bool ignoreNulls = true)
    {
        var javaScriptSerializer = new JavaScriptSerializer();
        if (ignoreNulls)
        {
            javaScriptSerializer.RegisterConverters(new[] 
            {
                new NullExclusionConverter(target)
            });
        }
        return javaScriptSerializer.Serialize(target);
    }
}


//NullExclusionConverter.cs
public class NullExclusionConverter : JavaScriptConverter
{
    private readonly Type _type;

    public NullExclusionConverter(object target)
    {
        if (target == null)
        {
            throw new ArgumentNullException("target");
        }
        this._type = target.GetType();
    }



    public override object Deserialize(IDictionary<string, object> dictionary, Type type, JavaScriptSerializer serializer)
    {
        throw new NotImplementedException();
    }

    public override IEnumerable<Type> SupportedTypes
    {
        get 
        { 
            return new[] { this._type };
        }
    }

    public override IDictionary<string, object> Serialize(object obj, JavaScriptSerializer serializer)
    {
        var result = new Dictionary<string, object>();
        if (obj == null)
        {
            return result;
        }
        var properties = obj.GetType().GetProperties();
        foreach (var propertyInfo in properties)
        {
            //Use propertyInfo.Name to exclude a specific property name
            if (propertyInfo.GetValue(obj, null) == null)
            {
                continue;
            }
            result.Add(propertyInfo.Name, propertyInfo.GetValue(obj, null));
        }
        return result;
    }
}

Usage:

string jsonString = JsonSerializer.Serialize(objectToSerialize);

Add a reference to System.Web.Extensions