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c#jsonserializationjson.netdeserialization
zwaller
zwaller

Reputation: 87

Json.NET Deserialize Returning Object with Default Values

I'm trying to deserialize a JSON string but it keeps returning an object with default values (false, null, etc).

The JSON I'm working with is coming from a web service and is quite long. I've pasted it here: https://pastebin.com/6LrfSVJE

The structure is of the following:

"Data": [SITE, SITE, SITE, etc.]
"Success": BOOLEAN,
"Message": STRING,

Where a Site looks like this:

"__type" : STRING
"ID": INTEGER,
"UniqueIdentifier": GUID/STRING,
"Network": INTEGER,
"LandOwner": INTEGER (nullable),
"PermitHolder": INTEGER (nullable),
"Name": STRING,
"Alias": STRING (unique),
"Notes": STRING,
"Latitude": DOUBLE (nullable),
"Longitude": DOUBLE (nullable),
"Elevation": DOUBLE (nullable),
"TimeZoneName": STRING,
"TimeZoneAbbreviation": STRING,
"TimeZoneOffset": INTEGER,
"CreationDate": STRING ISO-8601,
"ModificationDate": STRING ISO-8601,
"GPSLandmark": STRING

I've replicated these in C# to use with Json.NET:

public class SiteList
{
    public bool Success { get; set; }
    public string Message { get; set; }
    public IList<Site> Data { get; set; }
}

public class Site
{
    public string __type { get; set; }
    public int ID { get; set; }
    public string UniqueIdentifier { get; set; }
    public int Network { get; set; }
    public int LandOwner { get; set; }
    public int PermitHolder { get; set; }
    public string Name { get; set; }
    public string Alias { get; set; }
    public string Notes { get; set; }
    public double Latitude { get; set; }
    public double Longitude { get; set; }
    public double Elevation { get; set; }
    public string TimeZoneName { get; set; }
    public string TimeZoneAbbreviation { get; set; }
    public int TimeZoneOffset { get; set; }
    public string CreationDate { get; set; }
    public string ModificationDate { get; set; }
    public string GPSLandmark { get; set; }
}

And I'm deserializing it as such:

string message = /* I make my service call here - same string as the JSON pasted above */
var sitelist = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<Infrastructure.SiteList>(message);

If my data structures were incorrect, I'd expect the Json.NET function to return null. But it actually does return a SiteList, just with values of data=null, message=null, success=false.

This code was working a few days ago, but recently the web service was changed and the site data structure now contains the __type field. And ever since then the deserialization is failing.

I've tried not including the __type field at all, naming it "type", "Type", "__type", "__Type", but I always get the same result. I'm not exactly sure how Json.NET matches variable names but the introduction of the __type field does seem to have caused the issue, and it doesn't help that the name doesn't follow the previous convention.

Does anyone have a solution or see any mistake I may have overlooked?

Upvotes: 0

Views: 2087

Answers (1)

zwaller
zwaller

Reputation: 87

FIX:

I never mentioned that my SiteList and Site inherited from an abstract base class - the fact that it was inherited never messed up the functionality before. However I recently added the [DataContract] attribute to this base class so that I can use some of its inherited classes in my own web service, and it turns out that was what was breaking the deserialization. Removing the attribute or not inheriting from a DataContract class fixes the issue.

Upvotes: 2

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