Reading a List of Json Objects from config file and return it in the controller always return null

Question

I have a GameSettingOptions class like this:

public class GameSettingOptions
    {
        public int gameId { get; set; }
        public string iconSize { get; set; }
        public int sortOrder { get; set; }
        public string[] chips { get; set; }
    }

And I am trying to retrieve it from a service being set up like this:

 public Startup(IConfiguration configuration, IHostingEnvironment environment)
        {
            
            var builder = new ConfigurationBuilder()
                .SetBasePath(environment.ContentRootPath)
                .AddJsonFile("GameSettingOptions.json", optional: true, reloadOnChange: true);
            Configuration = builder.Build();
        }
public void ConfigureServices(IServiceCollection services)
        {
            services.AddControllers();
            services.AddCors(c =>
            {
                c.AddPolicy("AllowOrigin", options => options.AllowAnyOrigin());
            });
            services.Configure<GameSettingOptions>(Configuration.GetSection("GameSettings"));
        }

This is my json object where game settings is an array:

{
  "GameSettings": [
    {
      "gameId": 1,
      "iconSize": "big",
      "sortOrder": 6
    },
    {
      "gameId": 2,
      "iconSize": "small",
      "sortOrder": 4
    }
  ]
}

And this is how I am trying to retrieve it using this controller and dependency injection

public class GameSettingsControllers : ControllerBase
    {
        private readonly GameSettingOptions Options;
        public GameSettingsControllers(IOptionsSnapshot<GameSettingOptions> options)
        {
            Options = options.Value;

        }

        public object GetGameSettings()
        {
            
                return new JsonResult($"gameId: {Options.gameId}, " + $"iconSize: {Options.iconSize}, "
                    + $"sortOrder: {Options.sortOrder}, " + $"chips: {Options.chips} ");
          
        }
    }

What I have tried:

1. Turning both service and the property that consumes the service into a List, this returns null

services.Configure<List<GameSettingOptions>>(Configuration.GetSection("GameSettings"));
IOptions<List<GameSettingOptions>>

2. Create another class that have a collection of GameSettingOptions property, then I bind and inject the new class, this also returns null

public class GameSettings
{
  public GameSettingsOptions[] AllGameSettings {get; set;}
}

public class GameSettingOptions
    {
        public int gameId { get; set; }
        public string iconSize { get; set; }
        public int sortOrder { get; set; }
        public string[] chips { get; set; }
    }

3. For the controller I try to do a foreach of IOptions value but it said GameSetingsOptions foes not contain a public instance or definition of 'GetEnumerator'

Answer 1

Please define the GameSettingsOtions as shown below

public class GameSettingOptions: List<GameSetting>
{
}

public class GameSetting
{
    public int gameId { get; set; }
    public string iconSize { get; set; }
    public int sortOrder { get; set; }
    public string[] chips { get; set; }
}

Now to configure it, use the below code ConfigureServices method:

services.Configure<GameSettingOptions>(options => Configuration.GetSection("GameSettings").Bind(options));

with above you can see that defined options are injected. Here is the screenshot from my debugging:

This is my appsettings.json file for reference:

{
    "Logging": {
        "LogLevel": {
            "Default": "Information",
            "Microsoft": "Warning",
            "Microsoft.Hosting.Lifetime": "Information"
        }
    },
    "AllowedHosts": "*",
    "MySettings": {
        "SettingValue": 2
    },
    "GameSettings": [
        {
            "gameId": 1,
            "iconSize": "big",
            "sortOrder": 6
        },
        {
            "gameId": 2,
            "iconSize": "small",
            "sortOrder": 4
        },
        {
            "gameId": 3,
            "iconSize": "medium",
            "sortOrder": 2
        },
        {
            "gameId": 4,
            "iconSize": "small",
            "sortOrder": 5
        },
        {
            "gameId": 5,
            "iconSize": "small",
            "sortOrder": 8,
            "chips": []
        },
        {
            "gameId": 6,
            "iconSize": "small",
            "sortOrder": 7
        },
        {
            "gameId": 7,
            "iconSize": "big",
            "sortOrder": 1,
            "chips": []
        }
    ]
}