C# code to serialize plain-old-CLR-objects to JSON

Question

Within an ASP.NET application, I'd like to serialize a collection of plain-old-CLR-objects (POCO) to a JSON string, which will then be sent down to the client as part of a web response.

Is there a light-weight C# library that does this?

Answer 1

Yes, I've had a lot of success with JSON.NET.

As an example from the web page:

Product product = new Product();
product.Name = "Apple";
product.Expiry = new DateTime(2008, 12, 28);
product.Price = 3.99M;
product.Sizes = new string[] { "Small", "Medium", "Large" };

string json = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(product);

Answer 2

Try DataContractJsonSerializer:

Serializes objects to the JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) and deserializes JSON data to objects.

Use the DataContractJsonSerializer class to serialize instances of a type into a JSON document and to deserialize a JSON document into an instance of a type. For example, you can create a type named Person with properties that contain essential data, such as a name and address. You can then create and manipulate an instance of the Person class and write all of its property values in a JSON document for later retrieval. This JSON document can later be deserialized into the Person class or another class with an equivalent data contract.