How can I deserialize JSON to a simple Dictionary<string,string> in ASP.NET?

Question

I have a simple key/value list in JSON being sent back to ASP.NET via POST. Example:

{ "key1": "value1", "key2": "value2"} 

I AM NOT TRYING TO DESERIALIZE INTO STRONGLY-TYPED .NET OBJECTS

I simply need a plain old Dictionary(Of String, String), or some equivalent (hash table, Dictionary(Of String, Object), old-school StringDictionary--hell, a 2-D array of strings would work for me.

I can use anything available in ASP.NET 3.5, as well as the popular Json.NET (which I'm already using for serialization to the client).

Apparently neither of these JSON libraries have this forehead-slapping obvious capability out of the box--they are totally focused on reflection-based deserialization via strong contracts.

Any ideas?

Limitations:

1. I don't want to implement my own JSON parser
2. Can't use ASP.NET 4.0 yet
3. Would prefer to stay away from the older, deprecated ASP.NET class for JSON

Answer 1

Json.NET does this...

string json = @"{""key1"":""value1"",""key2"":""value2""}";  var values = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<Dictionary<string, string>>(json); 

More examples: Serializing Collections with Json.NET

Answer 2

I did discover .NET has a built in way to cast the JSON string into a Dictionary<String, Object> via the System.Web.Script.Serialization.JavaScriptSerializer type in the 3.5 System.Web.Extensions assembly. Use the method DeserializeObject(String).

I stumbled upon this when doing an ajax post (via jquery) of content type 'application/json' to a static .net Page Method and saw that the method (which had a single parameter of type Object) magically received this Dictionary.