Binding an array of objects in MVC

Question

I am having a problem binding an array of key value pair objects in MVC5. This is the JSON:

{
    "expiration": "2013-12-03T04:30:41.206Z",
    "conditions": [
        {
            "acl": "private"
        },
        {
            "bucket": "ryvus.upload.test"
        },
        {
            "Content-Type": "application/vnd.ms-excel"
        },
        {
            "success_action_status": "200"
        },
        {
            "key": "fc42ae8a-1f6e-4955-a669-8272ad650cb9.csv"
        },
        {
            "x-amz-meta-qqfilename": "simpleupload.csv"
        }
    ]
}

If I attempt to bind conditions to a Dictionary<string, string> like this:

// View Model
public class ResponseVM
{
    public DateTime Expiration { get; set; }
    public Dictionary<string, string> Conditions { get; set; }
}
// Controller Action
public ActionResult MyHandler(ResponseVM s3Response)
{
   //do something
   return JSON(null);
}

I get a 6 entries with keys of "0","1","2","3","4","5" and null values. I seem so close but I've tried a bunch of different types without success, the Dictionary<string, string> was the best I could get.

Am I missing something completely obvious here?

Answer 1

Since the JSON scheme can't be changed, the easiest way is the change the class to match the JSON.

public class ResponseVM
{
    public DateTime Expiration { get; set; }
    public List<Dictionary<string, string>> Conditions { get; set; }
}

Condition is a list of maps.

By the way, the purpose of view models (VM) is for abstracting the view. It's not for input.