Json.net deserialization is returning an empty object

Question

I'm using the code below for serialization.

var json = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(new { summary = summary });

summary is a custom object of type SplunkDataModel:

public class SplunkDataModel
{
    public SplunkDataModel() {}

    public string Category { get; set; }
    public int FailureCount { get; set; }
    public Dictionary<string, SplunkError> FailureEntity { get; set; }
    public Dictionary<string, string> JobInfo { get; set; }
    public string JobStatus { get; set; }
    public int SuccessCount { get; set; }
    public List<string> SuccessEntity { get; set; }
    public int TotalCount { get; set; }
}

Serialization results in the JSON below:

{
  "summary": {
    "Category": "category",
    "JobStatus": "Failure",
    "JobInfo": {
      "Course processing failed": "" 
    },
    "TotalCount": 0,
    "SuccessCount": 0,
    "FailureCount": 0,
    "FailureEntity": {},
    "SuccessEntity": []
  }
}

Now, for unit testing purposes, I need to deserialize it, but the code below is returning an object with empty values. Where am I going wrong?

var deserialized = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<SplunkDataModel>(contents);

Answer 1

On my side, it was because I had no public setter for my properties. Instead of having

public class MyClass
{        
    public int FileId { get; }
}

I should have

public class MyClass
{        
    public int FileId { get; set; }
}

silly mistake that cost me hours....

Answer 2

When you serialized your SplunkDataModel to JSON, you wrapped it in an object with a summary property. Hence, when you deserialize the JSON back to objects, you need to use the same structure. There are several ways to go about it; they all achieve the same result.

1. Declare a class to represent the root level of the JSON and deserialize into that:

   public class RootObject
   {
       public SplunkDataModel Summary { get; set; }
   }
   

   Then:

   var deserialized = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<RootObject>(contents).Summary;
   

2. Or, deserialize by example to an instance of an anonymous type, then retrieve your object from the result:

   var anonExample = new { summary = new SplunkDataModel() };
   var deserialized = JsonConvert.DeserializeAnonymousType(contents, anonExample).summary;
   

3. Or, deserialize to a JObject, then materialize your object from that:

   JObject obj = JObject.Parse(contents);
   var deserialized = obj["summary"].ToObject<SplunkDataModel>();