JSON.NET to C# objects

Question

Im trying to use JSON.NET framework in a windows Form to read some information from a JSON string. But im struggling to get the Dictionaries from the 'taxonomies->topics' array and the 'clusters'

{
    "keywords": {
        "anyString": [

        ],
        "allString": {
            "a5349f533e3aa3ccbc27de2638da38d6": "olympics"
        },
        "exactString": [

        ],
        "notString": [

        ],
        "highlightString": [

        ]
    },
    "dates": {
        "startDate": "15-01-2008",
        "endDate": "15-09-2009",
        "useDates": true
    },
    "clusters": {
        "permission": {
            "1": "private\/n"
        }
    },
    "taxonomies": {
        "Topics": {
            "2488": "Olympics 2012 (not participation)",
            "8876": "Olympics and culture"
        },
        "Keywords": {
            "8848": "Engineering in the Olympics"
        }
    },
    "sort": {
        "sortId": 1,
        "sortType": 2,
        "sort": "datetime",
        "sortOrder": "descending"
    }
}

With the code bellow i have been able to read the some of the information.

JObject searchCriteria = JObject.Parse(contentSearchCriteria);  
//search criteria   
IEnumerable<string> allString = searchCriteria["keywords"]["allString"].Children().Values<string>();
IEnumerable<string> anyString = searchCriteria["keywords"]["anyString"].Children().Values<string>();
IEnumerable<string> notString = searchCriteria["keywords"]["notString"].Children().Values<string>();
IEnumerable<string> exactString = searchCriteria["keywords"]["exactString"].Children().Values<string>();
IEnumerable<string> highlightString = searchCriteria["keywords"]["highlightString"].Children().Values<string>();
//dates
string startDate = (string)searchCriteria["dates"]["startDate"];
string endDate = (string)searchCriteria["dates"]["endDate"];
bool useDates = (bool)searchCriteria["dates"]["useDates"];

//sort
int sortId = (int)searchCriteria["sort"]["sortId"];
int sortType = (int)searchCriteria["sort"]["sortType"];
string sort = (string)searchCriteria["sort"]["sort"];
string sortOrder = (string)searchCriteria["sort"]["sortOrder"];

UPDATE:

As recommended I added

class SMSearchCriteria
    {
        public SMKeywords keywords { get; set; }
        public SMDates dates { get; set; }
        public SMClusters clusters { get; set; }
        public SMTaxonomies taxonomies { get; set; }
        public SMSort sort { get; set; }
    }

    class SMKeywords
    {
        public List<Dictionary<string, string>> AnyString {get; set;}
        public List<Dictionary<string, string>> AllString { get; set; }
        public List<Dictionary<string, string>> ExactString { get; set; }
        public List<Dictionary<string, string>> NotString { get; set; }
        public List<Dictionary<string, string>> HighlightString { get; set; } 
    }

    class SMDates
    {
        public string startDate { get; set; }
        public string endDate { get; set; }
        public bool useDates { get; set; }
    }

    class SMClusters
    {
        List<SMCluster> cluster;
    }

    class SMCluster
    {
        public Dictionary<string, string> cluster { get; set; }
    }

     class SMTaxonomies
    {
         public List<SMTaxonomy> taxonomies { get; set; }
    }

     class SMTaxonomy
     {
         public Dictionary<string, List<SMCategory>> taxonomy { get; set; }
     }

     class SMCategory
     {
         public Dictionary<int, string> category { get; set; }
     }

     class SMSort
    {
        public int sortId { get; set; }
        public int sortType { get; set; }
        public string sort { get; set; }
        public string sortOrder { get; set; }
    }

but when i execute:

    var mydata = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<SMSearchCriteria>(contentSearchCriteria);

I get the Exception:

[Newtonsoft.Json.JsonSerializationException] = {"Cannot deserialize JSON object into type 'System.Collections.Generic.List`1[System.Collections.Generic.Dictionary`2[System.String,System.String]]'."}

Update 2:

As suggested i have removed all the extra lists and simplified the Classes to this:

class SearchMasterSearchCriteria
    {
        public SMKeywords keywords { get; set; }
        public SMDates dates { get; set; }
        public Dictionary<string, Dictionary<int, string>> clusters { get; set; } 
        public Dictionary<string, Dictionary<int, string>> taxonomies { get; set; } 
        public SMSort sort { get; set; }
    }

    class SMKeywords
    {
        public Dictionary<string, string> anyString {get; set;}
        public Dictionary<string, string> allString { get; set; }
        public Dictionary<string, string> exactString { get; set; }
        public Dictionary<string, string> notString { get; set; }
        public Dictionary<string, string> highlightString { get; set; } 
    }

    class SMDates
    {
        public string startDate { get; set; }
        public string endDate { get; set; }
        public bool useDates { get; set; }
    }

     class SMSort
    {
        public int sortId { get; set; }
        public int sortType { get; set; }
        public string sort { get; set; }
        public string sortOrder { get; set; }
    }

I also added test code to serialize the object like this:

//criteria
            SearchMasterSearchCriteria smCriteria = new SearchMasterSearchCriteria();

            //keywords
            SMKeywords smKeywords = new SMKeywords(); ;
            Dictionary<string, string> dict = new Dictionary<string, string>();
            dict.Add("a5349f533e3aa3ccbc27de2638da38d6", "olympics");
            dict.Add("9cfa7aefcc61936b70aaec6729329eda", "games");
            smKeywords.allString = dict;

            //category
            Dictionary<int, string> categorieDict = new Dictionary<int, string>();
            categorieDict.Add(2488, "Olympics 2012 (not participation)");
            categorieDict.Add(8876, "Olympics and culture");

            //taxonomies
            Dictionary<string, Dictionary<int, string>> taxonomiesDict = new Dictionary<string, Dictionary<int, string>>();
            taxonomiesDict.Add("Topics", categorieDict);

            //metadata
            Dictionary<int, string> metadataDict = new Dictionary<int, string>();
            metadataDict.Add(1, @"private/n");

            //clusters
            Dictionary<string, Dictionary<int, string>> clustersDict = new Dictionary<string, Dictionary<int, string>>();
            clustersDict.Add("permission", metadataDict);


            //dates
            SMDates smDates = new SMDates();
            smDates.startDate = "15-01-2008";
            smDates.endDate = "15-09-2009";
            smDates.useDates = true;

            //sort
            SMSort smSort = new SMSort();
            smSort.sortId = 1;
            smSort.sortType = 2;
            smSort.sort = "datetime";
            smSort.sortOrder = "descending";

           //add to criteria.
            smCriteria.keywords = smKeywords;
            smCriteria.clusters = clustersDict;
            smCriteria.taxonomies = taxonomiesDict;
            smCriteria.dates = smDates;
            smCriteria.sort = smSort;

            //serialize
            string json = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(smCriteria);
            var mydata1 = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<SearchMasterSearchCriteria>(json);

By that time the only difference between the 2 json strings where. the [] and nulls for the anyString, exactString, etc. So i replaced the empty square brackets for curly ones and it desearialized with no errors :)

contentSearchCriteria = contentSearchCriteria.Replace("[]", "{}");
var mydata = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<SearchMasterSearchCriteria>(contentSearchCriteria);

Answer 1

To be honest with you I wouldn't do they way you are doing it at all. Here's the way I'd go about retrieving the data:

class Data {
     Dictionary<string, Dictionary<string, string>> keywords;
     DatesClass dates;
     .......

}

class DatesClass
{
    string startDate;
    string endDate;
    bool? useDates

}


var mydata = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<Data>(jsonstring);

I didn't fill out the entire data class, but you get the point. I've found it much much easier to create a object in the structure of your input data and then use the DeserializeObject method to fill in the data. This also makes the code much cleaner, and allows the compiler to check for typos.