Output JSON with Umbraco template using Razor

Question

I've encountered a situation where I need to replicate some JSON so that an area of the website can be content-managed. I have a json file I need to replicate. The taxonomy of the site is complex and unfortunately I am not in a position to change this.

I have set up the template in Umbraco and the data that I want is displaying on a page, but I do not know how to convert this to output as JSON.

Razor looks like this:

    @{
    dynamic memberships = Library.NodeById(1081);
    var packageGroups =  memberships.Descendants("Price");
    foreach(var package in packageGroups) {
        var top = package.AncestorOrSelf("Type");
        var Description = (@top.HasValue("Blurb")) ? @top.Blurb : @top.Description;
        var Locations = "";

        foreach(var item in package.UserLocation.ToString().Split(',')) {
            Locations += @Model.NodeById((@item)).Name;
            Locations += ",";
        }

        <ul>
            <li>Maintitle: @top.Parent().Title</li>
            <li>Title: @top.Title</li>
            <li>SubTitle: @SubTitle</li>
            <li>Description: @Description</li>
            <li>Link: @top.Url</li>
            <li>Location: @Locations</li>
            <li>Render: true</li>
        </ul>
    }
}

I need to output this to replicate the JSON file as below:

   {
       "items":[
          {
             "MainTitle":"Package Top Level Title",
             "Title":"Package Title",
             "SubTitle":"Additional Details",
             "Description":"We wil provide you with some great products and services.",
             "Link":"/path/to/package/",
             "Location":[
                "Saturn"
             ],
             "Render":true
          },
       ]
}

Pointers appreciated.

Answer 1

You can load the properties into an anonymous object and then serialize it. Something like this should work (untested):

@{
    var items = new List<dynamic>();
    dynamic memberships = Library.NodeById(1081);
    var packageGroups =  memberships.Descendants("Price");
    foreach(var package in packageGroups)
    {
        var top = package.AncestorOrSelf("Type");
        var Description = (top.HasValue("Blurb")) ? top.Blurb : top.Description;
        var Locations = new List<string>();

        foreach(var item in package.UserLocation.ToString().Split(','))
        {
            Locations.Add(Model.NodeById(item).Name);
        }

        items.Add(new
        {
            Maintitle = top.Parent().Title,
            Title = top.Title,
            SubTitle = SubTitle,
            Description = Description,
            Link = top.Url,
            Location = Locations,
            Render = true
        });
    }

    var o = new {
        items = items
    };

    string json = Json.Encode(o);
    Response.ContentType = "application/json";
}
@Html.Raw(json)

An alternative to an anonymous object would be to use a Dictionary. But I think that the anonymous object will work rather nicely in this case.