Serialize .NET Dictionary<string, string> into JSON Key Value Pair Object

Question

I need to get:

public class Package {     public Package()     {         name = "";         type = new List<Dictionary<string, string>>();     }      public string name { get; set; }     public List<Dictionary<string, string>> type { get; set; } } 

into:

{     "name":"package_name",     "type":     {         "http://random.url.as.key":"random/value"     } } 

with:

Package package = new Package(); package.name = "package_name"; package.type.Add(new Dictionary<string, string>() { { "http://random.url.as.key", "random/value" } }); 

I get:

{     "name":"package_name",     "type":     [         [             {                 "Key":"http:\/\/random.url.as.key",                 "Value":"random\/value"             }         ]     ] } 

while, with:

var package = new {     name = "package_name",     type = new     {         http_random_url_as_key = "random/value"     } }; 

I get:

{     "name":"package_name",     "type":     {         "http_random_url_as_key":"random/value"     } } 

I can't get the obsure http://random.url.as.key that I need. I have tried using JavaScriptSerializer, DataContractJsonSerializer, and Custom Convertor for Json.NET, all with limited success/shortcomings.

There must be a better way/something I'm overlooking to get a simple JSON Object over the wire!

Answer 1

Well, first off, for the first example, what you basically have is a list of collections of KeyValuePair<string,string> objects.

So, the reason that it gets converted to the JSON shown is this:

{     "name":"package_name",     "type":     [ // List<Dictionary<string,string>>         [ // Dictionary<string,string>, a list of KeyValuePair<string,string> objects             { // KeyValuePair<string,string> object                  "Key":"http:\/\/random.url.as.key",                 "Value":"random\/value"             }         ]     ] } 

As far as your second example, you are creating a dynamic object, containing a dynamic object, and each of the object's fields are what are providing the key value.

So, I would suggest ditching the outer List<> around the Dictionary<string,string>, then make use of the Newtonsoft.Json.Converters.KeyValuePairConverter object in the JSON.Net library when doing your serialization:

string json = JsonConvert.SerializeObject( package, new KeyValuePairConverter( ) ); 

Hope that helps.

EDIT

Okay, so I figured I should give a more concrete example

public class Package {     public Package()     {         name = "";         type = new Dictionary<string, string>();     }      public string name { get; set; }     public Dictionary<string, string> type { get; set; } }  Package package = new Package(); package.name = "package_name"; package.type.Add("http://random.url.as.key", "random/value"); string json = JsonConvert.SerializeObject( package, new KeyValuePairConverter( ) ); 

This will get you the output

{     "name":"package_name",     "type":     {         "http://random.url.as.key":"random/value"     } }