JSON Conversions

The following methods illustrate how to perform conversions with JSON objects and other sources.

Convert a JSON String to a JSON Object

public object ConvertJsonStringToObject(string jsonString, Type type)
{
   // do the contract validation here.
   System.Diagnostics.Contracts.Contract.Requires(jsonString != null, "Parameter 'jsonString' cannot be null");
   System.Diagnostics.Contracts.Contract.Requires(type != null, "Parameter 'type' cannot be null");

   // declare the return variable
   object objRV = null;

   using (System.IO.MemoryStream mem = new System.IO.MemoryStream())
   using (System.IO.StreamWriter sw = new System.IO.StreamWriter(mem))
   {
      // write our string to the memory stream.
      sw.Write(jsonString);
      sw.Flush();

      // make sure the memory stream position is set at the beginning.
      mem.Position = 0;

      // make the call to convert our stream to the object.
      objRV = this.ConvertJsonStreamToObject(mem, type);
   }

   return objRV;
}

Convert a Stream Containing JSON Information to a JSON Object

public object ConvertJsonStreamToObject(System.IO.Stream strm, Type type)
{
   // do the contract validation here.
   System.Diagnostics.Contracts.Contract.Requires(strm != null, "Parameter 'strm' cannot be null");
   System.Diagnostics.Contracts.Contract.Requires(type != null, "Parameter 'type' cannot be null");

   // declare the return variable
   object objRV = null;

   //Create a serializer to do the JSON work for us
   DataContractJsonSerializer ser = new DataContractJsonSerializer(type);

   // read the stream and write it to our object.
   objRV = ser.ReadObject(strm);

   return objRV;
}

Convert a JSON object to a String / StringBuilder

public void ConvertJsonObjectToString(object jsonObject, StringBuilder sbOutput)
{    
   // do the contract validation here.
   System.Diagnostics.Contracts.Contract.Requires(jsonObject != null, "Parameter 'jsonObject' cannot be null");
   System.Diagnostics.Contracts.Contract.Requires(sbOutput != null, "Parameter 'sbOutput' cannot be null");

   //Create a serializer to do the JSON work for us
   DataContractJsonSerializer ser = new DataContractJsonSerializer(jsonObject.GetType());

   using (System.IO.MemoryStream mem = new System.IO.MemoryStream())
   using (System.IO.StreamReader sr = new System.IO.StreamReader(mem))
   {
      // write the object to the memory stream.
      ser.WriteObject(mem, jsonObject);
      // flush the stream
      mem.Flush();

      // move the pointer to the beginning
      mem.Position = 0;

      sbOutput.Append(sr.ReadToEnd());
   }
}

Convert a JSON object to a Stream

public void WriteJsonObjectToStream(object jsonObject, System.IO.Stream strm)
{
   // do the contract validation here.
   System.Diagnostics.Contracts.Contract.Requires(jsonObject != null, "Parameter 'jsonObject' cannot be null");
   System.Diagnostics.Contracts.Contract.Requires(strm != null, "Parameter 'strm' cannot be null");

   //Create a serializer to do the JSON work for us
   DataContractJsonSerializer ser = new DataContractJsonSerializer(jsonObject.GetType());

   // write the object to the stream.
   ser.WriteObject(strm, jsonObject);
}