Deserializing a json string with restsharp

Question

I have a string that comes out of a database which is in Json format.

I have tried to deserialize it with:

RestSharp.Deserializers.JsonDeserializer deserial = new JsonDeserializer();
var x = deserial .Deserialize<Customer>(myStringFromDB)

But the .Deserialize function expects an IRestResponse

Is there a way to use RestSharp to just deserialize raw strings?

Solution 1

There are sereval ways to do this. A very popular library to handle json is the Newtonsoft.Json. Probably you already have it on your asp.net project but if not, you could add it from nuget.

Considering you have a response object, include the following namespaces and call the static method DeserializeObject<T> from JsonConvert class:

using Newtonsoft.Json;
using RestSharp;

return JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<T>(response.Content);

On the response.Content, you will have the raw result, so just deserialize this string to a json object. The T in the case is the type you need to deserialize.

For example:

var customerDto = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<CustomerDto>(response.Content);

Update

Recently, Microsoft has added a namespace System.Text.Json which handle json format on the .Net platform. You could use it calling the JsonSerializer.Deserialize<T> static method:

using System.Text.Json;

var customer = JsonSerializer.Deserialize<Customer>(jsonContent);

Solution 2

If you want to avoid using extra libraries, try this:

RestSharp.RestResponse response = new RestSharp.RestResponse();

response.Content = myStringFromDB; 

RestSharp.Deserializers.JsonDeserializer deserial = new JsonDeserializer();

Customer x = deserial.Deserialize<Customer>(response);

Caveats apply - not extensively tested - but seems to work well enough.

Comments

[Andy]

I feel your pain

[Ian Vink]

The RestSharp serializer and deserializer was the problem. By using Newton soft the problem went away.

[Matthew]

@BahaiResearch.com It's not that RestSharp's serializer/deserializer has/is a problem per se; it just doesn't have the functionality you need, since RestSharp is an http client library not a general serialization tool. As you pointed out it requires an IRestResponse, as opposed to let's say supporting an IRestResponse.Content (string type) as well. StevieJ81 below points out a potential way workaround if for some reason you want to or must use RestSharp for json deserialization: he directly plugs IRestResponse.Content.

[Brad Bruce]

Works great. One less library I have to include in my application.

[Michael]

In the version of RestSharp I'm using it looks like the JsonDeserializer class has been moved to RestSharp.Serialization.Json.JsonDeserializer

[Esteban Verbel]

I don't think this is valid anymore, at least for version "100.6.10"

[Alexis Leclerc]

In my case the RestSharp deserializer handles funky object names in the json content much better than the Newtonsoft deserializer, so that's another argument not to include another library just for this.