[Solved] Creating a dynamic object to store complex Json data

Hey all,

I'm working on a project in which I want to be able to write simple key-value pairs into a JSON file using the JSON.net dependencies. Some of the values could also contain other key-value pairs, so there can be nested JSON data. For example:

{

    "name":"foo",

    "id":0,

    "attributes":

    {

        "height":10,

        "slippery": true

    }

}

In working on writing the class that will contain all that, I ran into a Specified Cast is not Valid exception, and I suspect it's because of my limited knowledge of generic types. Here's the class:

Code (CSharp):

1. [System.Serializable]
2. public class Data : JObject
3. {
4.     public void CreateChildUnderParent(string parent, string child)
5.     {
6.         Data obj = GetValueOfKey<Data>(parent);
7.         obj.CreateChild(child);
8.     }
9.     public void CreateChild(string child)
10.     {
11.         AddKey(child, new Data());
12.     }
13.     public void AddKeyToParent(string parent, string key, JToken value)
14.     {
15.         Data parentObject = GetValueOfKey<Data>(key);
16.         parentObject.AddKey(key, value);
17.     }
18.     public void AddKey(string key, JToken value)
19.     {
20.         Add(key, value);
21.     }
22.     public void RemoveKeyFromParent(string parent, string key)
23.     {
24.         Data parentObject = GetValueOfKey<Data>(key);
25.         parentObject.RemoveKey(key);
26.     }
27.     public void RemoveKey(string key)
28.     {
29.         Remove(key);
30.     }
31.     public T GetValueFromParent<T>(string parent, string key)
32.     {
33.         Data parentObject = GetValue(key).ToObject<Data>();
34.         return parentObject.GetValue(key).ToObject<T>();
35.     }
36.     public T GetValueOfKey<T>(string key)
37.     {
38.         foreach (var kvp in this)
39.             if (kvp.Value is Data)
40.             {
41.                 T value = kvp.Value.ToObject<Data>().GetValueOfKey<T>(key);  //<-- error thrown here
42.                 if (value != null)
43.                     return value;
44.             }
45.         return GetValue(key).ToObject<T>();
46.     }
47. }

The error is thrown within the public T GetValueOfKey<T>(string key) method. I'm not entirely sure why it's happening since I check the type of value before casting, so any help would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!

 

Also I don't actually use "value" as my variable name within that function, that's just a placeholder to make it more obvious what the function returns, but the forum isn't letting me edit that out

 

If you are using json.net from the asset store, you can use this site

http://json2csharp.com/

and throw your json string in there to generate your class which you can deserialize your json into.

 

Thanks for the reply! However, I don't want to create classes to represent my JSON data. I want it to be completely dynamic, so I don't have to write individual classes for every piece of data I want to store, because there's quite a bit. An ideal call to retrieve data would look like:

dataObject.GetValueFromParent("attributes", "slippery"); //returns "true"

 

I solved my problem. You can see my solution over at:

https://stackoverflow.com/questions...on-jtoken-to-class-json-net/52911311#52911311

In my solution, you'll find that I've created a class that allows for full support of complex nested JSON data using the Json.NET dependencies for serializaiton/deserialization. It's also fully documented.