C# ServiceStack JsonSerializer Deserialize

Question

How can I deserialize a string to Json object where the json Object can be a single or an array, right now I have this, which works but its a hack (pseudo):

class MyObject{
  public string prop1
  public string prop2;
 }

 class MyList{
  List<MyObject> objects {get; set; }
 }

 class Test{
   MyList list = JsonSerialzer.Deserialize<MyList>(str);
   //if list is null - it can be single
   if(list == null){
      MyObject myObject = JsonSerializer.Deserialize<MyObject>(str);
      if(myObject != null)
         list.add(myObject);
     }
  }

As shown above, problem is the json String I am receiving from another service can be either single or list. How to handle this elegantly?

Answer 1

I would strongly advise against accepting different structures in the same argument, it makes your software highly brittle and unpredictable. But if it could be a list you can just check the first char is a [, e.g:

if (str.TrimStart().StartsWith("["))
{
    MyList list = JsonSerialzer.Deserialize<MyList>(str);
}
else
{
    MyObject myObject = JsonSerializer.Deserialize<MyObject>(str);
}

Also please note that by default all ServiceStack text serializers only serialize public properties, so you need to add getters/setters to each property you want serialized, e.g:

class MyObject
{
    public string prop1 { get; set; }
    public string prop2 { get; set; }
}

class MyList
{
    List<MyObject> objects { get; set; }
}

Otherwise you can configure ServiceStack.Text to also serialize public fields with:

JsConfig.IncludePublicFields = true;