How to Bind a json to an Interface collection, and vice versa within a model using MVC.Net

Question

Update: due the answer, i found old title irrelevant and change it from the 'How to Implement Custom JsonConverter that uses JsonConvert' to what currently it is.

---

I'm in very tight and time limit situation, and i have to do as what the title says...

i tried many ways till morning, model doesn't bind, the method similar to FormCollection in MVC returns nulls, and so on and so on, since i add a list of interfaces to one of my model, so i need to handle it,... morning client report bugs, and their system is under pressure, so i can't help it but work till it fix.

here's my current code:

What happen? once the writer method returns server returns 500 internal server error...

naturally they do this using serializer object, but i don't know how to do this customization using serializer, so i really in need to call this method which accept a serializer setting.

public class CollectionInterfaceConverterForModels<TInterface> : JsonConverter
{
    private readonly TypeNameSerializationBinder Binder;

    public CollectionInterfaceConverterForModels()
    {
        Binder = new TypeNameSerializationBinder("Cartable.Models.{0}, Cartable");
    }

    public override bool CanConvert(Type objectType)
    {
        return (objectType == typeof(IList<TInterface>));
    }

    public override object ReadJson(JsonReader reader, Type objectType, object existingValue, JsonSerializer serializer)
    {
        //IList<TInterface> items = serializer.Deserialize<List<TInterface>>(reader).Cast<TInterface>().ToList();
        //return items;
        var json = existingValue.ToString();
        if (json == null)
            json = "";

        return JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<List<TInterface>>(json,
            new JsonSerializerSettings
            {
                TypeNameHandling = TypeNameHandling.Auto,
                Binder = Binder
            });
    }

    public override void WriteJson(JsonWriter writer, object value, JsonSerializer serializer)
    {
        //serializer.Serialize(writer, value, typeof(IList<T>));
        string serializeObject = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(value, Formatting.Indented, new JsonSerializerSettings
        {
            TypeNameHandling = TypeNameHandling.Auto,
            Binder = Binder
        });
        writer.WriteRaw(serializeObject);
        writer.Flush();
    }
}

Model sample:

public class IncomingFaxesVM
{
    public long Code { get; set; }
.
.
.

    [JsonConverter(typeof(CollectionInterfaceConverterForModels<IMetadata>))]
    public List<IMetadata> Metadata { get; set; }
}

Answer 1

Yet, i'm unable to do what i asked, but i solved the issue using another way,

So if you find the answer, i mark yours, other wise i change the title to interface binding so other user can find it easily, and here's my answer to solve the issue.

public class CollectionInterfaceConverterForModels<TInterface> : JsonConverter
{
    private readonly TypeNameSerializationBinder Binder;

    public CollectionInterfaceConverterForModels()
    {
        Binder = new TypeNameSerializationBinder("Cartable.Models.{0}, Cartable");
    }

    public override bool CanConvert(Type objectType)
    {
        return (objectType == typeof(IList<TInterface>));
    }
    public override object ReadJson(JsonReader reader, Type objectType, object existingValue, JsonSerializer serializer)
    {
        var currentBinder = serializer.Binder;
        var currentTypeNameHandling = serializer.TypeNameHandling;

        serializer.TypeNameHandling = TypeNameHandling.Auto;
        serializer.Binder = Binder;

        IList<TInterface> items = serializer.Deserialize<List<TInterface>>(reader).ToList();

        serializer.TypeNameHandling = currentTypeNameHandling;
        serializer.Binder = currentBinder;

        return items;
    }

    public override void WriteJson(JsonWriter writer, object value, JsonSerializer serializer)
    {
        //The reason store these, is to leave system unchanged, in case it customized on general section by another programmer
        var currentBinder = serializer.Binder;
        var currentTypeNameHandling = serializer.TypeNameHandling;

        serializer.TypeNameHandling=TypeNameHandling.Auto;
        serializer.Binder = Binder;

        serializer.Serialize(writer, value, typeof(List<TInterface>));

        serializer.TypeNameHandling = currentTypeNameHandling;
        serializer.Binder = currentBinder;
    }
}