JSON to C# object using Data Contracts - What am I missing here?

Question

I am experiencing an error converting JSON to a strongly-typed class.

My JSON: {"listBoxID":"ctl00_ctl00_MainContentRoot_MainContent_lstBxSettings","sourceItemText":"Horizontal Bar","sourceItemValue":"Horizontal"}

DroppedItem droppedItem = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<DroppedItem>(json);

/// <summary>
/// Outlines an object which is useful in simplifying how a CormantRadDock is created.
/// Instead of passing in lots of parameters, would rather just pass in an object that the
/// CormantRadDock knows how to interpret.
/// </summary>
[DataContract]
public class DroppedItem
{
    private static readonly ILog Logger = LogManager.GetLogger(MethodBase.GetCurrentMethod().DeclaringType);

    [DataMember(Name = "sourceItemText")]
    public string Text { get; set; }

    [DataMember(Name = "sourceItemValue")]
    public string Value { get; set; }

    [DataMember(Name = "listBoxID")]
    public Reports ReportType { get; set; }

    public DroppedItem() { }

    public DroppedItem(string text, string value, string listBoxID)
    {
        Logger.DebugFormat("Text: {0}, Value: {1}, slidingPaneTitle: {2}", text, value, listBoxID);
        Text = text;
        Value = value;
        ReportType = DetermineReportType(listBoxID);
    }

    private Reports DetermineReportType(string listBoxID)
    {
        if (listBoxID.Contains("lstBxHistorical"))
        {
            return Reports.HistoricalReport;
        }
        else if (listBoxID.Contains("lstBxCustom"))
        {
            return Reports.CustomReport;
        }
        else
        {
            return Reports.None;
        }
    }
}

The issue is with converting listBoxID to ReportType.

Uncaught Sys.WebForms.PageRequestManagerServerErrorException: Sys.WebForms.PageRequestManagerServerErrorException: Error converting value "ctl00_ctl00_MainContentRoot_MainContent_lstBxSettings" to type 'CableSolve.Web.Reports'

It occurs regardless of whether the if statement finds a hit or defaults to the else block. It does not occur if I do not attempt to pass the listBoxID parameter.

I'm missing something here. Are my DataMember names not doing anything? I thought they would map the listBoxID to the correct property.

Answer 1

Change to something like this:

public Reports ReportType { get; set; }


[DataMember(Name = "listBoxID")]
public string listBoxID 
{
    set
    {
         ReportType = DetermineReportType(value);
    } 

}

Because basically, you can convert that string to a Report without your helper method. The constructor is not being called on deserialization