Cannot deserialize a JSON string using .NET Core

Question

I have recently switched to .NET Core and I am having trouble deserializing the following JSON string into this object. Usually works like a charm using Newtonsoft.

public class smDesktopSearchResultsVM
{
    public smDesktopSearchResultsVM()
    {
        this.indexEventVMs = new List<indexEventVMLite>();
    }

    public int page { get; set; }
    public int totalRecs { get; set; }
    public int totalPages { get; set; }
    public int? LinkGroupId { get; set; }
    public List<indexEventVMLite> indexEventVMs { get; set; }
}

public class indexEventVMLite
{
    public indexEventVMLite()
    {
        this.Event = new EventVMLite();
    }

    public EventVMLite Event { get; set; }
    public int orderCount { get; set; }
    public int sortOrder { get; set; }
    public string pageImage { get; set; }
    public string retinaPageImage { get; set; }
    public int linkId { get; set; }
    public int linkgroupId { get; set; }
    public string pageURL { get; set; }
    
}

public class EventVMLite
{
    public int WebsiteId { get; set; }
    public int EventId { get; set; }
    public string EventName { get; set; }
    public string EventPassword { get; set; }
    public DateTime EventDate { get; set; }
    public DateTime? EventEndDate { get; set; }
    public DateTime? EventExpires { get; set; }
    public DateTime? DiscontinuedDate { get; set; }
    public DateTime? forceDateDeleted { get; set; }
    public bool EventReady { get; set; }
}

Here is the JSON sting:

{
  "page": 1,
  "totalRecs": 11,
  "totalPages": 2,
  "indexEventVMs": {
    "Event": {
      "WebsiteId": 5140,
      "EventId": 14614,
      "EventName": "Proofpix Elementary School",
      "EventPassword": "proofpixelementarydemo",
      "EventDate": "2021-08-30T16:00:00",
      "EventEndDate": "2021-08-30T20:00:00",
      "EventExpires": "2022-09-01T05:00:00",
      "DiscontinuedDate": null,
      "forceDateDeleted": null,
      "EventReady": true
    },
    "orderCount": 5,
    "sortOrder": 1,
    "pageImage": "https://s3.us-east-1.wasabisys.com/usstandard.cdn.proofpix.com/websites/5140/PageMedia/266450/Descendants/1939278/680_9099_class-composite-7a.jpg",
    "retinaPageImage": null,
    "linkId": 354967,
    "linkgroupId": 9527,
    "pageURL": "https://jackblack.proofpix.com/proofpix-elementary-school/"
  },
  "LinkGroupId": 9527
}

Here is the error message:

The JSON value could not be converted to System.Collections.Generic.List`1[SortMagic_Desktop.indexEventVMLite]. Path: $.indexEventVMs | LineNumber: 0 | BytePositionInLine: 57.

What is funny is that Visual Studio has no problem parsing the JSON string to JSON when viewing the error data so it must be possible!

Answer 1

The problem can be in the List indexEventVMs a JSON list is [] but in the example it's a object {}.

So according to your JSON the classes would be something like this:

    public class Object
    {
        public long Page { get; set; }
        public long TotalRecs { get; set; }
        public long TotalPages { get; set; }
        public IndexEventVMs IndexEventVMs { get; set; }
        public long LinkGroupId { get; set; }
    }

    public class IndexEventVMs
    {
        public Event Event { get; set; }
        public long OrderCount { get; set; }
        public long SortOrder { get; set; }
        public Uri PageImage { get; set; }
        public object RetinaPageImage { get; set; }
        public long LinkId { get; set; }
        public long LinkgroupId { get; set; }
        public Uri PageUrl { get; set; }
    }

    public class Event
    {
        public long WebsiteId { get; set; }
        public long EventId { get; set; }
        public string EventName { get; set; }
        public string EventPassword { get; set; }
        public DateTimeOffset EventDate { get; set; }
        public DateTimeOffset EventEndDate { get; set; }
        public DateTimeOffset EventExpires { get; set; }
        public object DiscontinuedDate { get; set; }
        public object ForceDateDeleted { get; set; }
        public bool EventReady { get; set; }
    }

If you need that indexEventVMs receive a list you need to change from the json object {} to an array with object[{}].