Below class is the recursive dictionary (tree-like structure). The EntityID
is just the alias of string
which must be accessed via HierarchicalRelationshipsMap.EntityID
.
public class HierarchicalRelationshipsMap: Dictionary<HierarchicalRelationshipsMap.EntityID, HierarchicalRelationshipsMap>
{
public class EntityID
{
public static implicit operator EntityID(string value) => new EntityID();
public static implicit operator string(EntityID entityID) => string.Empty;
}
}
Instance example:
HierarchicalRelationshipsMap hierarchicalRelationshipsMap = new()
{
{
Guid.NewGuid().ToString(),
new HierarchicalRelationshipsMap
{
{Guid.NewGuid().ToString(), new HierarchicalRelationshipsMap() },
{Guid.NewGuid().ToString(), new HierarchicalRelationshipsMap() }
}
}
};
If to serialize it using
Newtonsoft.Json.JsonConvert.SerializeObject(hierarchicalRelationshipsMap, Newtonsoft.Json.Formatting.Indented));
it will produce this result:
{
"MockDataSource.HierarchicalRelationshipsMap+EntityID": {
"MockDataSource.HierarchicalRelationshipsMap+EntityID": {},
"MockDataSource.HierarchicalRelationshipsMap+EntityID": {}
}
}
while something like this would be expected:
{
"2ca15c6b-e706-4f1c-b287-1629ed0bac0a": {
"21333569-4248-49ac-ba0c-d1612a2c42a8": {}
"fc7ad745-8890-4a68-9431-c8de4801470b": {}
}
}
How to fix this?
Well, your implicit operators are just creating empty object/string, whatever data is generated (GUIDs) you discard it with the operators.
To fix that you need to define:
public class HierarchicalRelationshipsMap : Dictionary<HierarchicalRelationshipsMap.EntityID, HierarchicalRelationshipsMap>
{
public class EntityID
{
private readonly string _value;
public EntityID(string value)
{
_value = value;
}
public static implicit operator EntityID(string value) => new EntityID(value);
public static implicit operator string(EntityID entityID) => entityID._value;
}
}
Then you would need to define custom JsonConverter
, as by default it sees EntityID
as object and serializes it as such. We need to "instruct it" to do serialization differently:
public class HierarchicalRelationshipsMapConverter : JsonConverter<HierarchicalRelationshipsMap>
{
public override void WriteJson(JsonWriter writer, HierarchicalRelationshipsMap value, JsonSerializer serializer)
{
writer.WriteStartObject();
foreach (var kvp in value)
{
writer.WritePropertyName((string)kvp.Key);
serializer.Serialize(writer, kvp.Value);
}
writer.WriteEndObject();
}
public override HierarchicalRelationshipsMap ReadJson(JsonReader reader, Type objectType, HierarchicalRelationshipsMap existingValue, bool hasExistingValue, JsonSerializer serializer)
{
var map = new HierarchicalRelationshipsMap();
if (reader.TokenType == JsonToken.StartObject)
{
reader.Read();
while (reader.TokenType == JsonToken.PropertyName)
{
// Read the key as a string and convert it to EntityID
HierarchicalRelationshipsMap.EntityID entityId = (string)reader.Value;
// Read the value as a nested HierarchicalRelationshipsMap
reader.Read();
var nestedMap = serializer.Deserialize<HierarchicalRelationshipsMap>(reader);
map[entityId] = nestedMap;
reader.Read();
}
}
return map;
}
}
Then following code snippet:
HierarchicalRelationshipsMap hierarchicalRelationshipsMap = new()
{
{
Guid.NewGuid().ToString(),
new HierarchicalRelationshipsMap
{
{Guid.NewGuid().ToString(), new HierarchicalRelationshipsMap() },
{Guid.NewGuid().ToString(), new HierarchicalRelationshipsMap() }
}
}
};
// Serialization settings with custom HierarchicalRelationshipsMapConverter
var settings = new JsonSerializerSettings
{
Formatting = Formatting.Indented,
Converters = new List<JsonConverter> { new HierarchicalRelationshipsMapConverter() }
};
// Serialize the map to JSON
string json = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(hierarchicalRelationshipsMap, settings);
Console.WriteLine(json);
Produces expected output:
{
"4cd7a972-29d1-432f-bad3-909de96882b7": {
"042dfc86-cbfb-4cc7-a9d3-ba0a234e8fc4": {},
"99c96d01-eafb-4d26-ab7c-e9851b361be3": {}
}
}