JSON deserialization with JSON.net: class hierarchies - Init

<body> <h1>JSON deserialization with JSON.net: class hierarchies</h1> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/SNGvaXGxJ_7xx9vIlHdbcJl5EKE/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/SNGvaXGxJ_7xx9vIlHdbcJl5EKE/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/SNGvaXGxJ_7xx9vIlHdbcJl5EKE/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/SNGvaXGxJ_7xx9vIlHdbcJl5EKE/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><p>In <a href="http://dotnetbyexample.blogspot.com/2012/01/json-deserialization-with-jsonnet.html" target="_blank">part 1 of this series</a> I described the basics of creating classes from a JSON string and then simply  deserializing the string into a (list of) classes. That way, you don’t have all the hooplah of SOAP, but still have strongly-typed classes in your client app. But beware, there is no formal contract either, so on a beautiful morning you might start to think that either you had too much of a drink yesterday evening, or that the company providing the data feed for your app indeed has started to sell <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/windowsphone/" target="_blank">Windows Phone 7</a> devices made by Sony, with a 65” screen. </p> <p>Looking at the JSON string you now see something like this:</p><pre>[ { "Brand": "Nokia","Type" : "Lumia 800", "Device" : "Phone", "Specs":{"Storage" : "16GB", "Memory": "512MB","Screensize" : "3.7"} }, { "Brand": "Sony", "Type" : "KDL-65HX920","Device" : "TV", "Specs":{"Screensize" : "65", "FullHD" : "Yes", "ThreeD" : "Yes" } }, { "Brand": "Nokia","Type" : "Lumia 900","Device" : "Phone", "Specs":{"Storage" : "8GB", "Memory": "512MB","Screensize" : "4.3" } }, { "Brand": "Samsung", "Type" : "UE55C9000","Device" : "TV", "Specs":{"Screensize" : "55", "FullHD" : "Yes", "ThreeD" : "Yes" } }, ]</pre>None of the two options mentioned before appear to be true: apparently the company has diversified: they are now selling TV's as well. Of course you could run this trough <a href="http://json2csharp.com/" target="_blank">json2csharp</a>, which will give you this:<pre>public class Specs { public string Storage { get; set; } public string Memory { get; set; } public string Screensize { get; set; } public string FullHD { get; set; } public string ThreeD { get; set; } } public class RootObject { public string Brand { get; set; } public string Type { get; set; } public string Device { get; set; } public Specs Specs { get; set; } }</pre> <p>This <em>will</em> work, but not for the purpose of what I’d like to show. We refactor the whole stuff into an object structure like this:</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-n7Wfm-Y6890/TzA9aQylqpI/AAAAAAAAHko/MhQqRM9OFSI/s1600-h/CodeScheme%25255B10%25255D.png"><img style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="CodeScheme" border="0" alt="CodeScheme" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-6rXh-bpNIVI/TzA9auy6AFI/AAAAAAAAHks/ZLLxqaC6xdw/CodeScheme_thumb%25255B6%25255D.png?imgmax=800" width="664" height="252"></a></p> <p>Or, in code (put into one file)</p><pre>namespace JsonDemo { public abstract class Device { public string Brand { get; set; } public string Type { get; set; } } public class Phone : Device { public PhoneSpecs Specs { get; set; } } public class Tv : Device { public TvSpecs Specs { get; set; } } public abstract class Specs { public string Screensize { get; set; } } public class PhoneSpecs : Specs { public string Storage { get; set; } public string Memory { get; set; } } public class TvSpecs: Specs { public string FullHd { get; set; } public string ThreeD { get; set; } } }</pre> <p>If you think this is a ludicrous complicated way to store such a simple data structure I think you are quite right, but a) they don’t call me a <em>Senior So </body>