JSON Example in ASP.NET | #LearnWithJS #LearnWithJishan

JOSN
Nowadays, we are dealing with JSON data mostly when receiving data in JSON format from a web service and getting data from it. To accomplish getting data from JSON or creating JSON text from a custom object we will use JSON serialization and deserialization in C#.

JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) is a lightweight data-interchange format. It is easy for humans to read and write and easy for machines to parse and generate. JSON is a text format that is completely language independent.

What is JSON?

JSON stands for JavaScript Object Notation
JSON is a format to exchange & store data across platform.
JSON is the best alternative to XML
JSON stores values in key/value pair format.

Below are the reasons for using JSON:

XML is expressed in more words than JSON. Hence, JSON is faster to write for programmers.
JSON is light weight and easy to write compared to XML.
We can store values as key/value pair in JSON. Whereas, in XML, we have to store values between opening and closing tags.

JSON supports the following two data structures,

Collection of name/value pairs - This Data Structure is supported by different programming languages.
Ordered list of values - It includes array, list, vector or sequence etc.

JSON has following styles,

Object
An unordered "name/value" assembly.
An object begins with "{" and ends with "}".
Behind each "name", there is a colon. And comma is used to separate much "name/value".
For example,
var user = {"name":"Manas","gender":"Male","birthday":"1987-8-8"}

Array
Value order set. An array begins with "[" and end with "]". And values are separated with commas. For example,
var userlist = [{"user":{"name":"Manas","gender":"Male","birthday":"1987-8-8"}},
{"user":{"name":"Mohapatra","Male":"Female","birthday":"1987-7-7"}}]

String
Any quantity Unicode character assembly which is enclosed with quotation marks. It uses backslash to escape.
var userlist = "{\"ID\":1,\"Name\":\"Manas\",\"Address\":\"India\"}"

We can implement JSON Serialization/Deserialization in the following three ways:

Using JavaScriptSerializer class
Using DataContractJsonSerializer class
Using JSON.NET library


Serialization

In Serialization, it converts a custom .Net object to a JSON string. In the following code, it creates an instance of BlogSiteclass and assigns values to its properties. Then we create an instance of DataContractJsonSerializer class by passing the parameter BlogSite class and create an instance of MemoryStream class to write object(BlogSite). Lastly it creates an instance of StreamReader class to read JSON data from MemorySteam object.

Deserialization

In Deserialization, it does the opposite of Serialization, which means it converts JSON string to a custom .Net object. In the following code, it creates an instance of BlogSite class and assigns values to its properties. Then we create an instance of DataContractJsonSerializer class by passing the parameter BlogSite class and creating an instance of MemoryStream class to write object(BlogSite). Lastly it creates an instance of StreamReader class to read JSON data from MemorySteam object.

Using Json.NET

Json.NET is a third party library which helps conversion between JSON text and .NET object using the JsonSerializer. The JsonSerializer converts .NET objects into their JSON equivalent text and back again by mapping the .NET object property names to the JSON property names. It is open source software and free for commercial purposes.

The following are some awesome features,

Flexible JSON serializer for converting between .NET objects and JSON.
LINQ to JSON for manually reading and writing JSON.
High performance, faster than .NET's built-in JSON serializers.
Easy to read JSON.
Convert JSON to and from XML.
Supports .NET 2, .NET 3.5, .NET 4, Silverlight and Windows Phone.

Let’s start learning how to install and implement:

In Visual Studio, go to Tools Menu -- Choose Library Package Manger -- Package Manager Console. It opens a command window where we need to put the following command to install Newtonsoft.Json.

Install-Package Newtonsoft.Json
OR
In Visual Studio, Tools menu -- Manage Nuget Package Manger Solution and type “JSON.NET” to search it online. Here's the figure,