[c#] How to parse JSON without JSON.NET library?

I'm trying to build a Metro application for Windows 8 on Visual Studio 2011. and while I'm trying to do that, I'm having some issues on how to parse JSON without JSON.NET library (It doesn't support the metro applications yet).

Anyway, I want to parse this:

{
   "name":"Prince Charming",
   "artist":"Metallica",
   "genre":"Rock and Metal",
   "album":"Reload",
   "album_image":"http:\/\/up203.siz.co.il\/up2\/u2zzzw4mjayz.png",
   "link":"http:\/\/f2h.co.il\/7779182246886"
}

Have you tried using JavaScriptSerializer ? There's also DataContractJsonSerializer

I use this...but have never done any metro app development, so I don't know of any restrictions on libraries available to you. (note, you'll need to mark your classes as with DataContract and DataMember attributes)

public static class JSONSerializer<TType> where TType : class
{
    /// <summary>
    /// Serializes an object to JSON
    /// </summary>
    public static string Serialize(TType instance)
    {
        var serializer = new DataContractJsonSerializer(typeof(TType));
        using (var stream = new MemoryStream())
        {
            serializer.WriteObject(stream, instance);
            return Encoding.Default.GetString(stream.ToArray());
        }
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// DeSerializes an object from JSON
    /// </summary>
    public static TType DeSerialize(string json)
    {
        using (var stream = new MemoryStream(Encoding.Default.GetBytes(json)))
        {
            var serializer = new DataContractJsonSerializer(typeof(TType));
            return serializer.ReadObject(stream) as TType;
        }
    }
}

So, if you had a class like this...

[DataContract]
public class MusicInfo
{
    [DataMember]
    public string Name { get; set; }

    [DataMember]
    public string Artist { get; set; }

    [DataMember]
    public string Genre { get; set; }

    [DataMember]
    public string Album { get; set; }

    [DataMember]
    public string AlbumImage { get; set; }

    [DataMember]
    public string Link { get; set; }

}

Then you would use it like this...

var musicInfo = new MusicInfo
{
     Name = "Prince Charming",
     Artist = "Metallica",
     Genre = "Rock and Metal",
     Album = "Reload",
     AlbumImage = "http://up203.siz.co.il/up2/u2zzzw4mjayz.png",
     Link = "http://f2h.co.il/7779182246886"
};

// This will produce a JSON String
var serialized = JSONSerializer<MusicInfo>.Serialize(musicInfo);

// This will produce a copy of the instance you created earlier
var deserialized = JSONSerializer<MusicInfo>.DeSerialize(serialized);

For those who do not have 4.5, Here is my library function that reads json. It requires a project reference to System.Web.Extensions.

using System.Web.Script.Serialization;

public object DeserializeJson<T>(string Json)
{
    JavaScriptSerializer JavaScriptSerializer = new JavaScriptSerializer();
    return JavaScriptSerializer.Deserialize<T>(Json);
}

Usually, json is written out based on a contract. That contract can and usually will be codified in a class (T). Sometimes you can take a word from the json and search the object browser to find that type.

Example usage:

Given the json

{"logEntries":[],"value":"My Code","text":"My Text","enabled":true,"checkedIndices":[],"checkedItemsTextOverflows":false}

You could parse it into a RadComboBoxClientState object like this:

string ClientStateJson = Page.Request.Form("ReportGrid1_cboReportType_ClientState");
RadComboBoxClientState RadComboBoxClientState = DeserializeJson<RadComboBoxClientState>(ClientStateJson);
return RadComboBoxClientState.Value;

You can use DataContractJsonSerializer. See this link for more details.

using System;
using System.IO;
using System.Runtime.Serialization.Json;
using System.Text;

namespace OTL
{
    /// <summary>
    /// Before usage: Define your class, sample:
    /// [DataContract]
    ///public class MusicInfo
    ///{
    ///   [DataMember(Name="music_name")]
    ///   public string Name { get; set; }
    ///   [DataMember]
    ///   public string Artist{get; set;}
    ///}
    /// </summary>
    /// <typeparam name="T"></typeparam>
    public class OTLJSON<T> where T : class
    {
        /// <summary>
        /// Serializes an object to JSON
        /// Usage: string serialized = OTLJSON&lt;MusicInfo&gt;.Serialize(musicInfo);
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="instance"></param>
        /// <returns></returns>
        public static string Serialize(T instance)
        {
            var serializer = new DataContractJsonSerializer(typeof(T));
            using (var stream = new MemoryStream())
            {
                serializer.WriteObject(stream, instance);
                return Encoding.Default.GetString(stream.ToArray());
            }
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// DeSerializes an object from JSON
        /// Usage:  MusicInfo deserialized = OTLJSON&lt;MusicInfo&gt;.Deserialize(json);
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="json"></param>
        /// <returns></returns>
        public static T Deserialize(string json)
        {
            if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(json))
                throw new Exception("Json can't empty");
            else
                try
                {
                    using (var stream = new MemoryStream(Encoding.Default.GetBytes(json)))
                    {

                        var serializer = new DataContractJsonSerializer(typeof(T));
                        return serializer.ReadObject(stream) as T;
                    }
                }
                catch (Exception e)
                {
                    throw new Exception("Json can't convert to Object because it isn't correct format.");
                }
        }
    }
}