[c#] Casting interfaces for deserialization in JSON.NET

I am trying to set up a reader that will take in JSON objects from various websites (think information scraping) and translate them into C# objects. I am currently using JSON.NET for the deserialization process. The problem I am running into is that it does not know how to handle interface-level properties in a class. So something of the nature:

public IThingy Thing

Will produce the error:

Could not create an instance of type IThingy. Type is an interface or abstract class and cannot be instantiated.

It is relatively important to have it be an IThingy as opposed to a Thingy since the code I am working on is considered sensitive and unit testing is highly important. Mocking of objects for atomic test scripts is not possible with fully-fledged objects like Thingy. They must be an interface.

I've been poring over JSON.NET's documentation for a while now, and the questions I could find on this site related to this are all from over a year ago. Any help?

Also, if it matters, my app is written in .NET 4.0.

My solution to this one, which I like because it is nicely general, is as follows:

/// <summary>
/// Automagically convert known interfaces to (specific) concrete classes on deserialisation
/// </summary>
public class WithMocksJsonConverter : JsonConverter
{
    /// <summary>
    /// The interfaces I know how to instantiate mapped to the classes with which I shall instantiate them, as a Dictionary.
    /// </summary>
    private readonly Dictionary<Type,Type> conversions = new Dictionary<Type,Type>() { 
        { typeof(IOne), typeof(MockOne) },
        { typeof(ITwo), typeof(MockTwo) },
        { typeof(IThree), typeof(MockThree) },
        { typeof(IFour), typeof(MockFour) }
    };

    /// <summary>
    /// Can I convert an object of this type?
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="objectType">The type under consideration</param>
    /// <returns>True if I can convert the type under consideration, else false.</returns>
    public override bool CanConvert(Type objectType)
    {
        return conversions.Keys.Contains(objectType);
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Attempt to read an object of the specified type from this reader.
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="reader">The reader from which I read.</param>
    /// <param name="objectType">The type of object I'm trying to read, anticipated to be one I can convert.</param>
    /// <param name="existingValue">The existing value of the object being read.</param>
    /// <param name="serializer">The serializer invoking this request.</param>
    /// <returns>An object of the type into which I convert the specified objectType.</returns>
    public override object ReadJson(JsonReader reader, Type objectType, object existingValue, JsonSerializer serializer)
    {
        try
        {
            return serializer.Deserialize(reader, this.conversions[objectType]);
        }
        catch (Exception)
        {
            throw new NotSupportedException(string.Format("Type {0} unexpected.", objectType));
        }
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Not yet implemented.
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="writer">The writer to which I would write.</param>
    /// <param name="value">The value I am attempting to write.</param>
    /// <param name="serializer">the serializer invoking this request.</param>
    public override void WriteJson(JsonWriter writer, object value, JsonSerializer serializer)
    {
        throw new NotImplementedException();
    }
}

}

You could obviously and trivially convert it into an even more general converter by adding a constructor which took an argument of type Dictionary<Type,Type> with which to instantiate the conversions instance variable.

For what it's worth, I ended up having to handle this myself for the most part. Each object has a Deserialize(string jsonStream) method. A few snippets of it:

JObject parsedJson = this.ParseJson(jsonStream);
object thingyObjectJson = (object)parsedJson["thing"];
this.Thing = new Thingy(Convert.ToString(thingyObjectJson));

In this case, new Thingy(string) is a constructor that will call the Deserialize(string jsonStream) method of the appropriate concrete type. This scheme will continue to go downward and downward until you get to the base points that json.NET can just handle.

this.Name = (string)parsedJson["name"];
this.CreatedTime = DateTime.Parse((string)parsedJson["created_time"]);

So on and so forth. This setup allowed me to give json.NET setups it can handle without having to refactor a large part of the library itself or using unwieldy try/parse models that would have bogged down our entire library due to the number of objects involved. It also means that I can effectively handle any json changes on a specific object, and I do not need to worry about everything that object touches. It's by no means the ideal solution, but it works quite well from our unit and integration testing.

Two things you might try:

Implement a try/parse model:

public class Organisation {
  public string Name { get; set; }

  [JsonConverter(typeof(RichDudeConverter))]
  public IPerson Owner { get; set; }
}

public interface IPerson {
  string Name { get; set; }
}

public class Tycoon : IPerson {
  public string Name { get; set; }
}

public class Magnate : IPerson {
  public string Name { get; set; }
  public string IndustryName { get; set; }
}

public class Heir: IPerson {
  public string Name { get; set; }
  public IPerson Benefactor { get; set; }
}

public class RichDudeConverter : JsonConverter
{
  public override bool CanConvert(Type objectType)
  {
    return (objectType == typeof(IPerson));
  }

  public override object ReadJson(JsonReader reader, Type objectType, object existingValue, JsonSerializer serializer)
  {
    // pseudo-code
    object richDude = serializer.Deserialize<Heir>(reader);

    if (richDude == null)
    {
        richDude = serializer.Deserialize<Magnate>(reader);
    }

    if (richDude == null)
    {
        richDude = serializer.Deserialize<Tycoon>(reader);
    }

    return richDude;
  }

  public override void WriteJson(JsonWriter writer, object value, JsonSerializer serializer)
  {
    // Left as an exercise to the reader :)
    throw new NotImplementedException();
  }
}

Or, if you can do so in your object model, implement a concrete base class between IPerson and your leaf objects, and deserialize to it.

The first can potentially fail at runtime, the second requires changes to your object model and homogenizes the output to the lowest common denominator.

(Copied from this question)

In cases where I have not had control over the incoming JSON (and so cannot ensure that it includes a $type property) I have written a custom converter that just allows you to explicitly specify the concrete type:

public class Model
{
    [JsonConverter(typeof(ConcreteTypeConverter<Something>))]
    public ISomething TheThing { get; set; }
}

This just uses the default serializer implementation from Json.Net whilst explicitly specifying the concrete type.

An overview are available on this blog post. Source code is below:

public class ConcreteTypeConverter<TConcrete> : JsonConverter
{
    public override bool CanConvert(Type objectType)
    {
        //assume we can convert to anything for now
        return true;
    }

    public override object ReadJson(JsonReader reader, Type objectType, object existingValue, JsonSerializer serializer)
    {
        //explicitly specify the concrete type we want to create
        return serializer.Deserialize<TConcrete>(reader);
    }

    public override void WriteJson(JsonWriter writer, object value, JsonSerializer serializer)
    {
        //use the default serialization - it works fine
        serializer.Serialize(writer, value);
    }
}

Use this class, for mapping abstract type to real type:

public class AbstractConverter<TReal, TAbstract> 
    : JsonConverter where TReal : TAbstract
{
    public override Boolean CanConvert(Type objectType)
        => objectType == typeof(TAbstract);

    public override Object ReadJson(JsonReader reader, Type type, Object value, JsonSerializer jser)
        => jser.Deserialize<TReal>(reader);

    public override void WriteJson(JsonWriter writer, Object value, JsonSerializer jser)
        => jser.Serialize(writer, value);
}

...and when deserialize:

var settings = new JsonSerializerSettings
{
    Converters = {
        new AbstractConverter<Thing, IThingy>(),
        new AbstractConverter<Thing2, IThingy2>()
    },
};

JsonConvert.DeserializeObject(json, type, settings);

Nicholas Westby provided a great solution in a awesome article.

If you want Deserializing JSON to one of many possible classes that implement an interface like that:

public class Person
{
    public IProfession Profession { get; set; }
}

public interface IProfession
{
    string JobTitle { get; }
}

public class Programming : IProfession
{
    public string JobTitle => "Software Developer";
    public string FavoriteLanguage { get; set; }
}

public class Writing : IProfession
{
    public string JobTitle => "Copywriter";
    public string FavoriteWord { get; set; }
}

public class Samples
{
    public static Person GetProgrammer()
    {
        return new Person()
        {
            Profession = new Programming()
            {
                FavoriteLanguage = "C#"
            }
        };
    }
}

You can use a custom JSON converter:

public class ProfessionConverter : JsonConverter
{
    public override bool CanWrite => false;
    public override bool CanRead => true;
    public override bool CanConvert(Type objectType)
    {
        return objectType == typeof(IProfession);
    }
    public override void WriteJson(JsonWriter writer,
        object value, JsonSerializer serializer)
    {
        throw new InvalidOperationException("Use default serialization.");
    }

    public override object ReadJson(JsonReader reader,
        Type objectType, object existingValue,
        JsonSerializer serializer)
    {
        var jsonObject = JObject.Load(reader);
        var profession = default(IProfession);
        switch (jsonObject["JobTitle"].Value())
        {
            case "Software Developer":
                profession = new Programming();
                break;
            case "Copywriter":
                profession = new Writing();
                break;
        }
        serializer.Populate(jsonObject.CreateReader(), profession);
        return profession;
    }
}

And you will need to decorate the "Profession" property with a JsonConverter attribute to let it know to use your custom converter:

    public class Person
    {
        [JsonConverter(typeof(ProfessionConverter))]
        public IProfession Profession { get; set; }
    }

And then, you can cast your class with an Interface:

Person person = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<Person>(jsonString);

To enable deserialization of multiple implementations of interfaces, you can use JsonConverter, but not through an attribute:

Newtonsoft.Json.JsonSerializer serializer = new Newtonsoft.Json.JsonSerializer();
serializer.Converters.Add(new DTOJsonConverter());
Interfaces.IEntity entity = serializer.Deserialize(jsonReader);

DTOJsonConverter maps each interface with a concrete implementation:

class DTOJsonConverter : Newtonsoft.Json.JsonConverter
{
    private static readonly string ISCALAR_FULLNAME = typeof(Interfaces.IScalar).FullName;
    private static readonly string IENTITY_FULLNAME = typeof(Interfaces.IEntity).FullName;


    public override bool CanConvert(Type objectType)
    {
        if (objectType.FullName == ISCALAR_FULLNAME
            || objectType.FullName == IENTITY_FULLNAME)
        {
            return true;
        }
        return false;
    }

    public override object ReadJson(Newtonsoft.Json.JsonReader reader, Type objectType, object existingValue, Newtonsoft.Json.JsonSerializer serializer)
    {
        if (objectType.FullName == ISCALAR_FULLNAME)
            return serializer.Deserialize(reader, typeof(DTO.ClientScalar));
        else if (objectType.FullName == IENTITY_FULLNAME)
            return serializer.Deserialize(reader, typeof(DTO.ClientEntity));

        throw new NotSupportedException(string.Format("Type {0} unexpected.", objectType));
    }

    public override void WriteJson(Newtonsoft.Json.JsonWriter writer, object value, Newtonsoft.Json.JsonSerializer serializer)
    {
        serializer.Serialize(writer, value);
    }
}

DTOJsonConverter is required only for the deserializer. The serialization process is unchanged. The Json object do not need to embed concrete types names.

This SO post offers the same solution one step further with a generic JsonConverter.

I found this useful. You might too.

Example Usage

public class Parent
{
    [JsonConverter(typeof(InterfaceConverter<IChildModel, ChildModel>))]
    IChildModel Child { get; set; }
}

Custom Creation Converter

public class InterfaceConverter<TInterface, TConcrete> : CustomCreationConverter<TInterface>
    where TConcrete : TInterface, new()
{
    public override TInterface Create(Type objectType)
    {
        return new TConcrete();
    }
}

Json.NET documentation

For those that might be curious about the ConcreteListTypeConverter that was referenced by Oliver, here is my attempt:

public class ConcreteListTypeConverter<TInterface, TImplementation> : JsonConverter where TImplementation : TInterface 
{
    public override bool CanConvert(Type objectType)
    {
        return true;
    }

    public override object ReadJson(JsonReader reader, Type objectType, object existingValue, JsonSerializer serializer)
    {
        var res = serializer.Deserialize<List<TImplementation>>(reader);
        return res.ConvertAll(x => (TInterface) x);
    }

    public override void WriteJson(JsonWriter writer, object value, JsonSerializer serializer)
    {
        serializer.Serialize(writer, value);
    }
}

Use this JsonKnownTypes, it's very similar way to use, it just add discriminator to json:

[JsonConverter(typeof(JsonKnownTypeConverter<Interface1>))]
[JsonKnownType(typeof(MyClass), "myClass")]
public interface Interface1
{  }
public class MyClass : Interface1
{
    public string Something;
}

Now when you serialize object in json will be add "$type" with "myClass" value and it will be use for deserialize

Json:

{"Something":"something", "$type":"derived"}

Suppose an autofac setting like the following:

public class AutofacContractResolver : DefaultContractResolver
{
    private readonly IContainer _container;

    public AutofacContractResolver(IContainer container)
    {
        _container = container;
    }

    protected override JsonObjectContract CreateObjectContract(Type objectType)
    {
        JsonObjectContract contract = base.CreateObjectContract(objectType);

        // use Autofac to create types that have been registered with it
        if (_container.IsRegistered(objectType))
        {
           contract.DefaultCreator = () => _container.Resolve(objectType);
        }  

        return contract;
    }
}

Then, suppose your class is like this:

public class TaskController
{
    private readonly ITaskRepository _repository;
    private readonly ILogger _logger;

    public TaskController(ITaskRepository repository, ILogger logger)
    {
        _repository = repository;
        _logger = logger;
    }

    public ITaskRepository Repository
    {
        get { return _repository; }
    }

    public ILogger Logger
    {
        get { return _logger; }
    }
}

Therefore, the usage of the resolver in deserialization could be like:

ContainerBuilder builder = new ContainerBuilder();
builder.RegisterType<TaskRepository>().As<ITaskRepository>();
builder.RegisterType<TaskController>();
builder.Register(c => new LogService(new DateTime(2000, 12, 12))).As<ILogger>();

IContainer container = builder.Build();

AutofacContractResolver contractResolver = new AutofacContractResolver(container);

string json = @"{
      'Logger': {
        'Level':'Debug'
      }
}";

// ITaskRespository and ILogger constructor parameters are injected by Autofac 
TaskController controller = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<TaskController>(json, new JsonSerializerSettings
{
    ContractResolver = contractResolver
});

Console.WriteLine(controller.Repository.GetType().Name);

You can see more details in http://www.newtonsoft.com/json/help/html/DeserializeWithDependencyInjection.htm

Several years on and I had a similar issue. In my case there were heavily nested interfaces and a preference for generating the concrete classes at runtime so that It would work with a generic class.

I decided to create a proxy class at run time that wraps the object returned by Newtonsoft.

The advantage of this approach is that it does not require a concrete implementation of the class and can handle any depth of nested interfaces automatically. You can see more about it on my blog.

using Castle.DynamicProxy;
using Newtonsoft.Json.Linq;
using System;
using System.Reflection;

namespace LL.Utilities.Std.Json
{
    public static class JObjectExtension
    {
        private static ProxyGenerator _generator = new ProxyGenerator();

        public static dynamic toProxy(this JObject targetObject, Type interfaceType) 
        {
            return _generator.CreateInterfaceProxyWithoutTarget(interfaceType, new JObjectInterceptor(targetObject));
        }

        public static InterfaceType toProxy<InterfaceType>(this JObject targetObject)
        {

            return toProxy(targetObject, typeof(InterfaceType));
        }
    }

    [Serializable]
    public class JObjectInterceptor : IInterceptor
    {
        private JObject _target;

        public JObjectInterceptor(JObject target)
        {
            _target = target;
        }
        public void Intercept(IInvocation invocation)
        {

            var methodName = invocation.Method.Name;
            if(invocation.Method.IsSpecialName && methodName.StartsWith("get_"))
            {
                var returnType = invocation.Method.ReturnType;
                methodName = methodName.Substring(4);

                if (_target == null || _target[methodName] == null)
                {
                    if (returnType.GetTypeInfo().IsPrimitive || returnType.Equals(typeof(string)))
                    {

                        invocation.ReturnValue = null;
                        return;
                    }

                }

                if (returnType.GetTypeInfo().IsPrimitive || returnType.Equals(typeof(string)))
                {
                    invocation.ReturnValue = _target[methodName].ToObject(returnType);
                }
                else
                {
                    invocation.ReturnValue = ((JObject)_target[methodName]).toProxy(returnType);
                }
            }
            else
            {
                throw new NotImplementedException("Only get accessors are implemented in proxy");
            }

        }
    }



}

Usage:

var jObj = JObject.Parse(input);
InterfaceType proxyObject = jObj.toProxy<InterfaceType>();

My solution was added the interface elements in the constructor.

public class Customer: ICustomer{
     public Customer(Details details){
          Details = details;
     }

     [JsonProperty("Details",NullValueHnadling = NullValueHandling.Ignore)]
     public IDetails Details {get; set;}
}

No object will ever be an IThingy as interfaces are all abstract by definition.

The object you have that was first serialized was of some concrete type, implementing the abstract interface. You need to have this same concrete class revive the serialized data.

The resulting object will then be of some type that implements the abstract interface you are looking for.

From the documentation it follows that you can use

(Thingy)JsonConvert.DeserializeObject(jsonString, typeof(Thingy));

when deserializing to inform JSON.NET about the concrete type.

Why use a converter? There is a native functionality in Newtonsoft.Json to solve this exact problem:

Set TypeNameHandling in the JsonSerializerSettings to TypeNameHandling.Auto

JsonConvert.SerializeObject(
  toSerialize,
  new JsonSerializerSettings()
  {
    TypeNameHandling = TypeNameHandling.Auto
  });

This will put every type into the json, that is not held as a concrete instance of a type but as an interface or an abstract class.

Make sure that you are using the same settings for serialization and deserialization.

I tested it, and it works like a charm, even with lists.

Search Results Web result with site links

?? WARNING:

Only use this for json from a known and trusted source. User snipsnipsnip correctly mentioned that this is indeed a vunerability.

See CA2328 and SCS0028 for more information.

Source and an alternative manual implementation: Code Inside Blog