Serialize/Deserialize Json Object class structure

Question

Thank you in advance. I am really stuck on this one, but practicing. Thank you in advance for any help.

I am able to successfully build this Json object in my code, but de-serializing it with the same Dictionary I used to build it, is not working because the string type defined is anonymous and I cannot access specifically the sub items (contains, equals, startsWith).

I have my json being built successfully but again, does not work when deserializing it.

{
"shortDescription": {
  "contains": false,
  "equals": false,
  "startsWith": true,
  "value": "some text"
},
"description": {
  "contains": true,
  "equals": false,
  "startsWith": false,
  "value": "some more text"
},
"createdAfter": {
  "contains": false,
  "equals": false,
  "startsWith": false,
  "value": "2021-08-17"
},
"notes": "Something bad happened",
"group": "some group",
"assigned": "to me"
}

These objects like shortDescription may not even exist depending on user selection which I why I built an anonymous type Dictionary using "String" public Dictionary<string, filter_properties> properties { get; set; } I can apply this format to any object that needs these properties.

public class filter_keys
{
    public string notes { get; set; }
    public string group { get; set; }
    public string assigned { get; set; }
    public Dictionary<string, filter_properties> properties { get; set; }
}
public class filter_properties
{
    public bool contains { get; set; }
    public bool equals { get; set; }
    public bool startsWith { get; set; }
    public string value { get; set; }
}

I would really appreciate some help to figure out how to set a simple property only for this description and shortDescription fields, not just to serialize the data but also to de-serialize the data, so I can check if these objects even exist in the json.

When I am setting the json I use

Dictionary<string, filter_properties> keys = new Dictionary<string, filter_properties>();

keys.Add("anonymous", new filter_properties { value="can't find it" });

and/or

keys.Add("shortDescription", new filter_properties { 
                        contains = true, 
                        value = "blah blah blah"
                    });

Answer 1

Like I mention in my comment, you have to build your json with those properties under a properties node.

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using Newtonsoft.Json;

public class Program
{
    public static void Main()
    {
        var inJson = @"{
        ""properties"": {
            ""shortDescription"": {
              ""contains"": false,
              ""equals"": false,
              ""startsWith"": true,
              ""value"": ""some text""
            },
            ""description"": {
              ""contains"": true,
              ""equals"": false,
              ""startsWith"": false,
              ""value"": ""some more text""
            },
            ""createdAfter"": {
              ""contains"": false,
              ""equals"": false,
              ""startsWith"": false,
              ""value"": ""2021-08-17""
            }
        },
        ""notes"": ""Something bad happened"",
        ""group"": ""some group"",
        ""assigned"": ""to me""
        }";
        
        var deserialized = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<filter_keys>(inJson);
        Console.WriteLine(deserialized.notes);
        foreach(var prop in deserialized.properties)
        {
            Console.WriteLine(prop.Key);
            Console.WriteLine(prop.Value.value);
        }
    }

    public class filter_keys
    {
        public string notes { get; set; }
        public string group { get; set; }
        public string assigned { get; set; }
        public Dictionary<string, filter_properties> properties { get; set; }
    }
    public class filter_properties
    {
        public bool contains { get; set; }
        public bool equals { get; set; }
        public bool startsWith { get; set; }
        public string value { get; set; }
    }
}

See:

https://dotnetfiddle.net/bdGTmf

Answer 2

I followed your guidance Jonathan, you were right of course. I just added an explicit key for every item instead of using a generic one.

public class filter_keys
{
    public string info { get; set; }
    public string dec { get; set; }
    public string assigned { get; set; }
    public string state { get; set; }
    public string target { get; set; }
    public string caller { get; set; }
    public filter_properties shortDescription { get; set; }
    public filter_properties description { get; set; }
    public filter_properties status { get; set; }
    public DateTime date1 { get; set; }
    public DateTime date2 { get; set; }
    public DateTime date3 { get; set; }
    public DateTime date4 { get; set; }
}
public class filter_properties
{
    public bool contains { get; set; }
    public bool equals { get; set; }
    public bool startsWith { get; set; }
    public bool isNot { get; set; }
    public string _value { get; set; }
}

Implementation

filter_keys keys = new filter_keys();

filter_properties = new filter_properties { 
                            contains = true,
                            _value = descriptionTxt.Text
                    };
keys.description = filter_properties;

Everything serializes and de-serializes great.

string filters = (string)Session["incidentRequest"];

if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(filters))
{
   // for lates version of newtonsoft.json nulls cause error. Add null value handling
   filter_keys filter_values = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<filter_keys>(filters, new JsonSerializerSettings { NullValueHandling = NullValueHandling.Ignore });

   query += "group=" + filter_values.target;

}