A Simple Way To Deserialize JSON

What is JSON?

JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) is a way to store information in an organized, easy-to-access manner.

Why JSON?

JSON provides faster and asynchronous data loading without delaying page rendering.

JSON Free Web Service Providers

Have a look to the site.

In this article, I will show a sample program to read random quantum number from a site that provides JSON Service and after fetching the data, we will de-serialize it into an object.

Firstly, create a console application and install Newtonsoft.JSON using Package Manager Console.

PM> install-package Newtonsoft.Json

I’ll call the link from program to fetch the random number and then we will de-serialize.

When you try to access the above link, you should be able to see the data something like the following:

{
    "type": "uint8",
    "length": 1,
    "data": [52],
    "success": true
}

We will create a class as shown below which will be used for holding de-serialized value.

public class QuantumRandomNumber
{
    public string type
    {
        get;
        set;
    }
    public string length
    {
        get;
        set;
    }
    public List < string > data
    {
        get;
        set;
    }
    public string success
    {
        get;
        set;
    }
}

For downloading and de-serializing JSON, we will use the following method:

private static T _download_serialized_json_data < T > (string url) where T: new()
{
    using(var w = new System.Net.WebClient())
    {
        var json_data = string.Empty;
        // attempt to download JSON data as a string
        try
        {
            Console.WriteLine("Started downloading data");
            json_data = w.DownloadString(url);
            Console.WriteLine("Completed downloading");
        }
        catch (Exception)
        {}
        // if string with JSON data is not empty, deserialize it to class and return its instance
        return !string.IsNullOrEmpty(json_data) ? JsonConvert.DeserializeObject < T > (json_data) : new T();
    }
}

Now, Call the URL

static void Main(string[] args)
{
    var url = "https://qrng.anu.edu.au/API/jsonI.php?length=1&type=uint8";
    var t = _download_serialized_json_data < QuantumRandomNumber > (url);
    Console.WriteLine("Quantum Number details are:");
    Console.WriteLine("Quantum Number :" + t.data[0].ToString());
    Console.WriteLine("Quantum Number Type:" + t.type);
    Console.WriteLine("Quantum Number Length:" + t.length);
    Console.ReadLine();
}

Entire Program

using Newtonsoft.Json;
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
namespace QuantumNumber
{
    class Program
    {
        public class QuantumRandomNumber
        {
            public string type
            {
                get;
                set;
            }
            public string length
            {
                get;
                set;
            }
            public List < string > data
            {
                get;
                set;
            }
            public string success
            {
                get;
                set;
            }
        }
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            var url = "https://qrng.anu.edu.au/API/jsonI.php?length=1&type=uint8";
            var t = _download_serialized_json_data < QuantumRandomNumber > (url);
            Console.WriteLine("Quantum Number details are:");
            Console.WriteLine("Quantum Number :" + t.data[0].ToString());
            Console.WriteLine("Quantum Number Type:" + t.type);
            Console.WriteLine("Quantum Number Length:" + t.length);
            Console.ReadLine();
        }
        private static T _download_serialized_json_data < T > (string url) where T: new()
        {
            using(var w = new System.Net.WebClient())
            {
                var json_data = string.Empty;
                // attempt to download JSON data as a string
                try
                {
                    Console.WriteLine("Started downloading data");
                    json_data = w.DownloadString(url);
                    Console.WriteLine("Completed downloading");
                }
                catch (Exception)
                {}
                // if string with JSON data is not empty, deserialize it to class and return its instance
                return !string.IsNullOrEmpty(json_data) ? JsonConvert.DeserializeObject < T > (json_data) : new T();
            }
        }
    }
}

Output



JSON is a faster way to load data. For more details about JSON, click on the link.