How can I deserialize JSON to a simple Dictionary in ASP.NET?

Question

I have a simple key/value list in JSON being sent back to ASP.NET via POST. Example:

{ \"key1\": \"value1\", \"key2\": \"value2\"}

Answer 1

My approach directly deserializes to IDictionary, without JObject or ExpandObject in between. The code uses converter, which is basically copied from ExpandoObjectConverter class found in JSON.NET sourcecode, but using IDictionary instead of ExpandoObject.

Usage:

var settings = new JsonSerializerSettings()
{
    Converters = { new DictionaryConverter() },
};
var result = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject>(json, settings);

Code:

// based on ExpandoObjectConverter, but using arrays instead of IList, to behave similar to System.Web.Script.Serialization.JavaScriptSerializer
public class DictionaryConverter : JsonConverter
{
    public override void WriteJson(JsonWriter writer, object value, JsonSerializer serializer)
    {
    }

    public override object ReadJson(JsonReader reader, Type objectType, object existingValue, JsonSerializer serializer)
    {
        return ReadValue(reader);
    }

    public override bool CanConvert(Type objectType)
    {
        return (objectType == typeof(IDictionary));
    }

    public override bool CanWrite
    {
        get { return false; }
    }

    private object ReadValue(JsonReader reader)
    {
        while (reader.TokenType == JsonToken.Comment)
        {
            if (!reader.Read())
                throw JsonSerializationExceptionCreate(reader, "Unexpected end when reading IDictionary.");
        }

        switch (reader.TokenType)
        {
            case JsonToken.StartObject:
                return ReadObject(reader);
            case JsonToken.StartArray:
                return ReadList(reader);
            default:
                if (IsPrimitiveToken(reader.TokenType))
                    return reader.Value;

                throw JsonSerializationExceptionCreate(reader, string.Format(CultureInfo.InvariantCulture, "Unexpected token when converting IDictionary: {0}", reader.TokenType));
        }
    }

    private object ReadList(JsonReader reader)
    {
        List