Serialize Dictionary to JSON with DataContractJsonSerializer

Question

I have an object tree that I\'m serializing to JSON with DataContractJsonSerializer. Dictionary gets serialized but I don\'t li

Answer 1

One option is using a surrogate property and have the dictionary be inside the custom ISerializable type, that way you don't need to worry about inheritance:

public Dictionary NodeData { get; set; }

[DataMember(Name="NodeData")]
private CustomDictionarySerializer NodeDataSurrogate
{
    get
    {
        return new CustomDictionarySerializer(NodeData);
    }
    set
    {
        NodeData = value._data;
    }
}

[Serializable]
private class CustomDictionarySerializer : ISerializable
{
    public Dictionary _data;

    public CustomDictionarySerializer(Dictionary dict)
    {
        _data = dict;
    }

    public CustomDictionarySerializer(SerializationInfo info, StreamingContext context)
    {
        _data = new Dictionary();
        var valueEnum = info.GetEnumerator();
        while(valueEnum.MoveNext())
        {
            _data[valueEnum.Current.Name] = valueEnum.Current.Value.ToString();
        }
    }

    public void GetObjectData(SerializationInfo info, StreamingContext context)
    {
        foreach (var pair in _data)
        {
            info.AddValue(pair.Key, pair.Value);
        }
    }
}