How do I deserialize a property containing an escaped JSON string? [duplicate]

Answer 1

You could use a custom JsonConverter for this similar to this:

public class EmbeddedJsonConverter : JsonConverter
{
    public override void WriteJson(JsonWriter writer, object value, JsonSerializer serializer)
    {
        throw new NotImplementedException();
    }

    public override object ReadJson(JsonReader reader, Type objectType, object existingValue, JsonSerializer serializer)
    {
        return serializer.Deserialize(new StringReader((string)reader.Value), objectType);
    }

    public override bool CanConvert(Type objectType)
    {
        return true;
    }
}

Mark the property with [JsonConverter(typeof(EmbeddedJsonConverter))] like:

public class Response
{
    public DateTime time { get; set; }
    public string event_name { get; set; }
    public string event_type { get; set; }
    public string method { get; set; }

    [JsonConverter(typeof(EmbeddedJsonConverter))]
    public MessageDetails message_details { get; set; }
}

Then you will be able to deserialize with JsonConvert.DeserializeObject().

The EmbeddedJsonConverter class extracts the json string from the object and then deserializes it. CanConvert should probably be made smarter for a truly generic use.