Which Json deserializer renders IList collections?

Question

I\'m trying to deserialize json to an object model where the collections are represented as IList types.

The actual deserializing is here:

Answer 1

I ended up using the Json.NET lib which has good linq support for custom mapping. This is what my deserializing ended up looking like:

        JArray json = JArray.Parse(
            (new StreamReader(General.GetEmbeddedFile("Contacts.json")).ReadToEnd()));

        IList<Contact> tempContacts = (from c in json
                                       select new Contact
                                       {
                                           ID = (int)c["ID"],
                                           Name = (string)c["Name"],
                                           Details = new LazyList<ContactDetail>(
                                               (
                                                   from cd in c["Details"]
                                                   select new ContactDetail
                                                   {
                                                       ID = (int)cd["ID"],
                                                       OrderIndex = (int)cd["OrderIndex"],
                                                       Name = (string)cd["Name"],
                                                       Value = (string)cd["Value"]
                                                   }
                                                ).AsQueryable()),
                                           Updated = (DateTime)c["Updated"]
                                       }).ToList<Contact>();

        return tempContacts;

Answer 2

It is not possible to deserialize directly to an interface, as interfaces are simply a contract. The JavaScriptSerializer has to deserialize to some concrete type that implements IList<T>, and the most logical choice is List<T>. You will have to convert the List to a LazyList, which given the code you posted, should be easy enough:

var list = serializer.Deserialize<IList<Contact>>(...);
var lazyList = new LazyList(list);

Answer 3

Unfortunately you will probably need to fix your class, as there is no way for a deserializer to know that it should be of type IList, since List is an implementation of IList.

Since the deserializers at http://json.org have source available you could just modify one to do what you want.