Deserialize a property as an ExpandoObject using JSON.NET

Question

For example, there\'s an object like the next one:

public class Container
{
   public object Data { get; set; }
}

And it\'s used this way:<

Answer 1

Try this:

Container container = new Container
{
    Data = new Dictionary<string, object> { { "Text", "Hello world" } }
};

string jsonText = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(container);

var obj = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<ExpandoObject>(jsonText, new ExpandoObjectConverter());

I found that doing this got me an ExpandoObject from the call to DeserializeObject. I think the issue with the code you have provided is that while you are supplying an ExpandoObjectConverter, you are asking Json.Net to deserialize a Container, so I would imagine that the ExpandoObjectConverter is not being used.

Edit:

If I decorate the Data property with [JsonConverter(typeof(ExpandoObjectConverter))] and use the code:

var obj = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<Container>(jsonText);

Then the Data property is deserialized to an ExpandoObject, while obj is a Container.