ASP NET Core reading complex configuration with array and JsonConverter - arrays

Question

I have this appsettings.json
"TopLevel": [
{
"Name": "Name",
"TopChild": {
"File": {
"URL": "SomeUrl",
"Username": "Admin",
"Password": "123"
}
},
"TopChild2": [
{
"Name": "SimpleMapper",
"Mapper": {
"Param1": "",
"Param2": "",
"Param3": ""
}
},
{
"Name": "SimpleFileConverter",
"Converter": {
"ToWhat": "",
"Writer": ""
}
}
],
"TopChild3": {
"SomeProperty3": {
"WhatIsThis": "",
"SomeProp": "",
"Password": ""
}
}
},
{
"Name": "Name",
"TopChild": {
"DB": {
"ConnectionString": "String",
"Username": "Admin",
"Password": "123"
}
},
"TopChild2": [
{
"Name": "SomeConverter",
"Converter": {
"Param1": "",
"Param2": ""
}
},
{
"Name": "SimpleFileConverter",
"Mapper": {
"Param1": "",
"Param2": "",
"Param3": ""
}
}
],
"TopChild3": {
"SomePropety4": {
"SomeProp7": "",
"Password": ""
}
}
}
]
And this is the code I wrote for a model
public class TopLevelConfigRoot
{
[JsonProperty("TopLevel")]
public List<TestObject> TopLevel { get; set; }
}
public class TestObject
{
[JsonProperty("Name")]
public string Name { get; set; }
[JsonProperty("TopChild")]
[JsonConverter(typeof(TopChildConverter))]
public TopChildBase TopChild { get; set; }
[JsonProperty("TopChild2")]
[JsonConverter(typeof(TopChild2Converter))]
public List<TopChild2> TopChild2 { get; set; }
[JsonProperty("TopChild3")]
[JsonConverter(typeof(TopChild3Converter))]
public TopChild3Base TopChild3 { get; set; }
}
public abstract class TopChildBase { }
public abstract class TopChild3Base { }
public class File : TopChildBase
{
[JsonProperty("URL")]
public string URL { get; set; }
[JsonProperty("Username")]
public string Username { get; set; }
[JsonProperty("Password")]
public string Password { get; set; }
}
public class DB : TopChildBase
{
[JsonProperty("ConnectionString")]
public string ConnectionString { get; set; }
[JsonProperty("Username")]
public string Username { get; set; }
[JsonProperty("Password")]
public string Password { get; set; }
}
public interface ITopChild2
{
public string Name { get; set; }
public ITopChild2Type ITopChild2Type { get; set; }
}
public class TopChild2 : ITopChild2
{
[JsonProperty("Name")]
public string Name { get; set; }
[JsonProperty("ITopChild2Type")]
public ITopChild2Type ITopChild2Type { get; set; }
}
public abstract class ITopChild2Type
{ }
public class Mapper : ITopChild2Type
{
[JsonProperty("Param1")]
public string Param1 { get; set; }
[JsonProperty("Param2")]
public string Param2 { get; set; }
[JsonProperty("Param3")]
public string Param3 { get; set; }
}
public class Converter : ITopChild2Type
{
[JsonProperty("Param1")]
public string Param1 { get; set; }
[JsonProperty("Param2")]
public string Param2 { get; set; }
}
public class SomeProperty3 : TopChild3Base
{
[JsonProperty("WhatIsThis")]
public string WhatIsThis { get; set; }
[JsonProperty("SomeProp")]
public string SomeProp { get; set; }
[JsonProperty("Password")]
public string Password { get; set; }
}
public class SomePropety4 : TopChild3Base
{
[JsonProperty("SomeProp7")]
public string SomeProp7 { get; set; }
[JsonProperty("Password")]
public string Password { get; set; }
}
public class TopChildConverter : JsonConverter
{
public override bool CanConvert(Type objectType)
{
return objectType == typeof(TopChildBase);
}
public override object ReadJson(JsonReader reader, Type objectType, object existingValue, JsonSerializer serializer)
{
JObject jo = JObject.Load(reader);
if (jo.ContainsKey(nameof(File)))
{
return jo[nameof(File)].ToObject<File>();
}
else if (jo.ContainsKey(nameof(DB)))
{
return jo[nameof(DB)].ToObject<DB>();
}
return null;
}
public override void WriteJson(JsonWriter writer, object value, JsonSerializer serializer)
{
throw new NotImplementedException();
}
}
public class TopChild3Converter : JsonConverter
{
public override bool CanConvert(Type objectType)
{
return objectType == typeof(TopChild3Base);
}
public override object ReadJson(JsonReader reader, Type objectType, object existingValue, JsonSerializer serializer)
{
JObject jo = JObject.Load(reader);
if (jo.ContainsKey(nameof(SomeProperty3)))
{
return jo[nameof(SomeProperty3)].ToObject<SomeProperty3>();
}
else if (jo.ContainsKey(nameof(SomePropety4)))
{
return jo[nameof(SomePropety4)].ToObject<SomePropety4>();
}
return null;
}
public override void WriteJson(JsonWriter writer, object value, JsonSerializer serializer)
{
throw new NotImplementedException();
}
}
public class TopChild2Converter : JsonConverter
{
public override bool CanConvert(Type objectType)
{
return objectType == typeof(TopChild2);
}
public override object ReadJson(JsonReader reader, Type objectType, object existingValue, JsonSerializer serializer)
{
JArray ja = JArray.Load(reader);
List<TopChild2> topChild2List = new List<TopChild2>();
foreach (var item in ja)
{
JObject jObject = (JObject)item;
TopChild2 TopChild2 = null;
string name = jObject[nameof(TopChild2.Name)].ToString();
if (jObject.ContainsKey(nameof(Mapper)))
{
var root = jObject[nameof(Mapper)];
Mapper mapper = new Mapper
{
Param1 = root[nameof(Mapper.Param1)].Value<string>(),
Param2 = root[nameof(Mapper.Param2)].Value<string>(),
Param3 = root[nameof(Mapper.Param3)].Value<string>()
};
TopChild2 = new TopChild2 { Name = name, ITopChild2Type = mapper };
}
else if (jObject.ContainsKey(nameof(Converter)))
{
var root = jObject[nameof(Converter)];
Converter converter = new Converter
{
Param1 = root[nameof(Converter.Param1)].Value<string>(),
Param2 = root[nameof(Converter.Param2)].Value<string>()
};
TopChild2 = new TopChild2 { Name = name, ITopChild2Type = converter };
}
topChild2List.Add(TopChild2);
}
return topChild2List;
}
public override void WriteJson(JsonWriter writer, object value, JsonSerializer serializer)
{
throw new NotImplementedException();
}
}
And now with that model I've tried using any known implementation of config inside of controller.
The only thing I came up is inserting IConfiguration via Dependency Injection and use _config = config;
And then selected it by
var section = _config.GetSection("TopLevel");
and then used it like this
var itemArray = section.AsEnumerable();
How can I then use this itemArray to convert this to either model, or a JsonString which i will then easily serialize it with Newtonsoft
var t = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<TopLevelConfigRoot>(jsonString);
But I haven't find a way to map this itemArray to model I provided, nor I had success with writing recursive method to actually map it to JsonString.
Converter I wrote is
public string ConvertBackToJSonString(KeyValuePair<string, string>[] itemArray)
{
var root = new JObject();
var current = root;
foreach (var item in itemArray)
{
var parts = item.Key.Split(':');
var key = parts[parts.Length - 1];
var parent = current;
for (int i = 0; i < parts.Length - 1; i++)
{
var part = parts[i];
if (!current.ContainsKey(part))
current.Add(part, new JObject());
current = (JObject)current[part];
}
if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(item.Value))
current.Add(key, new JValue(item.Value));
else
current.Add(key, new JObject());
current = parent;
}
return JsonConvert.SerializeObject(root, Formatting.Indented);
}
But that didn't work. How should this be approached to/done?

Answer 1

You could bind the section to a model directly with IConfigration.Bind() method
For example,in your case :
public class BindTarget
{
public string Name { get; set; }
public SomeChildClass1 TopChild { get; set; }
public List<SomeChildClass2> TopChild2 { get; set; }
public SomeChildClass3 TopChild3 { get; set; }
}
public class SomeChildClass1
{
public File File { get; set; }
public DB DB { get; set; }
}
public class SomeChildClass2
{
public string Name { get; set; }
public Mapper Mapper { get; set; }
public Converter Converter { get; set; }
}
public class SomeChildClass3
{
public SomeProperty3 SomeProperty3 { get; set; }
public SomePropety4 SomePropety4 { get; set; }
}
bind as below:
var targetobj = new List<BindTarget>();
Configuration.GetSection("TopLevel").Bind(targetobj);
var str = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(targetobj,new JsonSerializerSettings() { NullValueHandling=NullValueHandling.Ignore});
result:
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