Deserialize complex JSON with Newtonsoft.Json - Visual Basic - arrays

Question

Need help to deserialize complex json file using Visual Basic and Newtonsoft.Json library.
Here is the sample of Json file:
{
"value": [
{
"Id": 12345,
"Name": "Test",
"CardCount": 0,
"DailySpendLimit": 0.00,
"WeeklySpendLimit": 50.00,
"MonthlySpendLimit": 100.00,
"YearlySpendLimit": 1000.00,
"LifetimeSpendLimit": 0.00,
"MerchantCategories": [
"#{Id=11111; Name=Associations \u0026 Organizations; Description=Post Office, local and federal government services, religious organizations.; TransactionLimit=0.00; DailySpendLimit=0.00; WeeklySpendLimit=0.00; MonthlySpendLimit=0.00; YearlySpendLimit=0.00; LifetimeSpendLimit=0.00}",
"#{Id=22222; Name=Automotive Dealers; Description=Vehicle dealerships (car, RV, motorcycle, boat, recreational).; TransactionLimit=0.00; DailySpendLimit=0.00; WeeklySpendLimit=0.00; MonthlySpendLimit=0.00; YearlySpendLimit=0.00; LifetimeSpendLimit=0.00}"
]
}
],
"Count": 1
}
I had setup classes:
Public Class TEST_AdvRules
<JsonProperty("value")>
Public Property ValueDetails As ValueList()
Public Class ValueList
<JsonProperty("Id")>
Public Property RuleId As Integer
<JsonProperty("Name")>
Public Property RuleName As String = ""
Public Property CardCount As Integer
Public Property DailySpendLimit As Double
Public Property WeeklySpendLimit As Double
Public Property MonthlySpendLimit As Double
Public Property YearlySpendLimit As Double
Public Property LifetimeSpendLimit As Double
<JsonProperty("MerchantCategories")>
Public Property MerchantCategories() As List(Of MerchantCategoriesList)
End Class
Public Class MerchantCategoriesList
Public Property Id As Integer
Public Property Name As String = ""
Public Property Description As String = ""
Public Property TransactionLimit As Double
Public Property DailySpendLimit As Double
Public Property WeeklySpendLimit As Double
Public Property MonthlySpendLimit As Double
Public Property YearlySpendLimit As Double
Public Property LifetimeSpendLimit As Double
End Class
End Class
The code for deserilization:
Dim jsonStringP = IO.File.ReadAllText(PathJson & SecFileName)
Dim serSettings = New JsonSerializerSettings()
serSettings.ContractResolver = New CamelCasePropertyNamesContractResolver()
Dim RulesPEX = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject(Of TEST_AdvRules)(jsonStringP, serSettings)
But it errors out on the deserialization line - can't convert MerchantCategories.
I have never dealt with Json with [ "# array sequence. Am I processing it wrong?
Also - there is a character sequence '\u0026 ' within Merchant categories. Does it require special handling? Thank you!

Answer 1

The problem is that MerchantCategories is a string collection. You will have to convert each string to object using a custom string analyzer. Last time I worked with Vb.net was more then 10 years ago, so I can give you a solution in C# , your part would be to convert it to VB.Net. I don't feel like installing VB.NET compilliar at my mashine.
using Newtonsoft.Json;
var jsonObject = JObject.Parse(jsonStringP);
var jsonArr=new JArray();
foreach (var item in (JArray) jsonObject["value"][0]["MerchantCategories"])
{
jsonArr.Add(ConvertToJObject(item.ToString()));
}
jsonObject["value"][0]["MerchantCategories"]=jsonArr;
TEST_AdvRules RulesPEX = jsonObject.ToObject<TEST_AdvRules>();
this function converts a string to a JObject
public JObject ConvertToJObject(string str)
{
var strStart=str.IndexOf("{")+1;
var strEnd=str.IndexOf("}")-2;
var arr = str.Substring(strStart, strEnd).Split(";").Select(c => c.Split("="));
var jObj = new JObject();
foreach (var item in arr)
jObj.Add(new JProperty(item[0].Trim(), item[1].Trim()));
return jObj;
}

Answer 2

let Visual Studio create the class for you:
copy the whole json file content to the clipboard
in VS, add a new empty class -> Edit -> Paste Special -> paste json as class
I tend to add a shared Read-Method for easier construction.
Of course you can rename your classes as you wish :-)
I'm on german VS but you get the idea :-)

Answer 3

Translating Serge's answer into VB (note untested code so it's possible there are some minor errors)...
Imports Newtonsoft.Json
'...
Dim jsonObject = JObject.Parse(jsonStringP)
Dim jsonArr = new JArray()
For Each item In CType(jsonObject("value")(0)("MerchantCategories"), JArray)
jsonArr.Add(ConvertToJObject(item.ToString()))
Next
jsonObject("value")(0)("MerchantCategories") = jsonArr
Dim RulesPEX As TEST_AdvRules = jsonObject.ToObject(Of TEST_AdvRules)()
and
Public Function ConvertToJOBject(ByVal str As String) As JObject
Dim strStart = str.IndexOf("{") + 1
Dim strEnd = str.IndexOf("}") - 2
Dim arr = str.Substring(strStart, strEnd).Split(";").Select(Function(c) c.Split("="))
Dim jObj = New JObject()
For Each item In arr
jObj.Add(New JProperty(item(0).Trim(), item(1).Trim()))
Next
Return jObj
End Function