SteamAPI JSON.net Error in VB .net - arrays

Question

I dont really understand what I do wrong when I try to Deserialize the JSON stuff I get.
You can get the response from http://api.steampowered.com/ISteamApps/GetAppList/v2?format=json
Imports Newtonsoft.Json
Imports Newtonsoft.Json.Linq
Public Class Form1
Private Sub Form1_Load(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
Dim SteamGameInfoObject As Object = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject(Of Object)(New System.Net.WebClient().DownloadString("http://api.steampowered.com/ISteamApps/GetAppList/v2?format=json"))
End Sub
Public Class SteamRootObject
Public Class SteamAPIJSONResult
Public Property applist As List(Of applistlist)
End Class
Public Class applistlist
Public Property apps As List(Of appslist)
End Class
Public Class appslist
Public Property appid As Integer()
Public Property name As String()
End Class
End Class
End Class
I dont know how to "To fix this error either change the JSON to a JSON array"

Answer 1

You have a few problems here:
You define appid and name as arrays of integers and strings, respectively. In the JSON these are primitive values not arrays, so the VB.NET properties themselves should be declared to be simple integers and strings.
You define applist as a List(Of applistlist). Despite the name, the property value in the JSON is a single object not an array, so the property should refer to a single object also.
In Form1_Load you need to deserialize to the correct type, SteamRootObject. If you do JsonConvert.DeserializeObject(Of Object)(jsonString) you are not telling Json.NET the type to which to deserialize!
Stylistically there is no need to nest the inner classes inside the root class, it adds to complexity.
There are plenty of on-line tools to auto-generate .Net classes from JSON that can be found quickly using google, for instance http://json2csharp.com/ (for c#) or http://jsonutils.com/ or http://www.httputility.net/json-to-csharp-vb-typescript-class.aspx. In the future, use one of these to check your work.
Thus your fixed classes should look like:
Public Class App
Public Property appid As Integer
Public Property name As String
End Class
Public Class Applist
Public Property apps As New List(of App)
End Class
Public Class SteamRootObject
Public Property applist As Applist
End Class
And, to deserialize:
Dim SteamGameInfoObject = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject(of SteamRootObject)(jsonString)
Prototype fiddle.