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I need to pass (via string content of a HTTP request/response body) name value pairs of data (like a hash) back from a Ruby on Rails server to a C# client.

Anyone happen to know offhand what would be the best format to do this in? Probably XML I would guess?

tks

PS. So overall the requirement is find a C# method that convert from a String of name/value pairs in JSON format (created by Ruby/Rails) to an existing C# standard name/value pair class/variable (e.g. Array or Dictionary I guess?)

John Topley
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Greg
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2 Answers2

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Actually, JSON is supported in both, and would certainly do what you require.

Here are links to a Javascript Serializer for C#: Parsing JSON using Json.net

And as long as you require 'json' for Ruby on Rails, you can simply use the "[to_json]"1 method.

Community
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aronchick
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  • thanks - does this imply on the C# side there isn't a one liner that can parse JSON string to a C# variable? i.e. do you need to setup some classes etc like in the answer in the link you posted? – Greg Dec 29 '09 at 23:19
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You could to post that data as:

  • HTTP POST fields (read it with Request.Form)
  • HTTP POST field with XML (Request.Form, XmlDocument)
  • HTTP POST field with JSON data (DataContractJsonSerializer)

EDIT: I have this samples:

// Building on Silverlight to send
using (MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream())
{
    new DataContractJsonSerializer(fileList.GetType()).WriteObject(ms, fileList);
    // send it
}

// Reading on ASHX page
JobEntry[] files = 
    new JavaScriptSerializer().Deserialize<Negocio.Cache.JobEntry[]>(
        new StreamReader(context.Request.InputStream).ReadToEnd());
Rubens Farias
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  • thanks Rubens - I had a look at the JSON class - it seems to be more serializing to/from an object - in my case I'm going from a Rails generated string of name/value pairs in JSON form, then to be parsed by C#. Do you know how one would use these classes to effectively convert from string to a standard C# name/value pair class (Dictionary collection I guess, or just an Array?)? – Greg Dec 29 '09 at 23:26
  • You don't need to deal with parsing; create a class with same structure and consume received data directly. =) – Rubens Farias Dec 29 '09 at 23:44
  • thanks - Actually I noted the following comments on the basic Deserialize method which might be good re not having to define classes..."The Deserialize() method is equivalent to first using the DeserializeObject method to obtain an object graph and then trying to cast the result to type T." This doesn't seem to be true: DeserializeObject always seems to return a Dictionary, which can't be cast to an arbitrary type. Convert.ChangeType doesn't work either. What type of conversion is supposed to work? – Greg Dec 30 '09 at 00:04
  • can't you work around it, sending some `` class? – Rubens Farias Dec 30 '09 at 00:05
  • arr, this works:
    var inputJson = "{\"x\":123,\"y\":\"qwerty\"}"; var jss = new JavaScriptSerializer(); var output = jss.Deserialize>(inputJson);     – Greg Dec 30 '09 at 11:41