LINQ to JSON in .net 4.0 Client Profile

Question

How would I go about about using LINQ to JSON in the .net 4 Client Profile in C#. I'd like to query certain json responses as shown in msdn blog post without having to write out a contract (datacontract, servicecontract, etc). I really only need to query(read) the response, I don't need to modify the json response. (Also would a datacontract be faster than LINQ to JSON?)

Alternatively I could use XML or the full .net 4 framework, but I'm hoping that this can be avoided. I can use external libraries if it's better than installing the whole framework.

Answer 1

JSON.net is quite popular and seems to be what you're after.

Answer 2

If your service is used by Ajax (jQuery) clients, you will get the best performance by using JSON.

Another recommendation; in order to get rid of the same domain policy, I recommend you to enable crossDomainScriptAccessEnabled functionality:

    <webHttpBinding>
      <binding name="myHttpBinding" crossDomainScriptAccessEnabled="true" />
    </webHttpBinding>

Regarding the DataContract; in your scenario, a DataContract is not really needed.

Example code:

• Your Service:

  [ServiceContract]
  [AspNetCompatibilityRequirements(RequirementsMode = AspNetCompatibilityRequirementsMode.Allowed)]
  public class BlogService {
  
       [OperationContract]
       [WebGet(ResponseFormat = WebMessageFormat.Json)]
       public List<Article> GetBlogArticles()
       {
           return Article.GetDummyArticles.ToList();
       }
  
  }
  

• Article Class (excerpt):

  public class Article    {
  
       public string Title { get; set; }
       public string Body { get; set; }
  
       public static IEnumerable<Article> GetDummyArticles() {
           yield return new Article { Title = "Article 1", Body = "sdlkfjsdlkfjskl" };
           yield return new Article { Title = "Article 2", Body = "sfsfsdfd23434wfdfsfdfkfjskl" };
       }
    }
  

For your scenario I actually can't find a reason to use any (3rd-party) library since WCF4 already contains native support for JSON with or without Padding.