Using WebClient for JSON Serialization?

Question

I know you can deserialize a JSON object from an HttpWebResponse using the WebClient.DownloadString() but what about the other way around? I've looked at the MSDN pages and I don't know if you can serialize to JSON objects or not, anyone know?

Answer 1

I think you may just have to serialize the object into JSON before using the WebClient instance. Hope this helps

var url = "...";
var json = JsonHelper.ToJson(myObject);

var response = PostJson(url, json);

Here's an example of sending JSON data from the WebClient class:

public static string PostJson(string url, string data)
{
    var bytes = Encoding.Default.GetBytes(data);

    using (var client = new WebClient())
    {
        client.Headers.Add("Content-Type", "application/json");
        var response = client.UploadData(url, "POST", bytes);

        return Encoding.Default.GetString(response);
    }
}

Here is a simple helper class that uses the DataContractJsonSerializer class to serialize / deserialize object to and from JSON.

public static class JsonHelper
{
    public static string ToJson<T>(T instance)
    {
        var serializer = new DataContractJsonSerializer(typeof(T));
        using (var tempStream = new MemoryStream())
        {
            serializer.WriteObject(tempStream, instance);
            return Encoding.Default.GetString(tempStream.ToArray());
        }
    }

    public static T FromJson<T>(string json)
    {
        var serializer = new DataContractJsonSerializer(typeof(T));
        using (var tempStream = new MemoryStream(Encoding.Unicode.GetBytes(json)))
        {
            return (T)serializer.ReadObject(tempStream);
        }
    }
}

Answer 2

I use :

var json = new JavaScriptSerializer().Serialize(yourObject);