Xamarin - reading JSON file and reading the values - xamarin

Question

everyone ! I'm new in Xamarin. I've this json file...
{
"debug":true,
"sequence":[
"p1"
],
"pages":[
{
"pageId":"p1",
"type":"seq",
"elements":[
{
"type":"smallVideo",
"width":300,
"height":300,
"top":0,
"left":0,
"file":"xxx.mp4"
}
]
}
],
"index":[
{
"width":300,
"height":300,
"top":0,
"left":0,
"goTo":"p1"
}
]
}
And this is my simple code...
using Newtonsoft.Json;
JObject elements = JObject.Parse(File.ReadAllText("elements.json"));
Console.WriteLine(elements);
Ok, I can see on my output screen the whole JSON file. Fine...
But I'd like to read any value just like javascript, examples...
elements.debug (true)
elements.pages[0].pageId
So, I need to retrieve values based on the key/path like it's usual in Javascript. Any clue ?
ty !

Answer 1

C# is a little bit different from js, here you need to declare objects.
In your case you need to create new class called ElementsObj and your object would be this class instance:
public class ElementsObj
{
public bool debug { get; set; }
public List<string> sequence { get; set; }
public List<Page> pages { get; set; }
public List<Index> index { get; set; }
}
public class Element
{
public string type { get; set; }
public int width { get; set; }
public int height { get; set; }
public int top { get; set; }
public int left { get; set; }
public string file { get; set; }
}
public class Page
{
public string pageId { get; set; }
public string type { get; set; }
public List<Element> elements { get; set; }
}
public class Index
{
public int width { get; set; }
public int height { get; set; }
public int top { get; set; }
public int left { get; set; }
public string goTo { get; set; }
}
In future use http://json2csharp.com/ to generate classes from JSON file.
Later you can deserialize your JSON to this object.
I'd suggest Newtonsoft lib to do this:
ElementsObj tmp = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<ElementsObj>(jsonString);

Answer 2

1) Option create an object that reflects your JSON structure:
public class Element
{
public string type { get; set; }
public int width { get; set; }
public int height { get; set; }
public int top { get; set; }
public int left { get; set; }
public string file { get; set; }
}
public class Page
{
public string pageId { get; set; }
public string type { get; set; }
public List<Element> elements { get; set; }
}
public class Index
{
public int width { get; set; }
public int height { get; set; }
public int top { get; set; }
public int left { get; set; }
public string goTo { get; set; }
}
public class MyObject
{
public bool debug { get; set; }
public List<string> sequence { get; set; }
public List<Page> pages { get; set; }
public List<Index> index { get; set; }
}
MyObject parsed = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<MyObject>(File.ReadAllText("elements.json"));
var debug = parsed.debug;
2) Option using dynamic
dynamic results = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<dynamic>(File.ReadAllText("elements.json"));
var debug = dynamic.debug;