James Newton-King

Archives

Archives / 2011 / April
  • Apr 22 2011

    Json.NET 4.0 Release 2 – NuGet 1.2 and Dynamic

    This release builds on two areas introduced in Json.NET 4.0: NuGet and .NET 4 dynamic support.

    NuGet 1.2

    I understand. Let us celebrate our agreement with the adding of chocolate to milk. NuGet is fast becoming the preferred way to install libraries in .NET. NuGet 1.2 was recently released and among other improvements it adds support for the Windows Phone.

    Json.NET 4.0 Release 2 has been updated to support NuGet 1.2 and Windows Phone – there is nothing you need to do, it should just work. Windows Phone brings Json.NET’s NuGet support up to 7 different frameworks:

    • .NET 4
    • .NET 4 Client Profile
    • .NET 3.5
    • .NET 3.5 Client Profile
    • .NET 2
    • Silverlight 4
    • Windows Phone

    Dynamic Improvements

    Feedback on the initial release of dynamic support in Json.NET 4.0 was that values didn’t behave as expected. Concatenating two integers would throw an exception for example – less than ideal.

    Release 2 adds support for common value operations: comparing, adding, subtracting, multiplying, dividing, incrementing and decrementing all now work like they should.

    dynamic product = new JObject();
    product.ProductName = "Elbow Grease";
    product.Enabled = true;
    product.Price = 4.90m;
    product.StockCount = 9000;
    product.StockValue = 44100;
     
    // All Elbow Grease must go sale!
    // 50% off price
     
    product.Price = product.Price / 2;
    product.StockValue = product.StockCount * product.Price;
    product.ProductName = product.ProductName + " (SALE)";
     
    string json = product.ToString();
    // {
    //   "ProductName": "Elbow Grease (SALE)",
    //   "Enabled": true,
    //   "Price": 2.45,
    //   "StockCount": 9000,
    //   "StockValue": 22050.0
    // }

    And More

    Like always many smaller features has been added (EnumMemberAttribute serializer support for example) and bugs have been fixed.

    Changes

    Here is a complete list of what has changed since Json.NET 4.0 Release 1.

    • New feature - Added commonly used primitive value operations to dynamic JValue
    • New feature - Added IComparable to JValue
    • New feature - Added JsonConstructorAttribute to explicitly define which constructor to use during deserialization
    • New feature - Added IFormattable to JValue
    • New feature - Added Load and Parse helper methods to JToken
    • New feature - Added ExpandoObjectConverter that deserializes to primitive values rather than LINQ to JSON objects for ExpandObjects
    • New feature - Added EnumMemberAttribute support to StringEnumConverter
    • New feature - Added CloseInput/CloseOutput to JsonReader/JsonWriter to control whether the underlying stream is closed. Default to true
    • Change - JValue ToString now calls ToString on the internal value
    • Change - NuGet spec file includes client profiles
    • Change - BsonReader/BsonWriter close the underlying stream by default when closed
    • Change - CamelCasePropertyNamesContractResolver updates dictionary and dynamic property names
    • Fix – DefaultValueHandling no longer includes a property when the default value is the same value but a different type
    • Fix – Objects created with paramatized constructors fixed to not set properties that aren't in JSON
    • Fix – Fixed comments in JSON sometimes causing errors when deserializing
    • Fix – Error when reflecting over type that has multiple index properties inherited fixed
    • Fix – Error when reusing JsonSerializer with preserve references enabled fixed
    • Fix – Poor error message when dynamic type cannot be created during deserialization fixed
    • Fix – Error when setting a null value on a dynamic type during deserialization fixed
    • Fix – JsonTextReader.ReadAsDecimal not attempting to convert string values to decimal fixed
    • Fix – Duplicate type name within an assembly error fixed
    • Fix – Deserializing a DataTable property fixed
    • Fix – Code emit error when deserializing interfaces in certain situations fixed
    • Fix – Performance issues when deserializing with partial type names fixed
    • Fix – Deserializing some decimal values on classes with non-default constructors fixed

    Links

    Json.NET CodePlex Project

    Json.NET 4.0 Release 2 Download – Json.NET source code, documentation and binaries