Json.NET vs Windows.Data.Json

Windows 8 introduces a new way to work with JSON via the Windows.Data.Json namespace. Similar to LINQ to JSON in Json.NET it defines classes that can be used to parse values, strings, objects, and arrays from JSON text or serialize value types into JSON text.

Below is a comparison of Json.NET’s LINQ to JSON to Window 8’s Windows.Data.Json.

Creating JSON

The big difference between the two libraries when creating JSON is Windows.Data.Json requires string/integer/double values to be explicitly converted to JsonValue objects.

Note that there is a weird limitation to creating JSON with Windows.Data.Json: it doesn’t allow you to set properties to null or have null array values.

// Windows.Data.Json

// -----------------

JsonObject jsonObject = new JsonObject

    {"CPU", JsonValue.CreateStringValue("Intel")},

    {"Drives", new JsonArray {

        JsonValue.CreateStringValue("DVD read/writer"),

        JsonValue.CreateStringValue("500 gigabyte hard drive")

};

string json1 = jsonObject.Stringify();

// LINQ to JSON

// ------------

JObject jObject = new JObject

    {"CPU", "Intel"},

    {"Drives", new JArray {

        "DVD read/writer",

        "500 gigabyte hard drive"

};

string json2 = jObject.ToString();

Querying JSON

Windows.Data.Json requires a value to be cast to its exact type with the GetObject/GetArray methods before it can be used, making Windows.Data.Json’s code verbose compared to LINQ to JSON.

string json = @"{

  ""channel"": {

    ""title"": ""James Newton-King"",

    ""link"": ""http://james.newtonking.com"",

    ""description"": ""James Newton-King's blog."",

    ""item"": [

        ""title"": ""Json.NET 1.3 + New license + Now on CodePlex"",

        ""description"": ""Annoucing the release of Json.NET 1.3, the MIT license and the source being available on CodePlex"",

        ""link"": ""http://james.newtonking.com/projects/json-net.aspx"",

        ""category"": [

          ""Json.NET"",

          ""CodePlex""

}";

// Windows.Data.Json

// -----------------

JsonObject jsonObject = JsonObject.Parse(json);

string itemTitle1 = jsonObject["channel"].GetObject()["item"].GetArray()[0].GetObject()["title"].GetString();

// LINQ to JSON

// ------------

JObject jObject = JObject.Parse(json);

string itemTitle2 = (string)jObject["channel"]["item"][0]["title"];

Performance

Json.NET is slightly slower at writing JSON than Windows.Data.Json but considerably faster parsing.

Things aren’t as happy as they used to be down here at the unemployment office. Joblessness is no longer just for philosophy majors. Useful people are starting to feel the pinch.

Converting Between LINQ to JSON and Windows.Data.Json

Json.NET supports converting between the types of the two libraries. Use FromObject to convert a Windows.Data.Json value to LINQ to JSON and use ToObject to convert LINQ to JSON to Windows.Data.Json.

JsonObject jsonObject = new JsonObject

    {"CPU", JsonValue.CreateStringValue("Intel")},

    {"Drives", new JsonArray {

        JsonValue.CreateStringValue("DVD read/writer"),

        JsonValue.CreateStringValue("500 gigabyte hard drive")

};

// convert Windows.Data.Json to LINQ to JSON

JObject o = JObject.FromObject(jsonObject);

// convert LINQ to JSON to Windows.Data.Json

JArray a = (JArray)o["Drives"];

JsonArray jsonArray = a.ToObject<JsonArray>();

Aug 6 2012

Json.NET 4.5 Release 8 – Multidimensional Array Support, Unicode Improvements
Multidimensional Array Support

Json.NET now supports serializing and deserializing multidimensional arrays. There isn't anything you need to do, if one of your types has a multidimensional array property It Just Works™.
string[,] famousCouples = new string[,]

{

    { "Adam", "Eve" },

    { "Bonnie", "Clyde" },

    { "Donald", "Daisy" },

    { "Han", "Leia" }

};

string json = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(famousCouples, Formatting.Indented);

// [

//   ["Adam", "Eve"],

//   ["Bonnie", "Clyde"],

//   ["Donald", "Daisy"],

//   ["Han", "Leia"]

// ]

string[,] deserialized = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<string[,]>(json);

Console.WriteLine(deserialized[3, 0] + ", " + deserialized[3, 1]);

// Han, Leia
Unicode Performance Improvements

Prior versions of Json.NET allocated a new array and string object to the heap for every Unicode character; a potentially expensive situation if your application is writing a lot of Unicode characters.

This release improves Unicode serialization so that Json.NET will only allocate a single array for all Unicode text and then writes the text directly to the underlying output stream. These changes improve Json.NET performance of Unicode intensive objects by about 20% and significantly reduces the time spent doing garbage collection.

Changes

Here is a complete list of what has changed since Json.NET 4.5 Release 7.
- New feature - Serialize and deserialize multidimensional arrays
- New feature - Members on dynamic objects with JsonProperty/DataMember will now be included in serialized JSON
- New feature - LINQ to JSON load methods will read past preceding comments when loading JSON
- New feature - Improved error handling to return incomplete values upon reaching the end of JSON content
- Change - Improved performance and memory usage when serializing Unicode characters
- Change - The serializer now creates objects using GetUninitializedObject when deserializing a Serializable type
- Fix - Added SecurityTransparent attribute to WinRT build
- Fix - Fixed infinite loop error caused by error handling upon reaching the end of JSON content
Links

Json.NET CodePlex Project

Json.NET 4.5 Release 8 Download – Json.NET source code and assemblies
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May 8 2012

Json.NET 4.5 Release 5 – JsonProperty enhancements
JsonProperty enhancements

JsonPropertyAttribute now has options on it to customize a property’s collection items. When ItemConverter, ItemIsReference, ItemTypeNameHandling or ItemReferenceLoopHandling is set on JsonProperty and the property’s type is a collection then those settings will be applied to every collection item.
public class Event

{

public string EventName { get; set; }

public string Venue { get; set; }

[JsonProperty(ItemConverterType = typeof(JavaScriptDateTimeConverter))]

public IList<DateTime> Performances { get; set; }

}
Usage:
Event e = new Event

{

    EventName = "Blackadder III",

    Venue = "Gryphon Theatre",

    Performances = new List<DateTime>

      {

        DateTime.Parse("8 Tue May 2012, 6:30pm"),

        DateTime.Parse("9 Wed May 2012, 6:30pm"),

        DateTime.Parse("10 Thu May 2012, 8:00pm")

      }

};

string json = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(e, Formatting.Indented);

//{

// "EventName": "Blackadder III",

// "Venue": "Gryphon Theatre",

// "Performances": [

//    new Date(1336458600000),

//    new Date(1336545000000),

//    new Date(1336636800000)

// ]

//}
Changes

Here is a complete list of what has changed since Json.NET 4.5 Release 4.
- New feature - Added ItemIsReference, ItemReferenceLoopHandling, ItemTypeNameHandling, ItemConverterType to JsonPropertyAttribute
- New feature - Added ItemRequired to JsonObjectAttribute
- New feature - Added Path to JsonWriterException
- Change - Improved deserializer call stack memory usage
- Change - Moved the PDB files out of the NuGet package into a symbols package
- Fix - Fixed infinite loop from an input error when reading an array and error handling is enabled
- Fix - Fixed a base object error not being handled when deserializing
Links

Json.NET CodePlex Project

Json.NET 4.5 Release 5 Download – Json.NET source code, documentation and binaries
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Apr 24 2012

Json.NET 4.5 Release 4 – Portable Class Library Build
Portable Class Library Build

Json.NET now has a Portable Class Library build that can be found in the /Bin/Portable directory from the zip download on CodePlex. The portable build targets the absolute basics (.NET 4.0, SL4, WP7, Metro) and so hopefully should run on just about everything.

Improved Collection Serialization

JsonArrayAttribute and JsonDictionaryAttribute now have properties to customize the serialization of collection items. ItemConverter, ItemTypeNameHandling, ItemReferenceLoopHandling and ItemIsReference will apply to all the items of that list/dictionary when serializing and deserializing.

Changes
- New feature – Added Portable Class Library build
- New feature - Added support for customizing the JsonConverter, type name handling and reference handling of collection items
- New feature - Added Path to JsonReaderException/JsonSerializationException messages
- New feature - Added DateParseHandling to JsonReader
- New feature - Added JsonContainerContract
- New feature - Added JsonDictionaryAttribute
- Change – Instances of Exception have been changed to be a more specific exception
- Fix – Fixed Windows Application Certification tool error by removing AllowPartiallyTrustedCallersAttribute
- Fix - Fixed JsonWriters not using DateTimeZoneHandling
Links

Json.NET CodePlex Project

Json.NET 4.5 Release 4 Download – Json.NET source code, documentation and binaries
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Apr 11 2012

Json.NET 4.5 Release 2 – Serializable support and bug fixes
Serializable Support

Json.NET now detects types that have the SerializableAttribute and serializes all the fields on that type, both public and private, and ignores the properties. This is useful when you’re interested in round-tripping the data on a type and don’t care what the JSON looks like.

If you are serializing types that have the attribute and don’t want the new behaviour, it can either be overridden on a type using the JsonObjectAttribute or disabled globally by setting IgnoreSerializableAttribute on DefaultContractResolver to true.

Update: IgnoreSerializableAttribute is true by default in release 3. If you want it you can still achieve this effect by either setting IgnoreSerializableAttribute to false or adding [JsonObject(MemberSerialization.Fields)] to your class.

Bug fixes

Interesting bug fixes this release include correctly reading JSON from slow streams (e.g. a network stream that is only returning one character at a time), fixing invalid Unicode surrogate characters, and ignoring property order when comparing two JObjects (JavaScript objects aren’t ordered and so could come back serialized in a different order).

Changes
- New feature - Added support for the SerializableAttribute and serializing a type's internal fields
- New feature - Added MaxDepth to JsonReader/JsonSerializer/JsonSerializerSettings
- New feature - Added support for ignoring properties with the NonSerializableAttribute
- Fix - Fixed deserializing a null string throwing a NullReferenceException
- Fix - Fixed JsonTextReader incorrectly reading from a slow stream
- Fix - Fixed CultureInfo not being overridden on JsonSerializerProxy
- Fix - Fixed full trust security check in .NET 2.0 & .NET 3.5
- Fix - Fixed XmlNodeConverter not turning all attribute properties into attributes
- Fix - Fixed comparing JObjects to ignore property order
- Fix - Fixed reading invalid Unicode surrogate pairs
Links

Json.NET CodePlex Project

Json.NET 4.5 Release 2 Download – Json.NET source code, documentation and binaries
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Apr 4 2012

Json.NET Strong Naming and Assembly Version Numbers

In the Json.NET 4.5 release post I added a note about strong naming and assembly version numbers that is worth expanding on.

The problem is a combination of factors: Json.NET is strong named, has frequent releases, the assembly version number changes with each release and many different libraries reference Json.NET.

NuGet does its best to solve the issue of different assemblies referencing different versions by automatically inserting binding redirects for you, but having to rely on a tool to fix up problems is sub-optimal.

The solution that I’m evaluating to improve the situation is to only update the assembly version number on major releases (update: now evaluating never updating the assembly version). For example Json.NET 4.5 R1 has an assembly version number of 4.5.0.0, R2 will have an the version number 4.5.0.0, R3 = 4.5.0.0, and so on. While the assembly version number will be static the assembly file version number will continue to be updated each release so you can identify exactly which version you are using, e.g. 4.5.1.14720.

The .NET framework is doing something similar with .NET 4.5, replacing 4.0 assemblies with new files using the same version number.

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Mar 31 2012

Json.NET Metro Upgrade Kit

Metro Color Conversion

The Metro UI color scheme looks complex and hard to code for at first but Json.NET has everything under control with its advanced automatic Metro Color Enhancement Suite™.

Before:

Color[] colors = new []{ Color.Blue, Color.Red, Color.Yellow, Color.Green, Color.Black, Color.Brown };

string json = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(colors);

// ["Blue", "Red", "Yellow", "Green", "Black", "Brown"]

Yuck! Color is so 2011.

Json.NET Metro Enhanced:

Color[] colors = new []{ Color.Blue, Color.Red, Color.Yellow, Color.Green, Color.Black, Color.Brown };

string json = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(colors);

//["Gray", "Gray", "Gray", "Gray", "Black", "Gray"]

Now my Metro application will fit right in!

Metro Text Rendering

The application now looks right but there is someone off about the content. Don’t fear, Json.NET’s Metro Integration automatically upgrades your existing content to be Windows 8 ready.

Before:

string json = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(product);

//{

//  "Name": "Apple",

//  "ExpiryDate": "2012-04-01T00:00:00",

//  "Price": 3.99,

//  "Sizes": [ "Small", "Medium", "Large" ]

//}

Are these words? I can barely even read this!

Json.NET Metro Enhanced:

string json = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(product);

//{

//  ":::NAME:::": ":::APPLE:::",

//  ":::EXPIRYDATE:::": "2012-04-01T00:00:00",

//  ":::PRICE:::": 3.99,

//  ":::SIZES:::": [ ":::SMALL:::", ":::MEDIUM:::", ":::LARGE:::" ]

//}

Oh that’s much better.

In-place Upgrade Kit

Json.NET Metro Integration will be included in the next release but until then an upgrade kit has been put together. Begin building tomorrow’s next generation UIs today!

https://gist.github.com/2269465

string json = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(value, new JsonSerializerSettings

  ContractResolver = new MetroPropertyNameResolver(),

  Converters = { new MetroStringConverter(), new MetroColorConverter() },

  Formatting = Formatting.Indented

});

:::HAPPY CODING!!!!:::

Mar 20 2012

Json.NET 4.5 Release 1 - ISO dates, Async, Metro build
This is the first major release of Json.NET 4.5. Read on for the details.

ISO Dates

Json.NET now writes dates as an ISO 8601 string by default instead of Microsoft’s format.

The reason for the change is the ISO format is becoming the standard for JSON libraries. All major browsers output an ISO date from the JSON.stringify function for example. Other benefits are the ISO 8601 standard is human readable unlike Unix ticks and the format is better at handling time zones.

This is a breaking change but there is option to make dates go back to what they were called DateFormatHandling. Setting DateFormatHandling on either the JsonSerializer or JsonSerializerSettings to MicrosoftDateFormat will keep your dates nice and Unix ticky.

Async Serialization

There are new helper methods on JsonConvert for serializing and deserializing JSON asynchronously.
private static async Task<ExpensiveViewModel> CreateExpensiveViewModel()

{

// these happen simultaneously

var people = JsonConvert.SerializeObjectAsync(GetPeople());

var products = JsonConvert.SerializeObjectAsync(GetProducts());

return new ExpensiveViewModel

{

People = await people,

Products = await products

};

}
Metro Build

Json.NET now supports Windows 8 Metro applications (i.e. WinRT). Since WinRT is still in beta, and because reflection has to be rewritten for this build (booo) there maybe bugs in more esoteric serialization scenarios.

Assembly Versioning

I’m going to experiment with only updating the assembly version at major version changes (i.e. 4.5.0.0) and letting the assembly file version keep the true version number, similar to what the ASP.NET team do with MVC assemblies. Breaking changes will only happen on major version changes.

Hopefully this should reduce the amount of assembly binding redirecting going on for everyone.

And other stuff

A sweet bug fix means that a performance test now runs 70,000% faster, the path of the current JSON location is now on JsonReader and exceptions for easier debugging and a potential security hole when serializing ISerializable types in partial trust has been closed.

Changes

Here is a complete list of what has changed since Json.NET 4.0 Release 8.
- New feature - Windows 8 Metro build
- New feature - JsonTextReader automatically reads ISO strings as dates
- New feature - Added DateFormatHandling to control whether dates are written in the MS format or ISO format, with ISO as the default
- New feature - Added DateTimeZoneHandling to control reading and writing DateTime time zone details
- New feature - Added async serialize/deserialize methods to JsonConvert
- New feature - Added Path to JsonReader/JsonWriter/ErrorContext and exceptions with the JSON path of the current position
- New feature - Added collection type to JsonArrayContract
- New feature - Added dictionary key type and dictionary value type to JsonDictionaryContract
- New feature - Added reader/writer specific Formatting, DateFormatHandling and DateTimeZoneHandling to JsonSerializerSettings
- New feature - Added ReadAsDate and ReadAsString to JsonReader
- New feature - Added IgnoreSerializableInterface to DefaultContractResolver
- Change - Dates are now serialized as the ISO format by default
- Change - The ReadAsXXX methods on JsonReader now return null at the end of an array instead of throwing an error
- Change - JsonReaders now to set TokenType to JsonToken.None after finishing content
- Change - Deserializing will fallback to use a private default constructor
- Change - The error message when deserializing a JSON object/array onto the wrong kind of type is more descriptive
- Change - Serializing ISerializable types under partial trust now errors to fix potential security issue
- Fix - Fixed reading scientific notation numbers with no decimal point
- Fix - Fixed LinqBridge collision error in .NET 2.0 by moving types to a different namespace
- Fix - Fixed error when deserializing nullable types with no content
- Fix - Fixed JObject.Keys null reference error when the object has no items
- Fix - Fixed error handling when failing to parse array content
- Fix - Fixed error handling when there are missing required properties
- Fix - Fixed performance issue when building deeply nested JSON to LINQ to JSON objects
Links

Json.NET CodePlex Project

Json.NET 4.5 Release 1 Download – Json.NET source code, documentation and binaries
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Feb 12 2012

Json.NET 4.0 Release 8 – Bug fixes
This is a relatively minor release that fixes all outstanding bugs and adds a couple of enhancements.

NuGet Silverlight/Windows Phone Assemblies No Longer Strong-Named

The big change this release is that the Silverlight/Windows Phone NuGet assemblies are no longer strong-named.

Unfortunately Silverlight/Windows Phone applications do not support redirecting strong-named assemblies like normal .NET apps do via <assemblyBinding> configuration. If a Silverlight or Windows Phone application uses two libraries that each reference a different version of Json.NET then the only solution is to get the source code for the libraries and recompile them yourself to use the same version of Json.NET – not ideal.

From 4.0.8 the NuGet assemblies for Silverlight/Windows Phone are no longer strong-named. If you do need strong-named versions of Json.NET for SL/WP then they are still available in the Json.NET zip download from CodePlex in the Bin\Silverlight\Signed and Bin\WindowsPhone\Signed zip folders. I don’t recommend using them with reusable SL/WP libraries because of the reasons above.

Json.NET Assembly Redirection

In case you ever do end up with multiple libraries that reference different versions of Json.NET in a normal .NET application, here is the configuration to fix your application use one version of Json.NET:
<runtime>

<assemblyBindingxmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1">

    <dependentAssembly>

      <assemblyIdentityname="Newtonsoft.Json"publicKeyToken="30ad4fe6b2a6aeed" />

      <bindingRedirectoldVersion="1.0.0.0-4.0.0.0"newVersion="4.0.8.0" />

    </dependentAssembly>

</assemblyBinding>

</runtime>
Update newVersion as needed to the version of Json.NET you are using. This can be found in Visual Studio by right-clicking on Newtonsoft.Json reference and selecting Properties.

Changes

Here is a complete list of what has changed since Json.NET 4.0 Release 6 (if you’re curious where v7 is, it was a minor release to fix a couple of urgent bugs).
- New feature - Added VersionConverter for System.Version
- New feature - Added a JSON schema IsValid overload that returns a list of error messages
- Change - NuGet Silverlight/Windows Phone assembies are no longer strong-named
- Fix - Fixed Json.NET attributes on nullable struct properties not being used
- Fix - Fixed deserializing nullable enums
- Fix - Fixed JsonConstructor incorrectly being allowed on properties
- Fix - Fixed empty string being changed to null when deserializing object properties
- Fix - Fixed not replacing ignored properties when resolving an object's contract
- Fix - Fixed JsonReader.ReadAsDateTimeOffset throwing an incorrect error message
- Fix - Fixed error when converting XML to JSON with a default namespace
- Fix - Fixed JsonValidatingReader.ReadAsBytes throwing an exception
- Fix - Fixed a unit test failing because of the running computer’s timezone
Links

Json.NET CodePlex Project

Json.NET 4.0 Release 8 Download – Json.NET source code, documentation and binaries
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Jan 23 2012

Json.NET 4.0 Release 6 – Serialization Performance
The big feature of this release is improved performance. For the first time in a couple of years I’ve sat down and benchmarked, profiled and tuned Json.NET.

For all its features Json.NET was already fast but there are improvements in JsonTextReader which I rewrote and object deserilization. Json.NET is faster than both .NET framework JSON serializers in all scenarios again.

Improved error messages

One of the nice features of JsonTextReader is that it keeps track of its current line number and line position and includes that information when it encounters bad JSON.

This release adds that line number and position information to deserialization errors. Now deserialization should be much easier to troubleshoot.
string json = @"[

1,

2,

3,

null

]";

List<int> numbers = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<List<int>>(json);

// Error converting value {null} to type 'System.Int32'. Line 5, position 7.
Worst. Bug. Ever. Fixed.

Visual Studio Ultimate Edition has a feature called Intellitrace. Intellitrace and Json.NET didn’t get along. After a year of at first being unsure why only some people were getting the error, and then not knowing what exactly why Intellitrace was breaking Json.NET, I finally nailed it down to one three line method that Intellitrace didn’t like. Fixed... finally.

Changes

Here is a complete list of what has changed since Json.NET 4.0 Release 4 (if you’re curious where v5 is, it was just one fix for Windows Phone Mango and NuGet).
- New feature - Added line number information to deserialization errors
- New feature - Added ReadAsInt32 to JsonReader
- New feature - Added BinaryReader/BinaryWriter constructor overloads to BsonReader/BsonWriter
- Change - JsonTextReader error message when additional JSON content found is more descriptive
- Fix - Removed unused utility methods
- Fix - Fixed elusive Intellitrace runtime destabilization error
- Fix - Fixed internal exception thrown when deserializing Decimal/DateTimeOffset/Byte lists
- Fix - Fixed potential multi-threading serializing issue
- Fix - Fixed serializing types that hides a base classes property with a proeprty of the same name
- Fix - Fixed BsonReader to use BinaryReader instead of base stream
- Fix - Fixed referencing the NuGet package from Windows Phone 7.1 projects
Links

Json.NET CodePlex Project

Json.NET 4.0 Release 6 Download – Json.NET source code, documentation and binaries
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Archives

Monitoring Windows Azure with Foglight

Json.NET 4.5 Release 11 - Serialization Tracing

XAML Applications on Windows 8 with DXTREME

Json.NET 4.5 Release 10 – Portable Class Library on NuGet

Json.NET vs Windows.Data.Json

Json.NET 4.5 Release 8 – Multidimensional Array Support, Unicode Improvements

Json.NET 4.5 Release 5 – JsonProperty enhancements

Json.NET 4.5 Release 4 – Portable Class Library Build

Json.NET 4.5 Release 2 – Serializable support and bug fixes

Json.NET Strong Naming and Assembly Version Numbers

Json.NET Metro Upgrade Kit

Json.NET 4.5 Release 1 - ISO dates, Async, Metro build

Json.NET 4.0 Release 8 – Bug fixes

Json.NET 4.0 Release 6 – Serialization Performance