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Nov 27 2018

Json.NET 12.0 Release 1 - .NET Foundation, NuGet and Authenticode signing, SourceLink and more
.NET Foundation

Json.NET has joined the .NET Foundation! The .NET Foundation is an independent organization dedicated to fostering the .NET open source community. The .NET Foundation provides technical and legal guidance .NET open source projects. Joining the .NET Foundation ensures that Json.NET stays open and supported into the future.

Read more on the .NET Foundation blog.

NuGet package and Authenticode signing

Json.NET 12 is the first release to sign the *.nupkg using NuGet package signing and sign the assembly files using Authenticode. Although it isn't a common request, some users of Json.NET have asked for signed binaries because of company policy. This feature is made possible by the .NET Foundation, who offer code signing certificates and a signing service to member projects.

Better debugging with SourceLink

SourceLink is an neat technology that links a library to its source code. Originally created in the community by @ctaggart, SourceLink has been adopted by Microsoft and is supported in Visual Studio. This release adds SourceLink support to Json.NET, making it possible to step into the Json.NET source code as you debug your application.

And lots more

JSON Path supports JavaScript's strict equality operators (=== & !==), StringEnumConverter can use a NamingStrategy and is faster, JavaScriptDateTimeConverter supports JavaScript date constructors with multiple arguments, there is a new option on JsonMergeSettings for case insensitive merging of property names, serializing Span<T> properties no longer errors, and dozens of other new features and bug fixes.

Changes

Here is a complete list of what has changed since Json.NET 11.0 Release 2.
- New feature - Added NuGet package signing
- New feature - Added Authenticode assembly signing
- New feature - Added SourceLink support
- New feature - Added constructors to StringEnumConverter for setting AllowIntegerValue
- New feature - Added JsonNameTable and JsonTextReader.PropertyNameTable
- New feature - Added line information to JsonSerializationException
- New feature - Added JObject.Property overload with a StringComparison
- New feature - Added JsonMergeSettings.PropertyNameComparison
- New feature - Added support for multiple Date constructors with JavaScriptDateTimeConverter
- New feature - Added support for strict equals and strict not equals in JSON Path queries
- New feature - Added EncodeSpecialCharacters setting to XmlNodeConverter
- New feature - Added trace message for serializing to non-writable properties
- New feature - Added support for NamingStrategy to StringEnumConverter
- New feature - Added JsonLoadSettings.DuplicatePropertyNameHandling setting
- Change - JTokenReader now uses JsonReader.DateTimeZoneHandling setting for date values
- Change - Excluded TargetSite when serializing Exceptions without SerializableAttribute
- Change - Changed StringEnumConverter.ctor(bool camelCaseText) to obsolete
- Change - Changed StringEnumConverter.CamelCaseText to obsolete
- Fix - Fixed incorrect overflow when reading decimal values from JSON
- Fix - Fixed error message when trying to deserialize an abstract serializable type
- Fix - Fixed parsing decimals from a string with an exponent
- Fix - Fixed losing DateTime.Kind when deserializing ISO date strings
- Fix - Fixed calling constructors with ref and in parameters
- Fix - Fixed rare race condition in name table when serializing
- Fix - Fixed unhelpful exception message when unable to convert JSON value to DateTime
- Fix - Fixed error when deserializing empty array in DataTable
- Fix - Fixed deserializing empty string to empty byte array
- Fix - Fixed blank extension data values with required properties and deserializing with constructor
- Fix - Fixed ignored values being set in extension data when deserializing
- Fix - Fixed comparing equal integer and floating point values in JSON Path
- Fix - Fixed BsonReader when reading multiple content
- Fix - Fixed setting extension data with existing key
- Fix - Fixed including array attribute in XML with namespaces when converting JSON to XML
- Fix - Fixed error when serializing ref struct properties by excluding them from serialization
Links

Json.NET GitHub Project

Json.NET 12.0 Release 1 Download - Json.NET source code and assemblies
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Feb 22 2018

Json.NET 11.0 Release 1 - .NET Standard 2.0, JsonConverters, JSON Path and more
.NET Standard 2.0

The big new feature in Json.NET 11 Release 1 is targeted support for .NET Standard 2.0.

There are two main benefits of a library like Json.NET targeting .NET Standard 2.0. The first is more APIs: Json.NET with .NET Standard 2.0 almost matches Json.NET on the traditional Windows .NET Framework in features.

For example, fans of serializing DataSets to and from JSON rejoice, .NET Core now supports your pro-DataSet lifestyle:

DataTable dt = new DataTable();
dt.Columns.Add("PackageId", typeof(string));
dt.Columns.Add("Version", typeof(string));
dt.Columns.Add("ReleaseDate", typeof(DateTime));

dt.Rows.Add("Newtonsoft.Json", "11.0.1", new DateTime(2018, 2, 17));
dt.Rows.Add("NUnit", "3.9.0", new DateTime(2017, 11, 10));

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

Console.WriteLine(json);
// [
//   {
//     "PackageId": "Newtonsoft.Json",
//     "Version": "11.0.1",
//     "ReleaseDate": "2018-02-17T00:00:00"
//   },
//   {
//     "PackageId": "Newtonsoft.Json",
//     "Version": "10.0.3",
//     "ReleaseDate": "2017-06-18T00:00:00"
//   }
// ]

The other benefit of .NET Standard 2.0 is developers are no longer spammed with NuGet dependencies. UWP app authors for example saw NuGet pull in over 100 packages when referencing Json.NET. UWP supporting .NET Standard 2.0 and consuming a netstandard2.0 package eliminates that problem.

JsonConverter Stuff

Json.NET 11 adds a generic JsonConverter<T>. If you only care about serializing one specific type then JsonConverter<T> eliminates boiler plate code from your converter and keeps everything strongly typed.

Also new is a UnixDateTimeConverter. There is no standard for serializing dates in JSON and so UnixDateTimeConverter is a useful converter for anyone who want to store time as an integer Unix epoch in their JSON.

JSON Path Stuff

Json.NET 11 adds support for the regular expression operator in JSON Path queries. JSON Path has no formal specification (other than a blog post) but one common addition to it is support for querying with regular expressions.

JArray packages = JArray.Parse(@"[
  {
    ""PackageId"": ""Newtonsoft.Json"",
    ""Version"": ""11.0.1"",
    ""ReleaseDate"": ""2018-02-17T00:00:00""
  },
  {
    ""PackageId"": ""NUnit"",
    ""Version"": ""3.9.0"",
    ""ReleaseDate"": ""2017-11-10T00:00:00""
  }
]");

List<JToken> newtonsoftPackages = packages.SelectTokens(@"$.[?(@.PackageId =~ /^Newtonsoft\.(.*)$/)]").ToList();

Console.WriteLine(newtonsoftPackages.Count);
// 1

JSON Path has also seen many smaller bug fixes this release to improve its performance and support of escaped characters.

And lots more

Serializing and deserializing enumerations by name is faster and more accurate, JsonReader.SupportMultipleContent supports reading multiple comma delimited fragments of JSON together, JObject exposes ContainsKey, error messages have improved in many exceptional situations, and dozens of other new features and bug fixes.

Changes

Here is a complete list of what has changed since Json.NET 10.0 Release 3.
- New feature - Added netstandard2.0 build
- New feature - Added generic JsonConverter<T>
- New feature - Added UnixDateConverter for converting Unix timestaps
- New feature - Added support for regex operator in JSON Paths
- New feature - Added JsonObjectAttribute.ItemNullValueHandling
- New feature - Added JsonObjectContract.ItemNullValueHandling
- New feature - Improved performance when resolving serialization contracts by using ConcurrentDictionary
- New feature - Improved performance of JToken.Path with a faster reverse
- New feature - Improved performance of parsing Int32 JSON integer values
- New feature - Improved performance of parsing and writing enum names
- New feature - Added IgnoreIsSpecifiedMembers to DefaultContractResolver
- New feature - Added IgnoreShouldSerializeMembers to DefaultContractResolver
- New feature - Added support for reading multiple comma delimited values with JsonReader.SupportMultipleContent
- New feature - Improved error message when an object is reused with PreserveReferencesHandling
- New feature - Added IConvertible support to netstandard1.3
- New feature - Added INotifyPropertyChanging support to netstandard1.3
- New feature - Optimized internal buffering when writing very large strings
- New feature - JObject.ContainsKey is now public
- New feature - Improved the error message when serialized ByRef properties
- New feature - Improved the error message when serializing FileInfo/DictionaryInfo without ISerializable
- New feature - Improved the error message when failing conversion in JsonReader.ReadAsInt32 and JsonReader.ReadAsDecimal
- New feature - Improved the error message when deserializing badly formatted regex strings
- Change - Types that implement ISerializable but don't have [SerializableAttribute] are not serialized using ISerializable
- Change - Changed JsonProperty.MemberConverter to obsolete
- Change - Changed camel casing logic for all caps words to not leave last character capitalized
- Change - Changed enum serialization in dictionary keys to use EnumMemberAttribute
- Fix - Fixed converting default datetime in JSON to XML on netstandard1.3
- Fix - Fixed deserializing ObservableCollection in .NET Core 2.0
- Fix - Fixed incorrectly allowing static IsSpecified properties
- Fix - Fixed not preserving trailing zeros when deserializing decimals
- Fix - Fixed JValue.CompareTo with number and string values
- Fix - Fixed not erroring when reading undefined for nullable long
- Fix - Fixed serializing immutable collections when .NET 4.0 or previous Newtonsoft.Json assembly is GACed
- Fix - Fixed writing null values by XmlNodeConverter and RegexConverter
- Fix - Fixed deserializing with a TraceWriter when the reader is not at the start
- Fix - Fixed TraceJsonWriter.WriteValue(object) writing value twice
- Fix - Fixed deserializing with constructor and readonly collection property
- Fix - Fixed error when writing unknown null value as JSON
- Fix - Fixed merging null string values
- Fix - Fixed missing CancellationToken usages in JsonTextWriter.WriteAsync
- Fix - Fixed error with JsonSerializer.Populate and comments in JSON array
- Fix - Fixed error handling when deserializing certain dictionary and lists
- Fix - Fixed serializing collection that is nullable
- Fix - Fixed JsonTextReader sync read in async method
- Fix - Fixed JsonConverter not called when target type is list and token is a string
- Fix - Fixed serializing a property that is defined in multiple interfaces
- Fix - Fixed error when deserializing null value into ConcurrentDictionary
- Fix - Fixed escaping special characters in generated JSON Paths
- Fix - Fixed reading escaped special characters in JSON Paths
- Fix - Fixed using extension data with dictionary that explicitly implements Add method
- Fix - Fixed parsing enum name to exact casing value before falling back to case-insensitive value
- Fix - Fixed DataContractAttribute not forcing object serialization of classes
- Fix - Fixed bug when deserializing into existing non-IList collection
- Fix - Fixed bug when deserializing into existing non-IDictionary collection
- Fix - Fixed JsonReader.ReadAsInt32 with BigInteger values
Links

Json.NET GitHub Project

Json.NET 11.0 Release 1 Download - Json.NET source code and assemblies
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