Serialize/Deserialize a class hierarchy with .NET Core System.Text.Json

Question

I have a simple class hierarchy that I want to serialize using System.Text.Json.

There are 3 classes. The base is Shape. Inherited ones are Box and Circle.

I have a plan to use these classes as a tagged union on my frontend app so I just introduced a discriminator property Tag.

I wrote a type convertor that supports serialization/deserialization of this hierarchy.

What I'm trying to understand - is this a best approach to implement such functionality or not. Indeed the output result of serialization is quite ugly (I put a comment in an example below). I'm not sure it's done the best way anyway it's just working.

Here's the example how I implemented serialization/deserialization:

using System;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text.Json;
using System.Text.Json.Serialization;

namespace Serialization.Theory
{
    public abstract class Shape
    {
        public abstract String Tag { get; }
    }

    public class Box : Shape
    {
        public override String Tag { get; } = nameof(Box);

        public Single Width { get; set; }

        public Single Height { get; set; }

        public override String ToString()
        {
            return $"{Tag}: Width={Width}, Height={Height}";
        }
    }

    public class Circle : Shape
    {
        public override String Tag { get; } = nameof(Circle);

        public Single Radius { get; set; }

        public override String ToString()
        {
            return $"{Tag}: Radius={Radius}";
        }
    }

    public class ShapeConverter : JsonConverter<Shape>
    {
        public override Boolean CanConvert(Type typeToConvert)
        {
            return typeToConvert == typeof(Circle) || typeToConvert == typeof(Shape);
        }

        public override Shape Read(ref Utf8JsonReader reader, Type typeToConvert, JsonSerializerOptions options)
        {
            var raw = reader.GetString();
            var doc = JsonDocument.Parse(raw);
            var prop = doc.RootElement.EnumerateObject().Where(x => x.Name == "Tag").First();
            var value = prop.Value.GetString();

            switch (value)
            {
                case nameof(Circle): 
                    return JsonSerializer.Deserialize<Circle>(raw);
                case nameof(Box):
                    return JsonSerializer.Deserialize<Box>(raw);
                default:
                    throw new NotSupportedException();
            }
        }

        public override void Write(Utf8JsonWriter writer, Shape value, JsonSerializerOptions options)
        {
            if (value is Circle circle)
            {
                writer.WriteStringValue(JsonSerializer.SerializeToUtf8Bytes(circle));
            }
            else if (value is Box box)
            {
                writer.WriteStringValue(JsonSerializer.SerializeToUtf8Bytes(box));
            }
        }
    }

    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            // Keep in base class references like it's a property on another object.
            Shape origin1 = new Box { Width = 10, Height = 20 };
            Shape origin2 = new Circle { Radius = 30 };

            var settings = new JsonSerializerOptions();
            settings.Converters.Add(new ShapeConverter());

            var raw1 = JsonSerializer.Serialize(origin1, settings);
            var raw2 = JsonSerializer.Serialize(origin2, settings);

            Console.WriteLine(raw1); // "{\u0022Tag\u0022:\u0022Box\u0022,\u0022Width\u0022:10,\u0022Height\u0022:20}"
            Console.WriteLine(raw2); // "{\u0022Tag\u0022:\u0022Circle\u0022,\u0022Radius\u0022:30}"

            var restored1 = JsonSerializer.Deserialize<Shape>(raw1, settings);
            var restored2 = JsonSerializer.Deserialize<Shape>(raw2, settings);

            Console.WriteLine(restored1); // Box: Width=10, Height=20
            Console.WriteLine(restored2); // Circle: Radius=30
        }
    }
}

@shadeglare, please see the answer in the related question (which might be cleaner): https://stackoverflow.com/a/59744873/12509023 Polymorphic (de)serialization is not supported and requires a converter similar to what you wrote. There is an issue for adding polymorphic serialization support as an opt-in: https://github.com/dotnet/corefx/issues/38650 — ahsonkhan, Jan 16 '20 at 02:09
You need to dispose your `JsonDocument` to avoid a memory leak, e.g. by doing `using var doc = JsonDocument.Parse(raw);` See the [doc remarks](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/system.text.json.jsondocument?view=netcore-3.1#remarks) for details. — dbc, Jul 23 '20 at 15:49

Ilya Chernomordik · Answer 1 · 2022-10-24T07:47:25.430

2

Update .Net 7

Polymorphic serialization/deserialization is introduced in the latest .Net 7:

[JsonDerivedType(typeof(InheritedClass), "InheritedClass")]
public class BaseClass {};

This will properly serialize all instances of InheritedClass regardless of whether they are top level properties, the object itself or deep inside the hierarchy of properties.

Older answer

This worked fine for me(in .Net 5):

JsonSerializer.Serialize<object>(myInheritedObject)

Then all of the properties of both base and inherited class were included. Not sure if there are any problems with this approach though...

edited Oct 24 '22 at 07:47

answered Nov 26 '20 at 10:04

Ilya Chernomordik

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Works great for the main object itself but be aware that it won't have the same effect on any base-typed properties of that object. – Vyrotek Dec 30 '20 at 02:36

Michaël Catanzariti · Answer 2 · 2019-12-08T22:11:33.063

Please try this library I wrote as an extension to System.Text.Json to offer polymorphism: https://github.com/dahomey-technologies/Dahomey.Json

public abstract class Shape
{
}

[JsonDiscriminator(nameof(Box))]
public class Box : Shape
{
    public float Width { get; set; }

    public float Height { get; set; }

    public override string ToString()
    {
        return $"Box: Width={Width}, Height={Height}";
    }
}

[JsonDiscriminator(nameof(Circle))]
public class Circle : Shape
{
    public float Radius { get; set; }

    public override string ToString()
    {
        return $"Circle: Radius={Radius}";
    }
}

Inherited classes must be manually registered to the discriminator convention registry in order to let the framework know about the mapping between a discriminator value and a type:

JsonSerializerOptions options = new JsonSerializerOptions();
options.SetupExtensions();
DiscriminatorConventionRegistry registry = options.GetDiscriminatorConventionRegistry();
registry.RegisterConvention(new AttributeBasedDiscriminatorConvention<string>(options, "Tag"));
registry.RegisterType<Box>();
registry.RegisterType<Circle>();

Shape origin1 = new Box { Width = 10, Height = 20 };
Shape origin2 = new Circle { Radius = 30 };

string json1 = JsonSerializer.Serialize(origin1, options);
string json2 = JsonSerializer.Serialize(origin2, options);

Console.WriteLine(json1); // {"Tag":"Box","Width":10,"Height":20}
Console.WriteLine(json2); // {"Tag":"Circle","Radius":30}

var restored1 = JsonSerializer.Deserialize<Shape>(json1, options);
var restored2 = JsonSerializer.Deserialize<Shape>(json2, options);

Console.WriteLine(restored1); // Box: Width=10, Height=20
Console.WriteLine(restored2); // Circle: Radius=30

Serialize/Deserialize a class hierarchy with .NET Core System.Text.Json

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