Reading json data from external api using C#

Question

I am trying to read json data that is coming from a api, and I just want to read objects from this data..

 string id_url = "http://abc/some_id";
 WebRequest requst = WebRequest.Create(id_url);
 requst.Method = "GET";
 requst.Headers["Authorization"] = "Basic " + Convert.ToBase64String(Encoding.Default.GetBytes("user:password"));
 HttpWebResponse response = requst.GetResponse() as HttpWebResponse;
 var encod = ASCIIEncoding.ASCII;
 using (var readchat = new System.IO.StreamReader(response.GetResponseStream(), encod))
 {
 string chatresult = readchat.ReadToEnd();
 var json = JObject.Parse(chatresult);
 }

and I am getting json as:

{
 "comment": null,
 "triggered_response": true,
 "rating": null,
 "visitor": {
 "phone": "",
 "name": "abc"
 },
 "history": [
 {
 "name": "Visitor 7949",
 "department_name": null,
 "type": "chat.memberjoin",
 "department_id": null
 },
 {
 "name": "fdef",
 "sender_type": "Trigger",
 "msg": "Welcome back! How may I help you today?",
 "type": "chat.msg" 
 },
 {
 "name": "use",
 "sender_type": "Trigger",
 "msg": "good morning",
 "type": "chat.msg" 
 }
 ]
}

I have to read only "msg" tag data from json using C#. I have tried this:

string data = json["history"].ToString();

by using above am getting the data from "history" tag but how will am able to get text from history[array].msg as we do using javascript ajax.

• vaibhav Dhiman: json is valid have checked using jsonformatter.curiousconcept.com
• mjwills: Possible duplicate of Load JSON data into a C# Class

Answer 1

You can use JsonConvert with dynamic object JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<dynamic>(data)

Sample code:

string data = " {\"comment\": null, \"triggered_response\": true, \"rating\": null, \"visitor\": { \"phone\": \"\", \"name\": \"abc\" }, \"history\": [ { \"name\": \"Visitor 7949\", \"department_name\": null, \"type\": \"chat.memberjoin\", \"department_id\": null }, { \"name\": \"fdef\", \"sender_type\": \"Trigger\", \"msg\": \"Welcome back! How may I help you today?\", \"type\": \"chat.msg\" },{ \"name\": \"use\", \"sender_type\": \"Trigger\", \"msg\": \"good morning\", \"type\": \"chat.msg\" } ] }";
var dynamicobject = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<dynamic>(data);
var historyname = dynamicobject.history[0].name.ToString();

Answer 2

 //data structure for mapping
public class History {
 public string name { get; set; }
 public string sender_type { get; set; }
 public string msg { get; set; }
 public string type { get; set; }
}
public class Visitor {
 public string Phone { get; set; }
 public string Name { get; set; }
}
public class ObjectThatContainsHistory {
 public string Comment { get; set; }
 public bool Triggered_Response { get; set; }
 public string Rating { get; set; }
 public Visitor Visitor { get; set; }
 public List<History> History { get; set; }
}
 var jsonString =
 @"{
 ""comment"": null,
 ""triggered_response"": true,
 ""rating"": null,
 ""visitor"": {
 ""phone"": """",
 ""name"": ""abc""
 },
 ""history"": [
 {
 ""name"": ""Visitor 7949"",
 ""department_name"": null,
 ""type"": ""chat.memberjoin"",
 ""department_id"": null
 },
 {
 ""name"": ""fdef"",
 ""sender_type"": ""Trigger"",
 ""msg"": ""Welcome back! How may I help you today?"",
 ""type"": ""chat.msg"" 
 },
 {
 ""name"": ""use"",
 ""sender_type"": ""Trigger"",
 ""msg"": ""good morning"",
 ""type"": ""chat.msg"" 
 }
 ]
 }";
 ObjectThatContainsHistory objectThatContainsHistory = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<ObjectThatContainsHistory>(jsonString);
 var messages = objectThatContainsHistory.History
 .Select(x => x.msg)
 .ToList();