JsonApiNet

An easy-to-use, extensible C# library for JSON API documents.

• Deserialization of complex attributes
• Compound document support for included resources
• Extensible Type and Property resolution with intelligent defaults
• Attribute and relationship mapping
• Full object graph for the JSON API document
• And more!

Written against v1.0 of the JSON API specification

Built on top of Json.NET and also uses Humanizer for type and property inference.

Note: This library doesn't provide a serializer (yet). There are a couple alternative serializers for JSON API out there, such as the JsonApiMediaTypeFormatter. I haven't done a ton of exploration in this area yet, but I would eventually like to extend this library to support both serialization and deserialization. If you're the author of one of these libraries and think it'd be a good fit to merge with this project, let me know.

Getting Started

JsonApiNet is available on NuGet (See package details on nuget.org)

Install-Package JsonApiNet

Single Resource

Here is a trivial, single-resource, JSON API document:

{
  "data": {
    "type": "articles",
    "id": "30cd428f-1a3b-459b-a9a8-0ca87c14dd31",
    "attributes": {
      "title": "JSON API paints my bikeshed!"
    }
  }
}

And we want to parse this response into an Article class:

public class Article {
    public Guid Id { get; set; }
    public string Title { get; set; }
}

We do so by calling ResourceFromDocument<T>:

var article = JsonApi.ResourceFromDocument<Article>(json);
Assert.AreEqual("JSON API paints my bikeshed!", article.Title);

Multiple Resources

Consider this collection (it's the same as the previous example, except "data" is an array now).

{
  "data": [{
    "type": "articles",
    "id": "30cd428f-1a3b-459b-a9a8-0ca87c14dd31",
    "attributes": {
      "title": "JSON API paints my bikeshed!"
    }
  }]
}

We can get a List<Article> from it:

var articles = JsonApi.ResourceFromDocument<List<Article>>(json);
Assert.AreEqual("JSON API paints my bikeshed!", articles[0].Title);

Mixed Resource Types

If your document's collection has heterogenous resource types, you must ensure that the container given to ResourceFromDocument<T> can store them or else you will get exceptions at run-time.

For example, consider the following document:

{
  "data": [{
    "type": "articles",
    "id": "30cd428f-1a3b-459b-a9a8-0ca87c14dd31",
    "attributes": {
      "title": "JSON API paints my bikeshed!"
    }
  },{
    "type": "books",
    "id": "4062e824-544c-41c9-9ef0-f05d03476d1e",
    "attributes": {
      "title": "and I wrote a book about it..."
    }
  },{
    "type": "magazines",
    "id": "85b03dc1-8f43-4660-809d-b3869ca0935a",
    "attributes": {
      "title": "which was featured in a magazine!"
    }
  }]
}

Let's say we wrote a common interface ITitled:

public interface ITitled {
    string Title { get; set; }
}

And classes to hold the Article, Book and Magazine types, all of which implement ITitled

public class Article : ITitled {
    public Guid Id { get; set; }
    public string Title { get; set; }
}

public class Book : ITitled {
    public string Title { get; set; }
}

public class Magazine : ITitled {
    public string Title { get; set; }
}

Then we can parse this into a List<ITitled>:

var titled = JsonApi.ResourceFromDocument<List<ITitled>>(json);
Assert.AreEqual("JSON API paints my bikeshed!", titled[0].Title);
Assert.AreEqual("and I wrote a book about it...", titled[1].Title);
Assert.AreEqual("which was featured in a magazine!", titled[2].Title);

If you forgot to make Article implement ITitled, you would see an exception like this:

System.ArgumentException: The value "JsonApiNet.Tests.Readme.MixedResources.Article" is
not of type "JsonApiNet.Tests.Readme.MixedResources.ITitled" and cannot be used in this 
generic collection.

Compound Documents

Here is a compound document with a collection of resources that have relationships to included data, meta data, links, and more. This is a list of articles. Each article has a relationship to an author and a list of comments.

{
  "data": [{
    "type": "articles",
    "id": "30cd428f-1a3b-459b-a9a8-0ca87c14dd31",
    "attributes": {
      "title": "JSON API paints my bikeshed!"
    },
    "links": {
      "self": "http://example.com/articles/1"
    },
    "relationships": {
      "author": {
        "links": {
          "self": "http://example.com/articles/1/relationships/author",
          "related": "http://example.com/articles/1/author"
        },
        "data": { "type": "people", "id": "9" }
      },
      "comments": {
        "links": {
          "self": "http://example.com/articles/1/relationships/comments",
          "related": "http://example.com/articles/1/comments"
        },
        "data": [
          { "type": "comments", "id": "5" },
          { "type": "comments", "id": "12" }
        ]
      }
    }
  }],
  "included": [{
    "type": "people",
    "id": "9",
    "attributes": {
      "first-name": "Dan",
      "last-name": "Gebhardt",
      "twitter": "dgeb"
    },
    "links": {
      "self": "http://example.com/people/9"
    }
  }, {
    "type": "comments",
    "id": "5",
    "attributes": {
      "body": "First!"
    },
    "links": {
      "self": "http://example.com/comments/5"
    }
  }, {
    "type": "comments",
    "id": "12",
    "attributes": {
      "body": "I like XML better"
    },
    "links": {
      "self": "http://example.com/comments/12"
    }
  }]
}

We already have an Article class from before, but let's extend it with some additional properties:

public class Article {
    public string Title { get; set; }
    public Person Author { get; set; }
    public List<Comment> Comments { get; set; }
}

A Person class for the author:

public class Person {
    public string FirstName { get; set; }
    public string LastName { get; set; }
}

And a Comment class for the comments:

public class Comment {
    public string Body { get; set; }
}

Nothing changes in how we retrieve the List<Article>:

var articles = JsonApi.ResourceFromDocument<List<Article>>(json);
Assert.AreEqual("JSON API paints my bikeshed!", articles[0].Title);

The author and comments are available too!

var author = articles[0].Author;
Assert.AreEqual("Gebhardt", author.LastName);

var comments = articles[0].Comments;
Assert.AreEqual("I like XML better", comments[1].Body);

Property Resolution for Attributes

In the examples, you might have noticed that there is a case mismatch between the "title" attribute named in the document and the Title property on the Article class.

The JsonApiPropertyResolver is what's responsible for finding the correct property on your Type.

The default resolution process is:

1. First look in the Type for properties with the [JsonApiAttribute("name")] attribute, where "name" matches the the key from the "attributes" object in the document. If a property is found, use that.

2. Next, look in the Type for a name that matches a normalized version of the key from the "attributes" object in the document. The normalization applies Underscore() and PascalCase() to the key, e.g. "first-name" becomes FirstName.

For example, we could map the "title" attribute into a property named Subject:

public class Article {
    [JsonApiAttribute("title")]
    public string Subject { get; set; }
}

Then fetch it back out:

var article = JsonApi.ResourceFromDocument<Article>(json);
Assert.AreEqual("JSON API paints my bikeshed!", article.Subject);

Customizing Property Resolution

If you have complex rules, or you can't annotate your mapped classes, then you will need to write a custom IJsonApiPropertyResolver and give it to the serializer when converting your document.

For example, here is an Article with a property named ThingYouCallit

public class Article {
    public string ThingYouCallIt { get; set; }
}

We'll write a custom NamingThingsIsHardResolver that can map the title attribute from our JSON API document into the ThingYouCallIt property:

public class NamingThingsIsHardResolver : JsonApiPropertyResolver {
    public override PropertyInfo ResolveJsonApiAttribute(Type type, string attributeName) {
        if (type == typeof(Article) && attributeName == "title") {
            return type.GetProperty("ThingYouCallIt");
        }

        return base.ResolveJsonApiAttribute(type, attributeName);
    }
}

You can use it like this:

var article = JsonApi.ResourceFromDocument<Article>(
    json, 
    null, 
    new NamingThingsIsHardResolver());
    
Assert.AreEqual("JSON API paints my bikeshed!", article.ThingYouCallIt);

Note: Returning null for the ResolveFoo calls will skip assignment of that property.

Type Resolution for Attributes

When parsing the values of an "attributes" object, JsonApiNet will attempt to deserialize each value into the Type associated with the property that the JsonApiPropertyResolver chose.

For example, if we have the following document:

{
  "data": {
    "type": "ghost_busters",
    "id": "Egon Spengler",
    "attributes": {
      "quotes": [
        "I collect spores, molds, and fungus."
      ],
    }
  }
}

We can map it into a GhostBuster class like this:

public class GhostBuster {
   public string Id { get; set; }
   public List<string> Quotes { get; set; }
}

In this example, the JsonApiPropertyResolver will resolve the "quotes" attribute into the Quotes property and then proceed to deserialize the quotes into a List<string>.

var ghostBuster = JsonApi.ResourceFromDocument<GhostBuster>(json);
Assert.AreEqual("I collect spores, molds, and fungus.", ghostBuster.Quotes[0]);

Note: This is using Json.NET under the hood, so you can map complex objects from your "attributes" values using [JsonProperty], specify a custom JsonConverter on them, etc.!

Property Resolution for Relationships

This works exactly the same as Attribute resolution, only you need to use the [JsonApiRelationship("name")] attribute instead of [JsonApiAttribute("name"}] to map them.

For example, let's say we want to map the "author" relationship into a property named WrittenBy:

public class Article
{
    [JsonApiRelationship("author")]
    public Person WrittenBy { get; set; }
}

And then we can use it like this:

var articles = JsonApi.ResourceFromDocument<List<Article>>(json); 
Assert.AreEqual("Gebhardt", articles[0].WrittenBy.LastName);

Type Resolution for Relationships

This does not work the same way as attribute types. Resource types are resolved using the JsonApiTypeResolver, therefore, you must ensure that the Type of the property that your relationships resolve to can hold an instance of the Type resolved by the JsonApiTypeResolver for the relationship's resource.

Using the Compound Document example from above, this will not work:

public class Article {
    [JsonApiRelationship("author")]
    public Comment Author { get; set; }
}

This doesn't work because the "type" for the "author" relationship is "people", and the JsonApiTypeResolver will resolve this to the Person class. The new Person instance will then be assigned to the Author property (which in this example we've incorrectly specified is a Comment), resulting in a run-time exception.

You'll get an exception like:

System.ArgumentException: Object of type
'JsonApiNet.Tests.Readme.RelationshipPropertyResolution.Person' 
cannot be converted to type 
'JsonApiNet.Tests.Readme.RelationshipPropertyResolution.Comment'

Property Resolution for Id and Type

If you want to map the "id" and "type" fields of the resource into your class, you can use the [JsonApiId] or [JsonApiType] attributes respectively:

public class Article {
    [JsonApiId]
    public Guid Identifier { get; set; }

    [JsonApiType]
    public string ResourceType { get; set; }
}

For the "id" field, JsonApiNet supports any Type that implements a static Parse(string) method and will use it to coerce the value found in the document to the appropriate type.

Type Resolution for Resources

How does JsonApiNet know which class to instantiate for a given resource "type"? Enter the JsonApiTypeResolver.

When you call ResourceFromDocument<T>, you get back an instance of type T, but that doesn't mean JsonApiNet is instantiating an object of type T for your resource types.

For example, this works:

var article = JsonApi.ResourceFromDocument<object>(json);
Assert.AreEqual("JSON API paints my bikeshed!", ((Article)article).Title);

Notice that it still got an Article (it casts successfully) even though we gave ResourceFromDocument<T> a generic type of object.

The JsonApiTypeResolver is responsible for determining the correct class to instantiate based on the "type" attribute associated with the resource in the JSON API document.

The default JsonApiTypeResolver is the ReflectingTypeResolver and it works by interrogating all of the Types defined in all assemblies within the current AppDomain for classes with the [JsonApiResourceType("name")] attribute set.

If a Type with a [JsonApiResourceType("name")] attribute is found, where "name" matches the typeName then that type is used.

Otherwise, the first Type whose name matches the normalized form of the typeName is used. The normalization applies Underscore(), Singularize(), and PascalCase() to the "type", e.g. "crazy-cats" becomes CrazyCat.

It turns out this is pretty useful for most common cases; however, if you want to explicitly specify the Type chosen for a given resource "type" in your document, then you can implement Custom Type Resolution as described below.

Note: If the JsonApiTypeResolver can't find a resource type for any reason, it will throw a JsonApiTypeNotFoundException

Custom Type Resolution

If for some reason you can't apply the [JsonApiResourceType] attribute to your classes, you can also write a custom IJsonApiTypeResolver that implements whatever mapping you deem fit:

public class BarneyTypeResolver : IJsonApiTypeResolver {
  public Type ResolveType(string typeName) {
    if (typeName == "rain_drops") {
      return typeof(LemonDrop);
    }

    return null;
  }
}

Then you can use it like so:

var lemonDrop = JsonApi.ResourceFromDocument<LemonDrop>(json, new BarneyTypeResolver())

This particular use-case is so common, that JsonApiNet provides a StringToTypeResolver which you can initialize with a Dictionary<string,Type> where the keys are the "type" members in your document and the values are the corresponding Type to instantiate:

var resolver = new StringToTypeResolver(
    new Dictionary<string,Type> {
        { "rain_drops", typeof(LemonDrop) }
    }
);

var lemonDrop = JsonApi.ResourceFromDocument<LemonDrop>(json, resolver);

JsonApiDocument

In addition to providing lots of awesome ways to get concrete resource classes out of your JSON API documents, JsonApiNet can also get you an object graph that represents the entire JSON API document.

var document = JsonApi.Document(json);

This is an instance of JsonApiDocument and has all the good stuff like Meta, Links, Errors, etc parsed into it. For example, if there were 'links' at the top-level of a document:

{
  "links": {
    "admin": "http://admin.to/articles"
  },
  "data": { ... }
}

For example, we could fetch the "admin" link from the top-level document:

var links = document.Links;
var adminUrl = links["admin"].Uri;

In this case, links would be a JsonApiLinks container instance, holding JsonApiLink members.

Note: Each JsonApiLink stored in the JsonApiLinks container has Href and Meta properties for fetching the values parsed out of the document and an additional Uri helper that converts the Href value into a System.Uri. In the case of a "simple link" (i.e., a string containing the link's URL), the Meta property will be null.

You can get the parsed representation of the resource (a JsonApiResource instance) by calling document.Data. This instance will let you fetch the Attributes, Relationships, Links, Id, Type, and Meta that were parsed from the document.

All of the properties are named consistently with the specification, so it shouldn't be too hard to discover what you need to drill down to a specific part of the document.

There is a generic from of Document<T> that returns a JsonApiDocument instance which you can use to access the Resource property and get what you would have normally received calling ResourceFromDocument<T>.

For example:

var document = JsonApi.Document<Article>(json);
var article = document.Resource;
Assert.AreEqual("JSON API paints my bikeshed!", article.Title);

Errors

If you are calling ResourceFromDocument<T> then the presence of a top-level "errors" field will cause JsonApiNet to throw a JsonApiErrorsException and stop processing the document. You can get the parsed JsonApiErrors instance from the JsonApiErrors property on the exception.

Otherwise, a top-level "errors" field will be parsed into the Errors property of the JsonApiDocument and it would be up to you to check for the presence of these in your parsed document and handle them appropriately. There is a convenience property named HasErrors on the top level document for this purpose.

For example, consider the following response with errors:

{
  "errors": [{
    "id": "8c0f0cef-7141-4da4-ad4a-8bbfff2a81a6",
    "status": 500,
    "title": "Error Title",
    "detail": "Error details go here.",
    "meta": {
      "timestamp": "2015-07-23T07:04:32.987Z",
      "path": "/foo/b",
      "trace": [
        "pf_common_api (2.0.4) lib/pf_common_api/errors/helpers.rb:22:in `render_error'",
        "lib/compressed_requests_middleware.rb:23:in `call'"
      ]
    }
  }]
}

If you were calling ResourceFromDocument<T> you might handle the error like this:

Article article;
try {
    article = JsonApi.ResourceFromDocument<Article>(json);
} catch (JsonApiErrorsException e) {
    Console.Error.WriteLine("Wat?! {0}", e.JsonApiErrors.Message);
    throw;
}

Alternatively, if you were using DeserializeDocument, you might handle it like this:

var document = JsonApi.DeserializeDocument<Article>(json);

if (document.HasErrors) {
    Console.Error.WriteLine("Wat?! {0}", document.Errors.Message);
    return;
}

Either of these would give you an output like:

Wat?! PF::Common::API::Errors::RoutingError: Invalid route

Errata

Deserializing into a Type only known at run-time

If you want to deserialize into a container Type that is only known at run-time, you can use the non-generic form of ResourceFromDocument or Document and pass the ResultType to the SerializerSettings

var article = JsonApi.ResourceFromDocument(
    json,
    new SerializerSettings {
        CreateResource = true,
        ResultType = typeof(Article)
    }
);

Assert.AreEqual("JSON API paints my bikeshed!", ((Article)article).Title);

Dependency Injection

The static methods provided on JsonApiNet are convenience methods. You can also instantiate a JsonApiNetSerializer yourself and call the similarly-named methods on it. For example:

var serializer = new JsonApiNetSerializer();
var article = serializer.ResourceFromDocument<Article>(json);
Assert.AreEqual("JSON API paints my bikeshed!", article.Title);

The JsonApinetSerializer inherits from IJsonApiNetSerializer which can inject or mock as you see fit.

Contributing

Please fork and submit pull requests. If you aren't sure how to approach a fix, or you want some advice, please feel free to open an issue. No contribution is too small.