Deserialize without generic type-parameter but.. with.. Type parameter?

[joergbattermann]

Good evening,

I was wondering whether there is any existing or a planned way to deserialize a string or stream into an object instance, without providing the target type via a type parameter, but via the "good old" Type parameter in the Json.Deserialize(..) signature, e.g.:

using(var input = new StringReader(myString))
{
var myTargetType = typeof(MyClass);
var result = JSON.Deserialize(input, myTargetType);
}

I know it doesn't exist atm and I would not want to use reflection to call your existing generic method via reflection to achieve that (ick: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2107845/generics-in-c-using-type-of-a-variable-as-parameter) unless I had to. Right now I am attempting to plug Jil into NancyFx as a custom (De-)Serializer and their IBodySerializer signature only provides the target type as a plain Type parameter value, not as a type parameter.

Is there any chance that might be added to Jil as an alternative to the existing JSON.Deserialize method?

Cheers and thanks,
-J

[kevin-montrose]

This isn't a bad idea, I'll see if I can't slip it into a future release.

[joergbattermann]

Awesome, thanks Kevin! (assuming you meant "can" instead of "can't" ;) )

[dotjosh]

Is there a way to serialize and pass the type too? I have a collection of objects that are used as their base type, so the generic method isn't serializing any properties defined on the subclass because the type is inferred from the generic signature of JSON.Serialize().

[kevin-montrose]

@dotjosh JSON.SerializeDynamic(object, Options) probably does what you want there. There's a perf hit (since it has to inspect), but if none of your types are DLR-aware then it shouldn't be a big one.

[dotjosh]

Thank you - yeah I saw that, didn't realize it was applicable. I'll have
to test the performance. The primary reason I'm looking at the library
(over newtonsoft) is the perf..

On Thu, Jun 25, 2015 at 9:44 PM, kevin-montrose notifications@github.com
wrote:

@dotjosh https://github.com/dotjosh JSON.SerializeDynamic(object,
Options) probably does what you want there. There's a perf hit (since it
has to inspect), but if none of your types are DLR-aware then it shouldn't
be a big one.

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