Getting started with JSON in .net and mono

The DataContractJsonSerializer can handle JSON serialization but it's not as powerful as some of the libraries for example it has no Parse method.

This might be a way to do it without libraries as I beleive Mono has implemented this class.

To get more readable JSON markup your class with attributes:

[DataContract]public class SomeJsonyThing{    [DataMember(Name="my_element")]    public string MyElement { get; set; }    [DataMember(Name="my_nested_thing")]    public object MyNestedThing { get; set;}}

Below is my implementation using the DataContractJsonSerializer. It works in mono 2.8 on windows and ubuntu 9.04 (with mono 2.8 built from source). (And, of course, it works in .NET!) I've implemented some suggestions from Best Practices: Data Contract Versioning. The file is stored in the same folder as the exe (not sure if I did that in the best manner, but it works in win and linux).

using System;using System.IO;using System.Runtime.Serialization;using System.Runtime.Serialization.Json;using NLog;[DataContract]public class UserSettings : IExtensibleDataObject{    ExtensionDataObject IExtensibleDataObject.ExtensionData { get; set; }    [DataMember]    public int TestIntProp { get; set; }    private string _testStringField;}public static class SettingsManager{    private static Logger _logger = LogManager.GetLogger("SettingsManager");    private static UserSettings _settings;    private static readonly string _path =        Path.Combine(            Path.GetDirectoryName(                System.Diagnostics.Process.GetCurrentProcess().MainModule.FileName),            "settings.json");    public static UserSettings Settings    {        get        {            return _settings;        }    }    public static void Load()    {        if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(_path))        {            _logger.Trace("empty or null path");            _settings = new UserSettings();        }        else        {            try            {                using (var stream = File.OpenRead(_path))                {                    _logger.Trace("opened file");                    _settings = SerializationExtensions.LoadJson<UserSettings>(stream);                    _logger.Trace("deserialized file ok");                }            }            catch (Exception e)            {                _logger.TraceException("exception", e);                if (e is InvalidCastException                    || e is FileNotFoundException                    || e is SerializationException                    )                {                    _settings = new UserSettings();                }                else                {                    throw;                }            }        }    }    public static void Save()    {        if (File.Exists(_path))        {            string destFileName = _path + ".bak";            if (File.Exists(destFileName))            {                File.Delete(destFileName);            }            File.Move(_path, destFileName);        }        using (var stream = File.Open(_path, FileMode.Create))        {            Settings.WriteJson(stream);        }    }}public static class SerializationExtensions{    public static T LoadJson<T>(Stream stream) where T : class    {        var serializer = new DataContractJsonSerializer(typeof(T));        object readObject = serializer.ReadObject(stream);        return (T)readObject;    }    public static void WriteJson<T>(this T value, Stream stream) where T : class    {        var serializer = new DataContractJsonSerializer(typeof(T));        serializer.WriteObject(stream, value);    }}