JSON string to list or other usable format in asp.net 2.0

Question

Hi, I have one JSON that is coming in a string format. I need to store it in a key pair value or something like that. I am using asp.net 2.0 and can not use 3rd party DLL like Newtonsoft.Json.dll. I guess last option will be to use regular expression. Can anybody please help me in this?

Answer 1

Could you use JScript.NET?

If so, should be easy enough with eval() - then just loop through the objects returned and translate into KeyValuePair's or whatever

Answer 2

I am using C# as page behind language. Can I use JScript with it. Also will it be compatible with 2.0?

Answer 3

You will need to use jscript.net as the code behind language, but other pages of your site should be fine to stay as c# if thats what you prefer.

As mentioned in previous comment, you will need to be aware of the security aspects and risks - only use eval if you trust the JSON you're parsing!

Answer 4

I guess I can not use JScript in total page as there are other things done from code too. :( Any way of string manipulation or regex?

Answer 5

If you go to http://www.json.org/ and look towards the bottom of the page there are dozens of json libraries most of them open source, I believe they list 8 for C#. If you can not reference one of these libraries, I think your best bet would be to find one with a permissive license and simply add the code to your project.

Another idea is to look at the diagrams, grammer, and syntax at http://www.json.org/ and just write your own parser, but regex is NOT the way to do it. If you dont know how to write a parser you could look at one of the open source json libraries or start with something less complicated like a good CSV parser, here is a paper that looks pretty good: http://www.boyet.com/Articles/CsvParser.html

Answer 6

It is possible to serialize JSON using JScript in C# into key/value pairs. You need to add a few references to your project. They're part of the .NET framework, you just need to add the references to your project. You'll need:

• Microsoft.JSript
• Microsoft.Vsa

First, the usings at the top of your class:

using Microsoft.JScript;
using Microsoft.JScript.Vsa;

Then the Engine that will execute the script needs to be initialized somewhere in your 'Page' code-behind:

VsaEngine Engine = VsaEngine.CreateEngine();

Then you just create this method and call it by passing in your JSON object:

object EvalJScript(string JScript)
{
    object result = null;
    try
    {
        result = Microsoft.JScript.Eval.JScriptEvaluate(JScript, Engine);
    }
    catch (Exception ex)
    {
        return ex.Message;
    }

    return result;
}

The type of object returned (if JSON is passed in) is a 'JSObject'. You can access its values as key/value pairs. Read the MSDN documentation for more details on this object.

Here's an example of using the code:

string json = "({Name:\"Dan\",Occupation:\"Developer\"})";

JSObject o = EvalJScript(json) as JSObject;

string name = o["Name"] as string; // Value of 'name' will be 'Dan'