Parsing with Json.NET: "Unexpected token: StartObject"

Question

I am parsing JSON and I get the following error:

I am using the Newtonsoft.Json.NET dll.

Error reading string. Unexpected token: StartObject. Path '[0]', line 1, position 2.

This is the code that I have:

public static List<string> GetPluginByCategory(string category)
    {
        var wc = new WebClient();
        var json = wc.DownloadString("http://api.bukget.org/api2/bukkit/category/" + category);
        var list = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<List<string>>(json);
        return list;
    }

category can be one of the following strings:

["Admin Tools", "Anti-Griefing Tools", "Chat Related", "Developer Tools", "Economy", "Fixes", "Fun", "General", "Informational", "Mechanics", "Miscellaneous", "Role Playing", "Teleportation", "Website Administration", "World Editing and Management", "World Generators"]

EDIT: This is the response I get:

 [{"description": "Stop users swearing\n", "name": "a5h73y", "plugname": "NoSwear"}, {"description": "Be sure that your server rules are read and accepted!", "name": "acceptdarules", "plugname": "AcceptDaRules"}]

Does anybody know why it doesn't work? It used to work before :/.

Please post the exact JSON data received from the server. Chances are it is not "an array of strings" for whatever reason. — user166390
– user166390, Commented Sep 11, 2012 at 19:26
(Actually, seeing the response is long, post a short but should-be-valid-per-expectations version of the response that shows the same error. The error is that JSON.NET is finding a { where it expects a string start. List<string> maps to ["a", "b", "etc"] whereas the data is [{someobj1}, {someobj2}, {etc}].) — user166390
– user166390, Commented Sep 11, 2012 at 19:33
Here's a small piece of code I get: [{"description": "Stop users swearing\n", "name": "a5h73y", "plugname": "NoSwear"}, {"description": "Be sure that your server rules are read and accepted!", "name": "acceptdarules", "plugname": "AcceptDaRules"} — Yuki Kutsuya
– Yuki Kutsuya, Commented Sep 11, 2012 at 19:38
Update that in the main post (don't forget to add a ] at the end to make it a representative sample). — user166390
– user166390, Commented Sep 11, 2012 at 19:39
When it "used to work", was the data from the server the same? Maybe it changed? — user166390
– user166390, Commented Sep 11, 2012 at 19:40

L.B · Accepted Answer · 2012-09-12 16:49:36Z

23

Your json is an array of complex object not an array of strings. Try this (TESTED):

WebClient wc = new WebClient();
string json = wc.DownloadString("http://api.bukget.org/api2/bukkit/category/Teleportation");

var items = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<List<MyItem>>(json);

public class MyItem
{
    public string description;
    public string name;
    public string plugname;
}

EDIT

WebClient wc = new WebClient();
var json = wc.DownloadString("http://api.bukget.org/api2/bukkit/plugin/aboot");

dynamic dynObj = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject(json);
Console.WriteLine("{0} {1}", dynObj.plugname,dynObj.link);
foreach (var version in dynObj.versions)
{
    var dt = new DateTime(1970, 1, 1).AddSeconds((int)version.date);
    Console.WriteLine("\t{0} {1} {2}",version.version, version.download, dt);
}

edited Sep 12, 2012 at 16:49

answered Sep 11, 2012 at 19:24

L.B

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20 Comments

user166390 Over a year ago

The "used to work" in the post has been throwing me off; is there a way to get Json.NET to "stuff" complex values into strings (as JSON)? Perhaps a converter?

L.B Over a year ago

@pst you can use List<object> type to deserialize and call a ToString() on every item in the list. This would return something like { "description": null, "name": "abitofrealism", "plugname": "AbitOfRealism" }

user166390 Over a year ago

Yeah, that's what I thought .. anyway, issue seems to be "API change" so no more wonder.

Yuki Kutsuya Over a year ago

Umm... this might be a stupid question but, I can't use this code to retrieve data from one plugin., like this one: http://api.bukget.org/api2/bukkit/plugin/aboot

L.B Over a year ago

@FoxyShadoww your new url returns a completely different json string. You should use a different class (or dynamic) to deserialize this response.

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