Byte array serialization in JSON.NET

Question

Given this simple class:

class HasBytes
{
    public byte[] Bytes { get; set; }
}

I can put it through JSON.NET such that the byte array is base-64 encoded:

var bytes = new HasBytes { Bytes = new byte[] { 1, 2, 3, 4 } };
var json = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(bytes);

Then I can read it back again in this slightly over-complicated way:

TextReader textReader = new StringReader(json);
JsonReader jsonReader = new JsonTextReader(textReader);
var result = (HasBytes)JsonSerializer.Create(null)
                 .Deserialize(jsonReader, typeof(HasBytes));

All good. But if I first turn the contents of jsonReader into a JToken:

var jToken = JToken.ReadFrom(jsonReader);

And then turn that back into a JsonReader by wrapping it in a JTokenReader:

jsonReader = new JTokenReader(jToken);

Then the deserialization throws an exception: "Expected bytes but got string".

Shouldn't the new JsonReader be logically equivalent to the original one? Why does the "raw" JsonTextReader have the ability to treat a string as a base-64 byte array whereas the JTokenReader version does not?

Daniel Earwicker · Accepted Answer · 2010-04-17 21:42:32Z

6

This appears to be a bug in JTokenReader as far as I can see, so I've reported it here.

Update: fixed in JSON.NET 3.5 release 7.

edited Apr 17, 2010 at 21:42

answered Apr 15, 2010 at 15:02

Daniel Earwicker

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