Exception converting JSON.NET JObject to JsonResult

Question

I have a JSON.NET JObject with data structured like this:

{
    "foo" : {
        "bar": "baz"
    }
}

I'm trying to convert it to a ASP.NET MVC JsonResult as follows:

JObject someData = ...;
JsonResult jsonResult = Json(someData, "application/json", JsonRequestBehavior.AllowGet);

When I do this, I get the following exception:

InvalidOperationException was unhandled by user code. Cannot access child value on Newtonsoft.Json.Linq.JValue.

I have a workaround, in that I can iterate through all of the properties of the JObject, and parse them into a generic object like so:

JsonResult jsonResult = Json(new { key1 = value1, key2 = value2, ... });

However, this seems error prone and like an unnecessary non-generic way of solving this problem. Is there any way I can do this more efficiently, hopefully using some built in methods in JSON.NET or ASP.NET MVC?

Why not simply serialize your object using JSON.net, and then write that as a ContentResult? — Tejs
– Tejs, Commented Apr 6, 2011 at 20:40

Darin Dimitrov · Accepted Answer · 2011-04-06 20:51:47Z

14

If you have a JObject I would recommend you writing a custom ActionResult which directly serializes this JObject using JSON.NET into the response stream. It is more in the spirit of the MVC pattern:

public ActionResult Foo()
{
    JObject someData = ...;
    return new JSONNetResult(someData);
}

where:

public class JSONNetResult: ActionResult
{
    private readonly JObject _data;
    public JSONNetResult(JObject data)
    {
        _data = data;
    }

    public override void ExecuteResult(ControllerContext context)
    {
        var response = context.HttpContext.Response;
        response.ContentType = "application/json";
        response.Write(_data.ToString(Newtonsoft.Json.Formatting.None));
    }
}

It seems like an overkill to have a JObject which you would serialize into JSON using the .NET JavaScriptSerializer which is more commonly used in conjunction with some model classes.

edited Apr 6, 2011 at 20:51

answered Apr 6, 2011 at 20:39

Darin Dimitrov

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2 Comments

Raul Agrait Over a year ago

Thanks, using your input I found the author's following link: james.newtonking.com/archive/2008/10/16/…, which gave me what I was looking for.

Alexander Mihailov Over a year ago

But why the code provided in the question does not work?

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