JSON Serialization in VB.NET

This code snippet for JSON simple serialization and deserialization.

JSON serialization

Lets try to explain a simple serialization of json.

First of all lets say we have a json output file which looks like this

{"collumns":[{"ID":value,"Name":value,"LastName":value}]} . From this json file we need to make on object.

There is a lot of online pages which creates you objects and generate propertys.

The output in both cases should looks like this

Public Class Person
    Public Property ID() As String
        Get
            Return m_ID
        End Get
        Set
            m_ID = Value
        End Set
    End Property
    Private m_ID As Integer

    Public Property Name() As String
        Get
            Return m_Name
        End Get
        Set
            m_Name = Value
        End Set
    End Property
    Private m_Name As String

    Public Property LastName() As String
        Get
            Return m_Last
        End Get
        Set
            m_Last = Value
        End Set
    End Property
    Private m_Last As String

    Public Class Collectionss
        Public Property column As Person()
    End Class

End Class

After the json classes are generated we need to add the reference for NewtonSoft.Json.

We can add the desired reference by nudget package

"Tools -> Nuget package manager -> Package manager console " and type the command

Install-Package Newtonsoft.Json

After its downloaded successfully just import it:

Imports Newtonsoft.Json

I will add some test values for it.

Dim person As New Person()
Dim persons As New List(Of Person)

person = New Person

With person
      .id = 25
      .LastName = "Wayne"
      .Name = "John"
End With

Persons.add(person)

Now when we have the list of persons (objects) we call function ToJson which will return us the String value

Dim smth As String = person.ToJSON(persons)

Now everything is set up for first serialization. We will use .SerializeObject method

Public Function ToJSON(rows As List(Of Person)) As String
    Dim data As New Collectionss

    data = New Collectionss With {.coll = rows.ToArray}
    ToJSON = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(data)
    Return ToJSON
End Function

And as the output we have the json format.

In next post it will be explained how to send the json to web using socket.