Scott Hanselman

System.Text.Json and new built-in JSON support in .NET Core

July 24, 2019 Comment on this post [10] Posted in ASP.NET | DotNetCore | Javascript
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In a world where JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) is everywhere it's long been somewhat frustrating that .NET didn't have built-in JSON support. JSON.NET is great and has served us well but it's remained a 3rd party dependency for basic stuff like an ASP.NET web site or a simple console app.

Back in 2018 plans were announced to move JSON into .NET Core 3.0 as an intrinsic supported feature, and while they're at it, get double the performance or more with Span<T> support and no memory allocations. ASP.NET in .NET Core 3.0 removes the JSON.NET dependency but still allows you to add it back in a single line if you'd like.

NOTE: This is all automatic and built in with .NET Core 3.0, but if you’re targeting .NET Standard or .NET Framework. Install the System.Text.Json NuGet package (make sure to include previews and install version 4.6.0-preview6.19303.8 or higher). In order to get the integration with ASP.NET Core, you must target .NET Core 3.0.

It's very clean as well. Here's a simple example.

using System;
using System.Text.Json;
using System.Text.Json.Serialization;

namespace verysmall
{
class WeatherForecast
{
public DateTimeOffset Date { get; set; }
public int TemperatureC { get; set; }
public string Summary { get; set; }
}

class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
var w = new WeatherForecast() { Date = DateTime.Now, TemperatureC = 30, Summary = "Hot" };
Console.WriteLine(JsonSerializer.Serialize<WeatherForecast>(w));
}
}
}

The default options result in minified JSON as well.

{"Date":"2019-07-27T00:58:17.9478427-07:00","TemperatureC":30,"Summary":"Hot"}      

Of course, when you're returning JSON from a Controller in ASP.NET it's all automatic and with .NET Core 3.0 it'll automatically use the new System.Text.Json unless you override it.

Here's an example where we pull out some fake Weather data (5 randomly created reports) and return the array.

[HttpGet]
public IEnumerable<WeatherForecast> Get()
{
var rng = new Random();
return Enumerable.Range(1, 5).Select(index => new WeatherForecast
{
Date = DateTime.Now.AddDays(index),
TemperatureC = rng.Next(-20, 55),
Summary = Summaries[rng.Next(Summaries.Length)]
})
.ToArray();
}

The application/json is used and JSON is returned by default. If the return type was just string, we'd get text/plain. Check out this YouTube video to learn more details about System.Text.Json works and how it was designed. I'm looking forward to working with it more!


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About Scott

Scott Hanselman is a former professor, former Chief Architect in finance, now speaker, consultant, father, diabetic, and Microsoft employee. He is a failed stand-up comic, a cornrower, and a book author.

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July 27, 2019 13:35
You are a beautiful man
July 27, 2019 19:47
Is James Newton-King involved in this new library or is he working on other projects?
July 28, 2019 10:23
Jesse - Yes, James is helping guide development on this as well.
July 29, 2019 11:29
Looking forward to using this once they allow deserializing to types that use non-default constructors...
July 29, 2019 14:34
"it's long been somewhat frustrating that .NET didn't have built-in JSON support.."

You forgot the good old DataContractJsonSerializer :)
July 29, 2019 18:09
When they make a movie about JSON, James Newton Howard should compose the score.
July 30, 2019 2:13
so good...
July 30, 2019 14:26
Looks good.
ToArray() needed :)
Aus
August 02, 2019 18:55
Amazingly well explained, thank you very much !
August 02, 2019 21:52
It is great news! JSON is used so often. It totaly makes sense to support it as intrinsic feature of platform.

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Disclaimer: The opinions expressed herein are my own personal opinions and do not represent my employer's view in any way.