Deserializing JSON with leading @ chars in servicestack

Question

The below snippet replicates a deserialisation issue I'm having inside a ServiceStack application. On running the below, the consignee property is populated correctly but the id is not.

    static void Main (string[] args)
    {
        string json = "{\"@id\":\"abcd\",\"consignee\":\"mr mann\"}"; 
        shipment some_shipment = new shipment();
        some_shipment = json.FromJson<shipment>();
        Console.Read();
    }

    class shipment
    {
        public string id { get; set; }
        public string consignee { get; set; }
    }

The library that is generating the JSON prefixes some elements with an @ to indicate that they came from an XML attribute but this program is beyond my control. I understand that ServiceStack name matches between JSON and object properties.

I've tried appending an @ to the property name but that doesn't help.

//doesn't help
public string @id { get; set;}

Is there a way of telling ServiceStack to deserialise @id into id without going through the process of implementing a custom deserialiser?

Answer 1

You need to use a [DataMember] attribute to tell ServiceStack the name of the field to serialise into. When you do this you will be using a [DataContract] which then requires that all other fields are marked with [DataMember] to be included. I.e. they become opt-in.

So your Shipping class becomes:

[DataContract]
class shipment
{
    [DataMember(Name="@id")]
    public string id { get; set; }

    [DataMember]
    public string consignee { get; set; }
}

You will need to reference using System.Runtime.Serialization;

I hope that helps.