Xamarin Forms: How to parse a JSON response without a stable key?

Question

I am using Newtonsoft.Json to parse my response. But for the below response I don't know how to create a model class and how to show it on an expander.

My Response:

{
"calendarEvents": {
        "2021-05-03T05:00:00.000+0000": [
            {
                "title": "Event 2",
                "description": "Event 2"
            }
        ],
        "2021-05-04T05:00:00.000+0000": [
            {
                "title": "Event 3",
                "description": "Event 3"
            }
        ],
        "2021-05-05T05:00:00.000+0000": [
            {
                "title": "Event 3",
                "description": "Event 3"
            },
            {
                "title": "Event 4",
                "description": "Event 4"
            }
        ]
    }
}

I tried something like below:

public class MyEvents
{
    public List<calendarEvents> calendarEvents { get; set; }
}

public class calendarEvents
{
    //What will be here? it is also a list and it has no stable key
}

public class Dummy//(Top class name here)
{
    public string title { get; set; }
    public string description { get; set; }
}

Instead of 2021-05-03T05:00:00.000+0000 this what I can add to the model class? The response is a list of items inside another list. Plan to use an expander to show this on UI, so any extra implementation need for that?

Answer 1

I checked with the back end team and they changed the JSON response like below:

{  
	"calendarEvents": [  
		{  
			"day": "20210503",  
			"list": [  
				{  
					"title": "Event 3",  
					"description": "Event 3"  
				}  
			]  
		},  
		{  
			"day": "20210504",  
			"list": [  
				{  
					"title": "Event 3",  
					"description": "Event 3"  
				},  
				{  
					"title": "Event 4",  
					"description": "Event 4"  
				}  
			]  
		},  
		{  
			"day": "20210505",  
			"list": [  
				{  
					"title": "Event 3",  
					"description": "Event 3"  
				},  
				{  
					"title": "Event 4",  
					"description": "Event 4"  
				},  
				{  
					"title": "Event 5",  
					"description": "Event 5"  
				}  
			]  
		}  
	]  
}  

Corressponding Model Class:

public class List  
{  
	public string title { get; set; }  
	public string description { get; set; }  
}  

public class CalendarEvent  
{  
	public string day { get; set; }  
	public List<List> list { get; set; }  
}  

public class Root  
{  
	public List<CalendarEvent> calendarEvents { get; set; }  
}  

Now I am able to parse the data and show it on an expander.

Thanks @JarvanZhang

Answer 2

Hello,​

Welcome to our Microsoft Q&A platform!

I don't know how to create a model class

You could convert the json to model classes online (such as json2csharp). Then add the model classes in your project.

how to show it on an expander

Try using JsonConvert.DeserializeObject method to deserialize the JSON to a .NET object and set binding for the views in Xamarin.Forms.

   var tr = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<List<Items>>(jsonString);  
   //After deserializing , we store our data in the List called ObservableCollection  
   ObservableCollection<Items> trends = new ObservableCollection<Items>(tr);  

Similar issue you could refer to:
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/60878223/xamarin-forms-read-local-json-file-and-display-in-picker

Best Regards,

Jarvan Zhang

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