JSON serialization in C#

From time to time, I forget where the various classes are defined. So, here is a short tutorial to how you get JSON working in C#:

• Add a reference to System.Web
• Add a reference to System.Web.Extensions
• Add using System.Web.Script.Serialization to your class.

You can now serialize and deserialize objects to/from JSON as such:

public static T Deserialize<T>(String str)
{
   return (new JavaScriptSerializer()).Deserialize<T>(str);
}

public static String Serialize(Object obj)
{
   return (new JavaScriptSerializer()).Serialize(obj);
}

You can now place these functions in a static class, or in a class that implement a serialization interface etc. If you want testable code, create an interface that describes a serializer and implement a JSON serializer that uses the code above.

Addon These days, Newtonsoft JSON is more or less a standard when it comes to working with JSON in .NET. Grab it from NuGet.