Alternate property name while deserializing

Question

In reference to this question:

How can I change property names when serializing with Json.net?

Sure, great, but can I have the cake and eat it?

What

Answer 1

Another way of accomplishing this is intercepting the serialization/deserialization process early, by doing some overrides the JsonReader and JsonWriter

public class CustomJsonWriter : JsonTextWriter
{
    private readonly Dictionary _backwardMappings;

    public CustomJsonWriter(TextWriter writer, Dictionary backwardMappings)
        : base(writer)
    {
        _backwardMappings = backwardMappings;
    }

    public override void WritePropertyName(string name)
    {
        base.WritePropertyName(_backwardMappings[name]);
    }
}

public class CustomJsonReader : JsonTextReader
{
    private readonly Dictionary _forwardMappings;


    public CustomJsonReader(TextReader reader, Dictionary forwardMappings )
        : base(reader)
    {
        _forwardMappings = forwardMappings;
    }

    public override object Value
    {
        get
        {
            if (TokenType != JsonToken.PropertyName)
                return base.Value;

            return _forwardMappings[base.Value.ToString()];
        }
    }
}

After doing this, you can serialize by doing

var mappings = new Dictionary
{
    {"Property1", "Equivalent1"},
    {"Property2", "Equivalent2"},
};
var builder = new StringBuilder();
JsonSerializer.Create().Serialize(new CustomJsonWriter(new StringWriter(builder), mappings), your_object);

and deserialize by doing

var mappings = new Dictionary
{
    {"Equivalent1", "Property1"},
    {"Equivalent2", "Property2"},
};
var txtReader = new CustomJsonReader(new StringReader(jsonString), mappings);
var your_object = JsonSerializer.Create().Deserialize(txtReader);