Deserialize two values into the same property

Question

I have a client which can call two different versions of a service.

One service only sends a single value:

{
  \"value\" : { ... }
}

T

Answer 1

To make a custom JsonConverter that has special processing for a few properties of a type but uses default processing for the remainder, you can load the JSON into a JObject, detach and process the custom properties, then populate the remainder from the JObject with JsonSerializer.Populate(), like so:

class MyValuesConverter : CustomPropertyConverterBase
{
    protected override void ProcessCustomProperties(JObject obj, MyValues value, JsonSerializer serializer)
    {
        // Remove the value property for manual deserialization, and deserialize
        var jValue = obj.GetValue("value", StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase).RemoveFromLowestPossibleParent();
        if (jValue != null)
        {
            (value.Values = value.Values ?? new List()).Clear();
            value.Values.Add(jValue.ToObject(serializer));
        }
    }
}

public abstract class CustomPropertyConverterBase : JsonConverter where T : class
{
    public override bool CanConvert(Type objectType)
    {
        return typeof(T).IsAssignableFrom(objectType);
    }

    public override object ReadJson(JsonReader reader, Type objectType, object existingValue, JsonSerializer serializer)
    {
        if (reader.TokenType == JsonToken.Null)
            return null;
        var jObj = JObject.Load(reader);
        var contract = (JsonObjectContract)serializer.ContractResolver.ResolveContract(objectType);
        var value = existingValue as T ?? (T)contract.DefaultCreator();

        ProcessCustomProperties(jObj, value, serializer);

        // Populate the remaining properties.
        using (var subReader = jObj.CreateReader())
        {
            serializer.Populate(subReader, value);
        }

        return value;
    }

    protected abstract void ProcessCustomProperties(JObject obj, T value, JsonSerializer serializer);

    public override bool CanWrite { get { return false; } }

    public override void WriteJson(JsonWriter writer, object value, JsonSerializer serializer)
    {
        throw new NotImplementedException();
    }
}

public static class JsonExtensions
{
    public static JToken RemoveFromLowestPossibleParent(this JToken node)
    {
        if (node == null)
            return null;
        var contained = node.AncestorsAndSelf().Where(t => t.Parent is JContainer && t.Parent.Type != JTokenType.Property).FirstOrDefault();
        if (contained != null)
            contained.Remove();
        // Also detach the node from its immediate containing property -- Remove() does not do this even though it seems like it should
        if (node.Parent is JProperty)
            ((JProperty)node.Parent).Value = null;
        return node;
    }
}