C# - Add Second JSON string to existing class

Question

I have a pair of classes that look something like this:

public class Parent
{
    public int id { get; set; }
    public string name { get; set; }
    public List<Child> children { get; set; }
}
public class Child
{
    public int id { get; set; }
    public string name { get; set; }
}

In order to populate the parent class, I make an API call and deserialize the returned JSON which looks like this:

JSON

{
 “parent”:{
   “id”:”123”,
   “name”:”parent name”,
   “child”:{
       “id”:”456″
   },
 }
}

C#

var parent = new JavaScriptSerializer().Deserialize<List<Parent>>(jsonString);

I then use the id of the child to make another API call which returns more details about the child that I need to use to populate the parent:

{
 “child”:{
   “id”:”456”,
   “name”:”child name”
 }
}

How can I populate the rest of the Parent class with the data from the child JSON string?

Answer 1

If I understood correctly, all you need is just make request for every partial child from Parent.children and then replace whole collection with full children information:

var parents = new JavaScriptSerializer().Deserialize<List<Parent>>(jsonString);
foreach (var parent in parents) {
    var fullChildren = new List<Child>();
    foreach (var partialChild in parent.children) {
        var fullChild = GetChildJsonById(partialChild.id);
        fullChildren.Add(fullChild);
    }
    // just replace whole stuff
    parent.children = fullChildren;
}

Answer 2

I haven't tested this, but I am fairly certain you can do something like:

var child = new JavaScriptSerializer().Deserialize<Child>(jsonString);

There shouldn't be more to it than that, assuming all you want is to update your child class.

This seems inefficient though, I don't know why the full child object isn't given from the first api call.