Passing JSON as part of an object to .net core API

Question

The API I am working on requires a very complicated JSON object be passed in as a string, along with other values. So I created a class like this:

public class BURequest
{       
    public Guid  ID { get; set; }
    public string JSONStr { get; set; }  --->JSON passed in as string
    public string VersionName { get; set; }
}

The API controller has the following method:

public async Task<IActionResult> Check ([FromBody] BURequest testRequest) 

However I kept getting "After parsing a value an unexpected character was encountered: c. Path 'BURequest', line 4, position 3."

Here is the JSON string:

  {
      "content_version": "1",
      "date_created": "2020-10-06T13:52:15.288Z",
      "date_updated": "2020-10-06T13:54:24.325Z",
      "tools": {
        "car": true,
        "truck": true
      }
   }
 

Is there any way to get around this problem without having to create a class for the JSON object itself? It's a complicated object and has a huge number of properties. Thanks!

p.s.I've verified that the JSON string is valid using JSONLint as suggested below.

Answer 1

I would use JsonElement for this:

public class BURequest
{       
    public Guid  ID { get; set; }
    public JsonElement JSONStr { get; set; }  --->JSON passed in as string
    public string VersionName { get; set; }
}

And then just get the value:

testRequest.JSONStr.ToString() 

The Json needs to be:

{
    "JSONStr" : {
      "content_version": "1",
      "date_created": "2020-10-06T13:52:15.288Z",
      "date_updated": "2020-10-06T13:54:24.325Z",
      "tools": {
        "car": true,
        "truck": true
      }
   }
}

Answer 2

Just adding an answer to go with the comment on the question. Changing the type of the JSONStr property from string to JObject solves the problem.