How to Build Custom JSON Using JSON.Net

The serializer from JSON.Net is really good, and the default output from JsonConvert.SerializeObject will work for most situations, but sometimes you want fine control over the structure of your JSON. Fortunately, JSON.Net also includes an API for building out custom JSON. You will need the Nuget package Newtonsoft.Json and add the namespace Newtonsoft.Json.Linq.

To start, create a new JObject that will represent the root of the JSON. Call the Add method to add properties to the JSON.

JObject json = new JObject();
json.Add("id", 1);

When you want to add a level to the JSON, you can simply add another JObject as a property.

json.Add("user", 
	new JObject
	{
		{"username", "john"},
		{"password", "secret"},
	});

To add an array to your JSON, use the JArray class.

json.Add("emailAddresses",
	new JArray
	{
		"[email protected]",
		"[email protected]"
	});

You can combine these two concepts and add JObjects to the JArray.

json.Add("contacts",
	new JArray
	{
		new JObject 
		{
			{"name", "Matthew"},
			{"phone", "8885552222"},
		},
		new JObject
		{
			{"name", "Kristie"},
			{"phone", "8885553333"},
		}
	});

When you’re done, you can use this JObject as part of another JObject, or you can get the JSON by calling the ToString method.

json.ToString();

If you were to do this with the example code above, the end result would be:

{
  "id": 1,
  "user": {
    "username": "john",
    "password": "secret"
  },
  "emailAddresses": [
    "[email protected]",
    "[email protected]"
  ],
  "contacts": [
    {
      "name": "Matthew",
      "phone": "8885552222"
    },
    {
      "name": "Kristie",
      "phone": "8885553333"
    }
  ]
}

Enjoy building your own custom JSON!