Convert Rss to JSON - Serialize to JSON by using XmlSerialization and JavaScriptSerializer
JSON (Javascript Object Notation) – is a light weight data interchange format. It essentially is composed of key-value pairs. For Example –
XML
<rss version="2.0">
<channel>
<item>
<link>http://test.com</link>
<title>Page Title</title>
</item>
</channel>
</rss>
JSON -
{
"Version":"2.0",
"Channel": {
"Items": [{
"Link":"http://test.com",
"Title":"Page Title"
}]
}
}
The beauty of JSON is it integrates easily with Javascript. Just use eval() function of JavaScript to parse. So to initialize the above JSON this should do the trick –
var rss = eval(‘({ "Version":"2.0", "Channel": { "Items": [{Link":"http://test.com",Title":"Page Title" }]}}’);
Javascript does provide some level of Object orientation. So you could access the properties from the above object like –
var itemtitle = rss.Channel.Items[0].Title;
var rssVersion = rss.Version;
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) – is used to syndicate your content. Unless you were hibernating for the past 5 years, I’m sure you know what Rss is. :)
So let’s get to the meat of this article. How to Convert an Rss Feed to JSON?
First I will use XmlSerialization to Serialize/Deserialize Rss. The System.Xml.Serialization namespace is used for this purpose. You will need to decorate all your properties with XmlSerialization attributes. E.g. –
[XmlElement("description")]
public string Description
{
get
{
return _description;
}
set
{
_description = value;
}
}
In this example (code provided below) I have created classes closely matching Rss specification (http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss)
To Serialize you can use the Serialize() method of XmlSerializer class
private string Serialize()
{
string xml = string.Empty;
using (StringWriter output = new StringWriter(new StringBuilder(), System.Globalization.CultureInfo.InvariantCulture))
{
XmlSerializer xmlSerializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(RssDocument));
xmlSerializer.Serialize(output, this);
xml = output.ToString();
}
return xml;
}
To Deserialize you can use the Deserialize ) method of XmlSerializer class
private static T DeserializeFromXmlUsingStringReader<T>(string xml)
{
if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(xml))
{
throw new ArgumentException("xml");
}
XmlSerializer xmlSerializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(T));
using (StringReader strngReader = new StringReader(xml))
{
return (T)xmlSerializer.Deserialize(strngReader);
}
}
This should create a Strongly typed representation of Rss.
To convert this Strongly typed Rss classes to Json format is actually very easy. ASP.Net AJAX provides JavaScriptSerializer class in System.Web.Script.Serialization.JavascriptSerializer.
Of particular importance to this example in this table is Serialize(object) method.
public string ToJson()
{
System.Web.Script.Serialization.JavaScriptSerializer js = new System.Web.Script.Serialization.JavaScriptSerializer();
return js.Serialize(this); //this is an instance of the strongly typed Rss Class
}
What’s cool is this technique can be used on any objects which uses XmlSerialization.
I have code example in the attachment below with example on how to Convert Rss to Json by pointing to a Url or loading from Xml string.
Note : To run the example you need to have ASP.Net 2.0 and Ajax Extensions. You can download it from here
