I'm relatively new to working with C# and JSON data and am seeking guidance. I'm using C# 3.0, with .NET3.5SP1, and JSON.NET 3.5r6.

I have a defined C# class that I need to populate from a JSON structure. However, not every JSON structure for an entry that is retrieved from the web service contains all possible attributes that are defined within the C# class.

I've been being doing what seems to be the wrong, hard way and just picking out each value one by one from the JObject and transforming the string into the desired class property.

JsonSerializer serializer = new JsonSerializer();
var o = (JObject)serializer.Deserialize(myjsondata);

MyAccount.EmployeeID = (string)o["employeeid"][0];

What is the best way to deserialize a JSON structure into the C# class and handling possible missing data from the JSON source?

My class is defined as:

  public class MyAccount
  {

    [JsonProperty(PropertyName = "username")]
    public string UserID { get; set; }

    [JsonProperty(PropertyName = "givenname")]
    public string GivenName { get; set; }

    [JsonProperty(PropertyName = "sn")]
    public string Surname { get; set; }

    [JsonProperty(PropertyName = "passwordexpired")]
    public DateTime PasswordExpire { get; set; }

    [JsonProperty(PropertyName = "primaryaffiliation")]
    public string PrimaryAffiliation { get; set; }

    [JsonProperty(PropertyName = "affiliation")]
    public string[] Affiliation { get; set; }

    [JsonProperty(PropertyName = "affiliationstatus")]
    public string AffiliationStatus { get; set; }

    [JsonProperty(PropertyName = "affiliationmodifytimestamp")]
    public DateTime AffiliationLastModified { get; set; }

    [JsonProperty(PropertyName = "employeeid")]
    public string EmployeeID { get; set; }

    [JsonProperty(PropertyName = "accountstatus")]
    public string AccountStatus { get; set; }

    [JsonProperty(PropertyName = "accountstatusexpiration")]
    public DateTime AccountStatusExpiration { get; set; }

    [JsonProperty(PropertyName = "accountstatusexpmaxdate")]
    public DateTime AccountStatusExpirationMaxDate { get; set; }

    [JsonProperty(PropertyName = "accountstatusmodifytimestamp")]
    public DateTime AccountStatusModified { get; set; }

    [JsonProperty(PropertyName = "accountstatusexpnotice")]
    public string AccountStatusExpNotice { get; set; }

    [JsonProperty(PropertyName = "accountstatusmodifiedby")]
    public Dictionary<DateTime, string> AccountStatusModifiedBy { get; set; }

    [JsonProperty(PropertyName = "entrycreatedate")]
    public DateTime EntryCreatedate { get; set; }

    [JsonProperty(PropertyName = "entrydeactivationdate")]
    public DateTime EntryDeactivationDate { get; set; }

  }

And a sample of the JSON to parse is:

{
    "givenname": [
        "Robert"
    ],
    "passwordexpired": "20091031041550Z",
    "accountstatus": [
        "active"
    ],
    "accountstatusexpiration": [
        "20100612000000Z"
    ],
    "accountstatusexpmaxdate": [
        "20110410000000Z"
    ],
    "accountstatusmodifiedby": {
        "20100214173242Z": "tdecker",
        "20100304003242Z": "jsmith",
        "20100324103242Z": "jsmith",
        "20100325000005Z": "rjones",
        "20100326210634Z": "jsmith",
        "20100326211130Z": "jsmith"
    },
    "accountstatusmodifytimestamp": [
        "20100312001213Z"
    ],
    "affiliation": [
        "Employee",
        "Contractor",
        "Staff"
    ],
    "affiliationmodifytimestamp": [
        "20100312001213Z"
    ],
    "affiliationstatus": [
        "detached"
    ],
    "entrycreatedate": [
        "20000922072747Z"
    ],
    "username": [
        "rjohnson"
    ],
    "primaryaffiliation": [
        "Staff"
    ],
    "employeeid": [
        "999777666"
    ],
    "sn": [
        "Johnson"
    ]
}