Unix timestamp and boolean converters for Json.NET

Hi everyone! Today I want to talk about two little additional converters for Json.NET which can make your life easier and more fun.

A few weeks ago, I decided to wrote a simple api-consumer. While I was creating this app I found some problems with transformation data from json to objects. For solving them I created two converters for Json.NET

Unix timestamp to DateTime

An api returns dates in format of unix timestamps, So, what should we do? Exactly, create our own custom converter. I did all the job for you. You can grab it from nuget

Install-Package UnixTimeConverter

or get it from Github and change code if you want. But it will be better, if you create a pr ;)

Example of UnixTimeConverter usage

namespace UsageExample
{
    public class ApiData
    {
        [JsonConverter(typeof(UnixTimeConverter))]
        public DateTime Date { get; set; }
    }

    public class ConverterTest
    {
        [Fact]
        public void HappyPath()
        {
            //Arrange
            var apiJson = "{ Date : 1321009871 }";

            //Act
            var result = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<ApiData>(apiJson);

            //Assert
            Assert.Equal(new DateTime(2011, 11, 11, 11, 11, 11, DateTimeKind.Utc), result.Date);
        }
    }
}

Number to bool converter for Json.NET

My second problem was about converting booleans from numbers. It’s a common situation when endpoint returns "bool" values as 1 or 0. So, I’ve solved this problem too. You can install converter

Install-Package BooleanConverter

or get it from Github

Example of BooleanConverter usage

namespace UsageExample
{
    public class ApiData
    {
        [JsonConverter(typeof(BooleanConverter))]
        public bool Field { get; set; }
    }

    public class ConverterTest
    {
        [Fact]
        public void SerializeHappyPath()
        {
            //Arrange
            var apiJson = "{ Field : 1}";

            //Act
            var result = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<ApiData>(apiJson);

            //Assert
            Assert.Equal(true, result.Field);
        }
    }
}

P.S.

I asked maintainer Json.NET about PR with converters to the library. But I was given an answer, that he didn’t like the idea of adding code to core library due to size issues.

Github’s issue

Conclusion

That’s all. I’ll be happy, If this article and tools helps you.