Introduction

Json.NET - Quick Starts & API Documentation
Introduction

Json.NET makes working with JSON formatted data in .NET simple. Quickly read and write JSON using LINQ to JSON or serialize your .NET objects with a single method call using the JsonSerializer.

### Features

- Flexible JSON serializer to convert .NET objects to JSON and back again
- LINQ to JSON for reading and writing JSON
- Writes indented, easy to read JSON
- Convert JSON to and from XML
- Supports Silverlight and the Compact Framework

The JSON serializer is a good choice when the JSON you are reading or writing maps closely to a .NET class. The serializer automatically reads and writes JSON for the class.

For situations where you are only interested in getting values from JSON, don't have a class to serialize or deserialize to, or the JSON is radically different from your class and you need to manually read and write from your objects then LINQ to JSON is what you should use. LINQ to JSON allows you to easily read, create and modify JSON in .NET.

### History

Json.NET grew out of projects I was working on in late 2005 involving JavaScript, AJAX and .NET. At the time there were no libraries for working with JavaScript in .NET so I began to grow my own.

Starting out as a couple of static methods for escaping JavaScript strings, Json.NET evolved as features were added. To add support for reading JSON a major refactor was required and Json.NET will split into the three major classes it still uses today, JsonReader, JsonWriter and JsonSerializer.

Json.NET was first released in June 2006. Since then Json.NET has been downloaded thousands of times by developers and is used in a number of major projects open source projects including MonoRail, Castle Project's MVC web framework, and Mono, an open source implementation of the .NET framework.

~ James Newton-King

### Donate

Json.NET is a free open source project that I have developed in my personal time.

I really appreciate your feedback and support for Json.NET and its future development.