Deserializing UPS API RatingResponse into c# strongly typed object

Question

I'm converting some existing code that used Legacy UPS Rating Soap Services to RESTful Rating API using OAuth 2.0. I've successful authenticated and make a Rating Request. I deserialize the RatingResponse to a strongly typed Ratingresponse Object.

The issue I'm having is with the Ratedpackage object:

UPS API Doc:

RatedPackage (required) - One of: Array of Rate_RatedShipment_RatedPackage (objects) or Rate_RatedShipment_RatedPackage (object)

It appears the SOAP Api always returned RatedPackage[] Array.

Multiple packages work fine, when I make the request for one package, I get a single object while my Strongly typed RatingResponse is expecting an Array of Ratedpackage:

Cannot deserialize the current JSON object (e.g. {"name":"value"}) into type 'UPSShipping.Ratedpackage[]' because the type requires a JSON array (e.g. [1,2,3]) to deserialize correctly. To fix this error either change the JSON to a JSON array (e.g. [1,2,3]) or change the deserialized type so that it is a normal .NET type (e.g. not a primitive type like integer, not a collection type like an array or List<T>) that can be deserialized from a JSON object. JsonObjectAttribute can also be added to the type to force it to deserialize from a JSON object.

What is the best way to handle the RatingRepsonse deserialization into a Strongly typed Array of Ratedpackage?

Answer 1

I was avoiding parsing the json or building the c# object with something like JSObject. After Ian's comment, I started researching the quick way to writing a custom Json converter when I stumbled upon How to handle overflow JSON or use JsonElement or JsonNode in System.Text.Json.

Specifically what I discovered was to change the reference from the Ratedpackage[] to a Dictionary object attributed with [JsonExtensionData] which stores any undefined json properties in a Dictionary and doesn't throw an exception. I can then handle parsing the JsonElement if needed!

For Example in my RatedShipment object where I was having the response conflict:

public class Ratedshipment
{
    public Service Service { get; set; }

    ....

    //UPS Rating returns either Array OR Single Object NOT JUST Array throwing Exception
    //public Ratedpackage[] RatedPackage { get; set; }

    [JsonExtensionData]
    public Dictionary<string, Object> RatedpackageJson { get; set; }

}

The pain about this issue is I didn't need Ratedpackage, so I didn't even need to parse it!