Order of serialized fields using JSON.NET

This will work for normal classes, dictionaries and ExpandoObject (dynamic object) as well.

class OrderedPropertiesContractResolver : DefaultContractResolver
    {
        protected override IList<JsonProperty> CreateProperties(System.Type type, MemberSerialization memberSerialization)
        {
            var props = base.CreateProperties(type, memberSerialization);
            return props.OrderBy(p => p.PropertyName).ToList();
        }
    }



class OrderedExpandoPropertiesConverter : ExpandoObjectConverter
    {
        public override bool CanWrite
        {
            get { return true; }
        }

        public override void WriteJson(JsonWriter writer, object value, JsonSerializer serializer)
        {
            var expando = (IDictionary<string, object>)value;
            var orderedDictionary = expando.OrderBy(x => x.Key).ToDictionary(t => t.Key, t => t.Value);
            serializer.Serialize(writer, orderedDictionary);
        }
    }



var settings = new JsonSerializerSettings
        {
            ContractResolver = new OrderedPropertiesContractResolver(),
            Converters = { new OrderedExpandoPropertiesConverter() }
        };

var serializedString = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(obj, settings);

If you just want to pull a single attribute up to the front without thinking about the perhaps unintuitive number system, just use int.MinValue.

[JsonProperty(Order = int.MinValue)]

If you don't want to put a JsonProperty Order attribute on every class property, then its very simple to make your own ContractResolver...

The IContractResolver interface provides a way to customize how the JsonSerializer serializes and deserializes .NET objects to JSON without placing attributes on your classes.

Like this:

private class SortedPropertiesContractResolver : DefaultContractResolver
{
    // use a static instance for optimal performance
    static SortedPropertiesContractResolver instance;

    static SortedPropertiesContractResolver() { instance = new SortedPropertiesContractResolver(); }

    public static SortedPropertiesContractResolver Instance { get { return instance; } }

    protected override IList<JsonProperty> CreateProperties(Type type, MemberSerialization memberSerialization)
    {
        var properties = base.CreateProperties(type, memberSerialization);
        if (properties != null)
            return properties.OrderBy(p => p.UnderlyingName).ToList();
        return properties;
    }
}

Implement:

var settings = new JsonSerializerSettings { ContractResolver = SortedPropertiesContractResolver.Instance };
var json = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(obj, Formatting.Indented, settings);

I want to serialize an comblex object and keep the order of the properties as they where defined in code. I can't just add [JsonProperty(Order = 1)] because the class itself is out of my scope.

This solution also takes into account that properties which are defined in a base class should have a higher priority.

This may not be bulletproof, since nowhere is defined that the MetaDataAttribute ensures the correct order, but it seems to work. For my use case this is ok. since I only want to maintain human readability for an auto generated config file.

public class PersonWithAge : Person
{
    public int Age { get; set; }
}

public class Person
{
    public string Name { get; set; }
}

public string GetJson()
{
    var thequeen = new PersonWithAge { Name = "Elisabeth", Age = Int32.MaxValue };

    var settings = new JsonSerializerSettings()
    {
        ContractResolver = new MetadataTokenContractResolver(),
    };

    return JsonConvert.SerializeObject(
        thequeen, Newtonsoft.Json.Formatting.Indented, settings
    );

}

public class MetadataTokenContractResolver : DefaultContractResolver
{
    protected override IList<JsonProperty> CreateProperties(
        Type type, MemberSerialization memberSerialization)
    {
        var props = type
           .GetProperties(BindingFlags.Instance
               | BindingFlags.Public
               | BindingFlags.NonPublic
           ).ToDictionary(k => k.Name, v =>
           {
               // first value: declaring type
               var classIndex = 0;
               var t = type;
               while (t != v.DeclaringType)
               {
                   classIndex++;
                   t = type.BaseType;
               }
               return Tuple.Create(classIndex, v.MetadataToken);
           });

        return base.CreateProperties(type, memberSerialization)
            .OrderByDescending(p => props[p.PropertyName].Item1)
            .ThenBy(p => props[p.PropertyName].Item1)
            .ToList();
    }
}

If you want to globally configure your API with ordered fields, please combine Mattias Nordberg answer:

public class OrderedContractResolver : DefaultContractResolver
{
    protected override System.Collections.Generic.IList<JsonProperty> CreateProperties(System.Type type, MemberSerialization memberSerialization)
    {
        return base.CreateProperties(type, memberSerialization).OrderBy(p => p.PropertyName).ToList();
    }
}

with my answer here:

How to force ASP.NET Web API to always return JSON?