[Question] How can I work with #if and objects loaded from JSON?

[Tilli Weissenberger]

#if does not work correctly with objects loaded from json, as autoRenew is not a Boolean but a JValue.

If I run this code, the #if statement works (ie. interprets autoRenew as Boolean) correctly:

var context = new { ctx = new { grant = new { autoRenew = true } } };
var template = "ctx.grant.autoRenew={{ctx.grant.autoRenew}} {{#if ctx.grant.autoRenew}}will auto-renew{{else}}will expire{{/if}}";
var merger = Handlebars.Compile(template);
var result = merger((object)context);
output.WriteLine(result);
output.WriteLine("\n\n\n");
output.WriteLine(((object)context).ToJson(true));
result.Should().NotContain("will expire", "AutoRenew is set to true");

output

autoRenew=True (Boolean)
ctx.grant.autoRenew=True will auto-renew

{
  "ctx": {
    "grant": {
      "autoRenew": true
    }
  }
}

But if I load the context from JSON, the #if block will not interpret the JValue as Boolean and will return the ELSE block.

Not working example

var contextJson = @"{ ""ctx"": { ""grant"": { ""autoRenew"": true } } }";
var context = contextJson.FromJson<dynamic>();
...

output

autoRenew=True (JValue)
ctx.grant.autoRenew=True will expire

{
  "ctx": {
    "grant": {
      "autoRenew": true
    }
  }
}

Any idea how I can fix this?

[Rex Morgan]

The core handlebars.net engine does not know about JSON.NET or its special types like JValue, but https://github.com/Handlebars-Net/Handlebars.Net.Extension.NewtonsoftJson adds support. Try using that.

[Rex Morgan]

Or try using a JSON parsing method that produces POCOs and not the Newtonsoft-type structure.

[Tilli Weissenberger]

thanks for the quick response! Deserializing to ExpandoObject instead of Dynamic works! Will see if the extension is of any use as well, thanks!