c# - How to make JSON.NET StringEnumConverter use hyphen-separated casing

Question

I consume an API which returns the string values like this:

some-enum-value

I try to put these values in an enum , since the default StringEnumConverter doesn't do what I want, which is to to decorate this Converter with some additional logic.

How can I be sure that the values are deserialized correctly ?

The following code is my tryout to get this job done.
However the line

reader = new JsonTextReader(new StringReader(cleaned));

breaks the whole thing since the base.ReadJson can't recognize the string as a JSON.

Is there a better way to do this without having to implement all the existing logic in a StringEnumConverter?
How could I fix my approach?

public class BkStringEnumConverter : StringEnumConverter
{
    public override object ReadJson(JsonReader reader, Type objectType, object existingValue, JsonSerializer serializer)
    {
        if (reader.TokenType == JsonToken.String)
        {
            var enumString = reader.Value.ToString();
            if (enumString.Contains("-"))
            {
                var cleaned = enumString.Split('-').Select(FirstToUpper).Aggregate((a, b) => a + b);
                reader = new JsonTextReader(new StringReader(cleaned));
            }
        }
        return base.ReadJson(reader, objectType, existingValue, serializer);
    }

    private static string FirstToUpper(string input)
    {
        var firstLetter = input.ToCharArray().First().ToString().ToUpper();
        return string.IsNullOrEmpty(input)
            ? input
            : firstLetter + string.Join("", input.ToCharArray().Skip(1));
    }
}

Answer 1

I solved the issue by adding EnumMember attributes on my enum values. The Json.NET default StringEnumConverter perfectly deals with these attributes.

Example:

public enum MyEnum
{
    [EnumMember(Value = "some-enum-value")]
    SomeEnumValue,
    Value,
    [EnumMember(Value = "some-other-value")]
    SomeOtherValue
}

Please note that you only have to specify the attributes in case of dashes or other special chars you can't use in your enum. The uppercase lowercase is dealt with by the StringEnumConverter. So if the service returns a value like someenumvalue you should use it like this in the enum Someenumvalue. If you prefer SomeEnumValue you should use the EnumMember attribute. In case the service returns it like this someEnumValue you can just use it like this SomeEnumValue (It works out of the box when you use the CamelCaseText property).

You can easily specify your converters and other settings in the JsonSerializerSettings.

Here is an example of the settings I use myself.

new JsonSerializerSettings
{
    ContractResolver = new CamelCasePropertyNamesContractResolver(),
    Converters = new List<JsonConverter> { new StringEnumConverter { CamelCaseText = true } },
    NullValueHandling = NullValueHandling.Ignore
};