Using JSON Object as Cache Data

Note

This feature is available in NCache Enterprise and Professional editions.

JsonObject is a class that represents JObject in JSON standards in NCache's domain. It is a container of unordered name/value pair where name is the string representation of the name of the whole attribute. The Value can either be JsonValue which is a derived class from JsonValueBase as well as JsonArray. It can be a value of any primitive data type, listed below:

Numeric types
Boolean
DateTime

NCache provides you with an ease of adding or retrieving JsonObjects in/from the cache. In order to add data in cache as JSON, the objects need to be created according to the JSON standards provided by NCache. JsonObject is added in the cache against a unique key. This key will be used to perform further operations on the cache.

When retrieving cache data as JSON, the data of any custom class can be retrieved as a JsonObject. This is highly beneficial at the user end as it lets the user add data of any custom class and get it as JSON.

Let us get a closer look at all the aspects of JsonObject regarding NCache.

Pre-Requisites

Include the following namespace in your application:
- Alachisoft.NCache.Client
- Alachisoft.NCache.Runtime.JSON
- Alachisoft.NCache.Runtime.Exceptions
Cache must be JSON Serialized through NCache Web Manager.
The application must be connected to cache before performing the operation.
Cache must be running.
To ensure the operation is fail safe, it is recommended to handle any potential exceptions within your application, as explained in Handling Failures.

Get JsonObject from Json string

You can get a JsonObject by passing a string containing the JsonObject. It will parse the string and populate the instance of the JsonObject containing the data in the string. If the string does not contain a valid jsonObject; an ArgumentException is thrown.

However if the datatype is not known; there is a static Parse() method which returns the JsonValueBase with the datatype of the provided data in the string.

The example below shows a string that contains a jsonObject and returns an instance of the jsonObject.

try
{
    // Pre-Condition: Cache is JSON serialized
    // The data provided in the string is a JsonObject
    string jsonString = "{ 'ProductID' : 1001, 'ProductName' : 'Chai', 'Category': 'Beverages', 'UnitPrice' : 500, 'UnitsInStock' : 2000 }";

    // Populate an instance of the JsonObject by passing the string
    var jsonObject = new JsonObject(jsonString);
    // Use the retrieved JsonObject for further operations
}
catch (ArgumentException ae)
{
    // Invalid JSON string passed
}

The following example parses a string containing Json data with unknown datatype. The string is parsed to get the JsonDataType.

try
{
    // Pre-Condition: Cache is JSON serialized
    // Get the data from the provided Json file 
    string jsonString = System.IO.File.ReadAllText(@"d:\test.json");

    // Parse the jsonString to get the JsonValueBase
    var jsonValueBase = JsonValueBase.Parse(jsonString);

    // Check the datatype of the jsonValueBase
    switch (jsonValueBase.DataType)
    {
        case JsonDataType.Null:
        var jsonNull = jsonValueBase as JsonNull;
        // Use 'jsonNull' accordingly...
        break;

        case JsonDataType.Object:
        var jsonObject = jsonValueBase as JsonObject;
        // Use 'jsonObject' accordingly...
        break;

        case JsonDataType.Array:
        var jsonArray = jsonValueBase   as JsonArray;
        // Use 'jsonArray' accordingly...
        break;

        default:
        var jsonValue = jsonValueBase as JsonValue;
        // Use 'jsonValue' accordingly...
        break;
    }
}
catch (ArgumentException ae)
{
    // Invalid JSON string passed
}

Add JsonObject to Cache

When adding a JsonObject to cache, you need to create a JsonObject. After creating an object, you can add attributes of the specific object. Attributes are added using the AddAttribute method where you have to specify an attribute name and a value as JsonValue or JsonValueBase. Attribute name is case sensitive and cannot be redundant and in case of redundant attributes, exception is thrown.

Warning

An attribute cannot contain a reference to the object itself. If done so, an exception is thrown.
An attribute cannot have null value.

The example below creates a JsonObject product along with the attributes and then adds it to the cache using the Insert method.

try
{
    // Pre-Condition: Cache is already connected
    // Cache is JSON serialized

    // Get product from database against given product ID
    Product product = FetchProductFromDB(1001);

    // Create a unique key for the object
    string key = $"Product:{product.ProductID}";

    // Create a new JSON object and set attributes
    // string values need to be added with JsonValue
    var jsonProduct = new JsonObject();
    jsonProduct.AddAttribute("ProductID", product.ProductID);
    jsonProduct.AddAttribute("ProductName", (JsonValue)product.ProductName);
    jsonProduct.AddAttribute("Category", (JsonValue)product.Category);
    jsonProduct.AddAttribute("UnitPrice", product.UnitPrice);
    jsonProduct.AddAttribute("UnitsInStock", product.UnitsInStock);

    // Add object in the cache with the key
    cache.Insert(key, jsonProduct);
    // JsonObject will successfully be added to the cache
}
catch(OperationFailedException ex)
{
    if (ex.ErrorCode == NCacheErrorCodes.ATTRIBUTE_ALREADY_EXISTS)
    {
        // An attribute already exists with the same name
    }
    else if (ex.ErrorCode == NCacheErrorCodes.REFERENCE_TO_SELF)
    {
        // No object can contain a reference to itself
    }
    else
    {
        // Exception can occur due to:
        // Connection Failures 
        // Operation Timeout
        // Operation performed during state transfer
    }
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
    // Any generic exception like ArgumentNullException or ArgumentException
}

Recommendation: To ensure the operation is fail safe, it is recommended to handle any potential exceptions within your application, as explained in Handling Failures.

Add JsonArray to a JsonObject

You can add a JsonArray to a JsonObject as an attribute of the JsonObject. JsonArray is a collection of JsonValues, JsonObjects or even other JsonArrays. For more detail on JsonArray please refer to the JsonArray section.

The following example adds a JsonArray to the JsonObject product as an attribute of the object using the Insert method.

{
try
{
    // Pre-Condition: Cache is already connected
    // Cache is JSON serialized

    // Get product from database against given product ID
    Product product = FetchProductFromDB(1001);

    // Create a unique key for the object
    string key = $"Product:{product.ProductID}";

    // Create a new JSON object and set attributes
    // string values need to be added with JsonValue
    var jsonProduct = new JsonObject();
    jsonProduct.AddAttribute("ProductID", product.ProductID);
    jsonProduct.AddAttribute("ProductName", (JsonValue)product.ProductName);
    jsonProduct.AddAttribute("Category", (JsonValue)product.Category);
    jsonProduct.AddAttribute("UnitPrice", product.UnitPrice);
    jsonProduct.AddAttribute("UnitsInStock", product.UnitsInStock);

    // Create a new array containing the supplierIDs
    var supplierArray = new JsonArray();
    supplierArray.Add(1);
    supplierArray.Add(2);
    supplierArray.Add(6);

    // Add this array as an attribute of the product object
    jsonProduct.AddAttribute("SupplierIDs", supplierArray);

    // Insert the object in the cache with the key
    cache.Insert(key, jsonProduct);
}
catch(OperationFailedException ex)
{
    if (ex.ErrorCode == NCacheErrorCodes.ATTRIBUTE_ALREADY_EXISTS)
    {
        // An attribute already exists with the same name
    }
    else if (ex.ErrorCode == NCacheErrorCodes.REFERENCE_TO_SELF)
    {
        // No object can contain a reference to itself
    }
    else
    {
        // Exception can occur due to:
        // Connection Failures 
        // Operation Timeout
        // Operation performed during state transfer
    }
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
    // Any generic exception like ArgumentNullException or ArgumentException
}

Recommendation: To ensure the operation is fail safe, it is recommended to handle any potential exceptions within your application, as explained in Handling Failures.

Retrieve Attributes of the JsonObject

You can also retrieve the attributes of a JsonObject using the GetAttributeNames or GetAttributeValues method. The GetAttributeNames method lets the user retrieve the names of the attributes of the JsonObject in the form of a collection of strings whereas the GetAttributeValue method retrieves the object of the JSON value against the provided attribute name.

Using GetAttributeNames()

The following example retrieves the names of the attributes of a JsonObject product in the form of an ICollection of strings.

try
{
    // Pre-Condition: Cache is already connected
    // Cache is JSON serialized
    // A JsonObject `product` has been created beforehand with various attributes

    // Get the attribute names of the object
    // and enumerate them in a collection of string
    var attributeNames = jsonProduct.GetAttributeNames();
    foreach (var attribute in attributeNames)
    {
        // Perform operations accordingly
    }
}
catch (OperationFailedException ex)
{
    // Exception can occur due to:
    // Connection Failures 
    // Operation Timeout
    // Operation performed during state transfer
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
    // Any generic exception like ArgumentNullException or ArgumentException
}

Using GetAttributeValue()

The following example returns the value of the attribute ProductID in the form of an object.

try
{
    // Pre-Condition: Cache is already connected
    // Cache is JSON serialized
    // A JsonObject `product` has been created beforehand with various attributes

    // Returns the value of the attribute "ProductID"
    JsonValueBase value = product.GetAttributeValue("ProductID");  

    if (value != null)
    {
        // The object with the value is retrieved 
    }
    else
    {
        // No such attribute exists
    }         
}
catch(OperationFailedException ex)
{
    if (ex.ErrorCode == NCacheErrorCodes.ATTRIBUTE_ALREADY_EXISTS)
    {
        // An attribute already exists with the same name
    }
    else
    {
        // Exception can occur due to:
        // Connection Failures 
        // Operation Timeout
        // Operation performed during state transfer
    }
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
    // Any generic exception like ArgumentNullException or ArgumentException
}

Recommendation: To ensure the operation is fail safe, it is recommended to handle any potential exceptions within your application, as explained in Handling Failures.

Retrieve Custom Object as JsonObject

NCache lets you retrieve a custom object in the form of a JsonObject. The custom object is retrieved in the form of a JSON string having the data of the custom class.

The following example retrieves the data of a custom object in the form of a JSON string using the Get Method.

try
{
    // Pre-Condition: Cache is already connected
    // Cache is JSON serialized

    // Get Product from database against given ProductID
    Product product = FetchProductFromDB(1001);

    // Generate a unique key for this product
    string key = $"product.ProductID";

    // Add the object with the key specified to the cache
    cache.Insert(key, product);

    // Retrieve the added object against the specified key
    var retrievedItem = cache.Get<JsonObject>(key);

    if(retrievedItem != null)
    { 
        // Perform operations according to business logic
    }
    else
    {
        // No such item exists
    }
}
catch (OperationFailedException ex)
{
    // Exception can occur due to:
    // Connection Failures 
    // Operation Timeout
    // Operation performed during state transfer
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
    // Any generic exception like ArgumentNullException or ArgumentException
}

Recommendation: To ensure the operation is fail safe, it is recommended to handle any potential exceptions within your application, as explained in Handling Failures.

Retrieve JsonObject as Custom Object

You can also add a JsonObject to the cache and retrieve it as a custom object. The properties of the custom class must be the same as the attributes of the JsonObject by name and value.

Note

The attributes of the JsonObject MUST be same as the properties of the custom class.
The cache being used MUST be Json Serialized.

The following example shows how to retrieve a JsonObject as custom object.

try
{
    // Pre-Condition: Cache has already been connected
    // Cache is JSON serialized

    // Create a new JsonObject with the following attributes in the string
    string jsonString = "{'ProductID' : 1001, 'ProductName' : 'Coke', 'Category' : 'Beverages', 'UnitPrice' : 50, 'UnitsInStock' : 500 }";

    // Retrieve the JsonObject from the string
    JsonObject product = new JsonObject(jsonString);

    // Create a unique key for this object
    string key = "ProductID:1001";

    // Insert JsonObject in the cache
    cache.Insert(key, product);

    // Get the JsonObject as a custom object
    object retrievedItem = cache.Get<Product>(key);

    if (retrievedItem != null)
    {
        // Perform operations according to business logic
    }
    else
    {
        // No such item exists
    }
}
catch(OperationFailedException ex)
{
    if (ex.ErrorCode == NCacheErrorCodes.ATTRIBUTE_ALREADY_EXISTS)
    {
        // An attribute already exists with the same name
    }
    else if (ex.ErrorCode == NCacheErrorCodes.REFERENCE_TO_SELF)
    {
        // No object can contain a reference to itself
    }
    else
    {   
        // Exception can occur due to:
        // Connection Failures 
        // Operation Timeout
        // Operation performed during state transfer
    }
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
    // Any generic exception like ArgumentNullException or ArgumentException
}

Recommendation: To ensure the operation is fail safe, it is recommended to handle any potential exceptions within your application, as explained in Handling Failures.

Remove Attribute from JsonObject

You can also remove a particular attribute from an instance of a JsonObject. This is done using the RemoveAttribute method which on providing with the attribute name, removes the attribute along with the value of the attribute. The success of removal can be identified via a flag returned by the RemoveAttribute call. A value of true indicates that the attribute was removed and vice versa. The only reason an attribute will not be removed is that the attribute does not exist. You will have to re-insert the item in the cache after removing the attribute from the object

The following example removes the attribute UnitPrice from the JsonObject jsonProduct and then re-inserts the object in the cache.

try
{
    // Pre-condition: Cache is already connected
    // Cache is JSON serialized
    // A JsonObject `product` is added in the cache with various attributes

    // Specify the cache key
    string key = "Product:1001";

    // Retrieve the JsonObject 
    var jsonProduct = cache.Get<JsonObject>(key);

    // Remove the attribute UnitPrice from the JsonObject
    bool result = jsonProduct.RemoveAttribute("UnitPrice");

    if (result == true)
    {
        // Attribute is successfully removed
    }
    else
    {
        // Wrong attribute name provided
    }

    // Re-insert the item in the cache with the removed attribute
    cache.Insert(key, jsonProduct);
}
catch (OperationFailedException ex)
{
    // Exception can occur due to:
    // Connection Failures 
    // Operation Timeout
    // Operation performed during state transfer
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
    // Any generic exception like ArgumentNullException or ArgumentException
}

Recommendation: To ensure the operation is fail safe, it is recommended to handle any potential exceptions within your application, as explained in Handling Failures.

Additional Resources

NCache provides sample application for Cache Data as JSON at:

GitHub
Shipped with NCache: *%NCHOME%\samples\dotnet\BasicOperationsWithJSON

Using JSON Object as Cache Data

Note

Pre-Requisites

Get JsonObject from Json string

Add JsonObject to Cache

Warning

Add JsonArray to a JsonObject

Retrieve Attributes of the JsonObject

Retrieve Custom Object as JsonObject

Retrieve JsonObject as Custom Object

Note

Remove Attribute from JsonObject

Additional Resources

See Also