In this article I will explain with an example, how to read JSON file using C# in ASP.Net MVC.
 
 

The JSON File

Following is the JSON saved inside a JSON file inside Project folder.
[
  {
    "CustomerId": 1,
    "Name": "John Hammond",
    "Country": "United States"
  },
  {
    "CustomerId": 2,
    "Name": "Mudassar Khan",
    "Country": "India"
  },
  {
    "CustomerId": 3,
    "Name": "Suzanne Mathews",
    "Country": "France"
  },
  {
    "CustomerId": 4,
    "Name": "Robert Schidner",
    "Country": "Russia"
  }
]
 
 

Model

The Model class consists of the following properties.
public class CustomerModel
{
    public int CustomerId { get; set; }
    public string Name { get; set; }
    public string Country { get; set; }
}
 
 

Namespaces

You will need to import the following namespaces.
using System.IO;
using System.Web.Script.Serialization;
 
 

Controller

The Controller consists of following Action method.

Action method for handling GET operation

Inside this Action method, the contents of the JSON file are read using StreamReader class object from the Files Folder (Directory).
Then, an object of JavaScriptSerializer class is created and the JSON string is read from StreamReader using the ReadToEnd method and is converted to Generic List of CustomerModel class object using Deserialize method of JavaScriptSerializer class.
Finally, the Generic List of CustomerModel class object is returned to the View.
public class HomeController : Controller
{
    // GET: Home
    public ActionResult Index()
    {
        using (StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(Server.MapPath("~/Files/Customers.json")))
        {
            JavaScriptSerializer serializer = new JavaScriptSerializer();
            List<CustomerModel> customers = serializer.Deserialize<List<CustomerModel>>(reader.ReadToEnd());
            return View(customers);
        }
    }
}
 
 

View

HTML Markup

Inside the View, in the very first line the CustomerModel class is declared as IEnumerable which specifies that it will be available as a Collection.
For displaying the records, an HTML Table is used. A loop will be executed over the Model which will generate the HTML Table rows with the Customer records.
@using Read_Json_File_MVC.Models;
@model IEnumerable<CustomerModel>
@{
    Layout = null;
}
 
<!DOCTYPE html>
 
<html>
<head>
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width" />
    <title>Index</title>
</head>
<body>
    <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
        <tr>
            <th>CustomerId</th>
            <th>Name</th>
            <th>Country</th>
        </tr>
        @foreach (CustomerModel customer in Model)
        {
            <tr>
                <td>@customer.CustomerId</td>
                <td>@customer.Name</td>
                <td>@customer.Country</td>
            </tr>
        }
    </table>
</body>
</html>
 
 

Screenshot

Read JSON file using C# in ASP.Net MVC
 
 

Downloads

Download Code