Serializing FileInfo or DirectoryInfo with Newtonsoft Json in .NET Core

The Problem

Phew, that's a mouthful. But the issue is that trying to serialize a FileInfo or a DirectoryInfo object with Newtonsoft's Json library in .NET Core fails with a vague exception:

Newtonsoft.Json.JsonSerializationException: Unable to serialize instance of 'System.IO.DirectoryInfo'.
   at Newtonsoft.Json.Serialization.DefaultContractResolver.ThrowUnableToSerializeError(Object o, StreamingContext context)
   at Newtonsoft.Json.Serialization.JsonContract.InvokeOnSerializing(Object o, StreamingContext context)
   at Newtonsoft.Json.Serialization.JsonSerializerInternalWriter.OnSerializing(JsonWriter writer, JsonContract contract, Object value)
   at Newtonsoft.Json.Serialization.JsonSerializerInternalWriter.SerializeObject(JsonWriter writer, Object value, JsonObjectContract contract, JsonProperty member, JsonContainerContract collectionContract, JsonProperty containerProperty)
   at Newtonsoft.Json.Serialization.JsonSerializerInternalWriter.Serialize(JsonWriter jsonWriter, Object value, Type objectType)

It doesn't say why it fails, just that a method called ThrowUnableToSerializeError threw um... an unable to serialize error?

The Cause

Looking at the Newtonsoft code, we eventually get to this piece of code:

// serializing DirectoryInfo without ISerializable will stackoverflow
// https://github.com/JamesNK/Newtonsoft.Json/issues/1541
if (Array.IndexOf(BlacklistedTypeNames, objectType.FullName) != -1)
{
    contract.OnSerializingCallbacks.Add(ThrowUnableToSerializeError);
}

Later, another piece of code will execute the serializing callbacks and throw the exception. We can get rid of this functionality, by using a custom contract resolver, like this:

var settings = new JsonSerializerSettings
{
    ContractResolver = new FileInfoContractResolver()
};
 
private class FileInfoContractResolver : DefaultContractResolver
{
    protected override JsonContract CreateContract(Type objectType)
    {
        var result = base.CreateContract(objectType);
        if (typeof(FileSystemInfo).IsAssignableFrom(objectType))
        {
            result.OnSerializingCallbacks.Clear();
        }
        return result;
    }
}

Yet now, when trying to serialize, we get the stack overflow exception described in the original Newtonsoft.Json issue. It stems from the difference between the .NET Framework implementation and the .NET Core implementation of ISerializable in FileSystemInfo, which in Core just throws PlatformNotSupportedException. It's still not clear why it goes to a StackOverflowException, probably some conflict with Newtonsoft code, but it's clear Microsoft does not intend to make these classes serializable. If you think about it, those classes suck for so many reasons!

The Solution

So, in order to solve it, we will use a custom JSON converter:

private class FileSystemInfoConverter:JsonConverter
{
    public override bool CanConvert(Type objectType)
    {
        return typeof(FileSystemInfo).IsAssignableFrom(objectType);
    }
 
    public override object ReadJson(JsonReader reader, Type objectType, object existingValue, JsonSerializer serializer)
    {
        if (reader.TokenType == JsonToken.Null)
            return null;
        var jObject = JObject.Load(reader);
        var fullPath = jObject["FullPath"].Value<string>();
        return Activator.CreateInstance(objectType, fullPath);
    }
 
    public override void WriteJson(JsonWriter writer, object value, JsonSerializer serializer)
    {
        var info = value as FileSystemInfo;
        var obj = info == null
            ? null
            : new
            {
                FullPath = info.FullName
            };
        var token = JToken.FromObject(obj);
        token.WriteTo(writer);
    }
}

And we use it like this:

var settings = new JsonSerializerSettings
{
    Converters = new List<JsonConverter>
    {
        new FileSystemInfoConverter()
    }
};
var json = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(dir, settings);
var info = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<DirectoryInfo>(json, settings);

Why FileInfo and DirectoryInfo suck

The answer of a senior developer to any question should be "Why?" or "Why on Earth or anywhere in the Solar System would you want to do a dumb thing like that?!?!". Why would you want to serialize a directory or file info object? The answer is that you should not. The info objects are defined by only one thing: a path, but they have so much baggage: properties that access the file system, unsafe methods, no interfaces or factory methods that can allow them to be mocked in unit tests. They might look like data objects, but they are not!

Imagine a scenario where you have a list of all the files in your drive. You enumerated them all and now you want to serialize them. Should the serializer save Exists or Length, for example? Because that means it will access the file system for each of them in the process of serialization, leading to a lot of work, propensity to access errors and so on.

Best practices say you should either use some model classes to move around data, like an empty FileSystemInfoModel with Type and FullPath and maybe Attributes or Size properties or whatever you want to save, but that you set yourself as a separate responsibility. And if you want to use the functionality of the Info classes, use System.IO.Abstractions or the new Core IFileProvider abstraction to get implementations of interfaces that you can mock in unit tests.

Tell me what you think.