c# - Can't deserialize json properly

I have this json:

[{"trace":{"details":{"date":"[28-02-2016 11:04:26.856573]","type":"[info]","message":"[system done.]"},"context":{"context":[[{"ID":"john dillinger"}]]}}},{"trace":{"details":{"date":"[28-02-2016 11:04:26.856728]","type":"[info]","message":"[trace done.]"},"context":{"context":[[{"ID":"john dillinger"}]]}}}]

Newtonsoft.Json.JsonSerializationException: Cannot deserialize the current JSON array (e.g. [1,2,3]) into type, because the type requires a JSON object (e.g. {"name":"value"}) to deserialize correctly.

I've created this class for deserialize it:

public class Testing
{
    public string date { get; set; }
    public string type { get; set; }
    public string message { get; set; }
    public string context { get; set; }
}

and this is the code for deserialize the content:

string responseText = "json above";
var obj = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject(responseText); //on this line the problem

in the obj line I get the exception. I'm a bit rusty with c# so I don't know exactly what am I doing wrong. Someone could enlighten me?

Answer

You need to deserialize a collection of Trace - like List:

var obj = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject>(responseText);

Assuming that you have the following DTOs:

public class Trace
{
    public TraceValue trace;

}

public class TraceValue
{
    public Details details;
    public Context context;
}

public class Details
{

    public String date;
    public String type;
    public String message;
}

public class Context
{
    public List> context;
}


public class IdItem
{
    public String ID;
}

Proof (response is just a line provided by you, but with escaped quotes, so that it can be put directly into the code):

var response = 
    "[{ \"trace\":{ \"details\":{ \"date\":\"[28-02-2016 11:04:26.856573]\",\"type\":\"[info]\",\"message\":\"[system done.]\"},\"context\":{ \"context\":[[{\"ID\":\"john dillinger\"}]]}}},{\"trace\":{\"details\":{\"date\":\"[28-02-2016 11:04:26.856728]\",\"type\":\"[info]\",\"message\":\"[trace done.]\"},\"context\":{\"context\":[[{\"ID\":\"john dillinger\"}]]}}}]";

var obj = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject>(response);