Json.Net - Serialize property name without quotes

Solution 1:

It's possible, but I advise against it as it would produce invalid JSON as Marcelo and Marc have pointed out in their comments.

Using the Json.NET library you can achieve this as follows:

[JsonObject(MemberSerialization.OptIn)]
public class ModalOptions
{
    [JsonProperty]
    public object href { get; set; }

    [JsonProperty]
    public object type { get; set; }
}

When serializing the object use the JsonSerializer type instead of the static JsonConvert type.

For example:

var options = new ModalOptions { href = "file.html", type = "full" };
var serializer = new JsonSerializer();
var stringWriter = new StringWriter();
using (var writer = new JsonTextWriter(stringWriter))
{
    writer.QuoteName = false;
    serializer.Serialize(writer, options);            
}
var json = stringWriter.ToString();

This will produce:

{href:"file.html",type:"full"}

If you set the QuoteName property of the JsonTextWriter instance to false the object names will no longer be quoted.

Solution 2:

You can also try a regex replace, with a substitution, which could handle any serialized object, and replace the quotes for you.

For Example:

var options = new ModalOptions { href = "file.html", type = "full" };
string jsonText = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(options);
string regexPattern = "\"([^\"]+)\":"; // the "propertyName": pattern
Console.WriteLine(Regex.Replace(jsonText, regexPattern, "$1:"));

This would produce:

{href:"file.html",type:"full"}

I built a working web example here. Explanation of regex substitutions are here.