Be able to support custom inheritance discriminator field

Source JSON

{
  "pets": [
    {
      "className": "Cat",
      "color": "white",
      "breed": "Aidi"
    },
    {
      "className": "Dog",
      "color": "white",
      "declawed": false
    }
  ]
}

destination types

class Root {
    List<Annimal> pets { get; set;}   
}

class Annimal {
    string ClassName { get; set;} // not mandatory
    string Color { get; set;}
}

class Dog : Annimal {
    string breed { get; set;}
}

class Cat : Annimal {
    bool declawed { get; set;}
}

Expected behavior

Be able to serialize the given json with few elegant configuration properties. Concretely if we were able to configure by some way the JsonTypeReflector.TypePropertyName per inheritance hierarchy it might help us.

This would be very helpful to support the

• swagger discriminator feature explained here: http://swagger.io/specification/#models-with-polymorphism-support-91
• json-ld typed values that use @type: https://json-ld.org/spec/ED/json-ld-syntax/20120522/#typed-values

Actual behavior

Actually we are forced to implement some sub-optimal/complex solutions, see: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/9490345/json-net-change-type-field-to-another-name

[JamesNK]

Because you have to draw a line at what point you stop allow customization. I have decided to draw the line here.

[sfmskywalker]

Another issue with the choice of the $type value is that it conflicts when storing a model to MongoDB, since its a MongoDB reserved name.

Although it’s possible to write a custom converter as seen in this thread, it sure would be nice to be able to change the name value without having to write a custom converter.

I do understand @JamesNK 's point that you need to draw a line somewhere, but perhaps that line can be reconsidered? 😃