Runtime: ConfigurationBuilder - Configuration.Json: Binding a Dictionary<string,string> error when Key contains an string url like http://www.google.es

[ppadial]

Describe the bug

Im reading a json file to a dictionary like:

{
  "auths": {
    "https://www.google.es": {
      "uri": "https://www.google.es"
    }
  }
}

having the POCO class

public class MyClass
{
        [ConfigurationProperty("auths", IsRequired = false)]
        public Dictionary<string, OtherObject> Auths { get; set; }
}

When i load it using ConfigurationRoot like

public MyClass Read()
        {
            IConfigurationRoot configuration =
                new ConfigurationBuilder()
                    .AddJsonFile("path_to_json_file", optional: true, reloadOnChange: true)
                .Build();

            // Try Parse and return (if will exception in case of binding error)
            var _settings= new MyClass();
            configuration.Bind(_settings);

            return _settings;
        }

The issue is that the Dictionary item contains https only on the Key property. Looks like it's ignoring or having issues with https://.....

Not sure if it's an intended feature or a bug.

To Reproduce

Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. Using version '3.1.8' of package 'Microsoft.Extensions.Configuration.Json'
2. Run this code 'with files in description'
3. See error in the screenshot attached

Expected behavior

Dictionary Key Item should contains https://www.google.es

Screenshots

[KalleOlaviNiemitalo]

That seems deliberate to me. The configuration system flattens the key hierarchy to a string with colons as delimiters so it becomes "auths:https://www.google.es:uri", and binding then cannot know where the boundaries were originally.

It is documented in Hierarchical configuration data.

[ppadial]

That makes sense, even if i don't agree on using : as hierarchy... but, i will try to look into the code to see if the separator char can be changed / configured somewhere.

Thanks for the reply i completely missed that point !

[KalleOlaviNiemitalo]

The separator char does not look easy to change at run time: https://github.com/dotnet/extensions/blob/1774c15ac24c65513fa9fc1f4fbb69be9a2a4e25/src/Configuration/Config.Abstractions/src/ConfigurationPath.cs#L14-L17

[KalleOlaviNiemitalo]

By the way, I don't think the Microsoft.Extensions.Configuration.* packages will care about [ConfigurationProperty("auths", IsRequired = false)] in your POCO class.

[ppadial]

Im using the ConfigProperty due other reasons.
About the limiter... i will need to use JsonSerializer :

[KalleOlaviNiemitalo]

Can you use some other strings as keys? For example:

{
  "auths": {
    "es": {
      "uri": "https://www.google.es"
    }
  }
}

Then register an IPostConfigureOptions<MyClass> implementation that reads the Dictionary<string, OtherObject> Auths property that was populated from configuration binding, and copies the objects to a separate dictionary with the keys that you really want. The "es" key would be used only in configuration files or environment variables, not for looking up OtherObject instances later.

[ppadial]

Well, not in this case, i need to use the Uri as key. But anyway, i can do exactly the same using the JsonSerializer with a custom serializer, and works well.

Without the need of : in the key, the classical approach works pretty well.

Thank you for your help, i think we can close the issue ?

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[BrennanConroy]

Maybe we want to have an escape sequence for json config so this is allowed? Or a flag to disable the ':' behavior just for Json?

If any change is made, we should port it to the Newtonsoft.Json config provider in Extensions.

[JunTaoLuo]

Looks like this issue has been encountered previously, e.g. https://github.com/aspnet/Configuration/issues/792 https://github.com/dotnet/extensions/issues/782. Sounds like something we should address instead of our usual answer that : is a reserved character and this issue is by design.