Can we use comments in Dev Proxy .json files

[waldekmastykarz]

Would it be possible, and if so, what changes would we need to apply, to let folks add comments to Dev Proxy .json files? Being able to include comments would be invaluable to document the different pieces of configuration right along with it, without having to have separate docs which could easily get out of sync.

Build:

• In abstractions, provide a centralized configuration for deserialization that can be reused in all places where we handle JSON
• update all deserializations to use this config

Things to research:

• can we handle (basically ignore) comments in JSON files during deserialization?
• is there a difference between deserializing devproxyrc.json and a plugin config file?
• do we need to use a specific extension to make VSCode automatically allow comments in JSON files

Any other considerations?

[waldekmastykarz]

• do we need to use a specific extension to make VSCode automatically allow comments in JSON files

If we use .jsonc as extension, VSCode automatically switched to the JSON with comments language which allows using inline comments.

If we're to proceed with this change, then we should consider also looking for devproxyrc.jsonc default file

[waldekmastykarz]

• can we handle (basically ignore) comments in JSON files during deserialization?

Yes, we can, by specifying deserialization options:

var requestConfig = JsonSerializer.Deserialize<MockRequestConfiguration>(requestString, new JsonSerializerOptions {
  ReadCommentHandling = JsonCommentHandling.Skip
});

The only downside is that we need to configure it for each instance of deserialization so ideally we configure it centrally in abstractions from where it can be reused to ensure consistency.

What's also cool about this approach, is that when you read a file with comments, and then serialize it to string (like we do eg. with mocks bodies), the comments are removed from the final string which is great for our purposes.

[waldekmastykarz]

• is there a difference between deserializing devproxyrc.json and a plugin config file?

Yes. The main config file is parsed using JsonConfigurationFileParser which has its own deserialization logic that's not exposed to the consumers. The good news is, that the configuration ignores comments by default, so it's totally possible for folks to use comments in the main config file.