C# DataContractJsonSerializer Help

Developing with LIFX
#1

Hi, I am trying to figure out the best way to setup a WCF DataContract for calls to the web service. I am confused because when I get a list of lights from the http api, I try to deserialize it into my C# WCF DataContract and it won’t work because my color property is a string so that I can use the DataContract to update the state of my lights as well. Do I have to use a completely separate DataContract for the update calls? I am trying to make my code as compact and streamlined as possible, but the color values being different types based on the type of api call makes that very difficult. I appreciate any help that you can provide. Below is my LightData.cs file to show what I am attempting to accomplish:

using Newtonsoft.Json;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.IO;
using System.Runtime.Serialization;
using System.Runtime.Serialization.Json;
using System.Text;

namespace HelloWorld
{
public class Color
{
public double hue { get; set; }
public double saturation { get; set; }
public int kelvin { get; set; }
public byte R { get; set; }
public byte G { get; set; }
public byte B { get; set; }

    public string ToRGBString()
    {
        return "rgb:" + R.ToString() + "," + G.ToString() + "," + B.ToString();
    }
}

public class Group
{
    public string id { get; set; }
    public string name { get; set; }
}

public class Location
{
    public string id { get; set; }
    public string name { get; set; }
}

public class Capabilities
{
    public bool has_color { get; set; }
    public bool has_variable_color_temp { get; set; }
}

public class Product
{
    public string name { get; set; }
    public string company { get; set; }
    public string identifier { get; set; }
    public Capabilities capabilities { get; set; }
}

[DataContract]
public class LightData
{
    //Memory stream and serialization objects
    private MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream();
    private DataContractJsonSerializer ser = new DataContractJsonSerializer(typeof(LightData));

    public string ToJSON()
    {
        ser.WriteObject(ms, this); //Serialize this class and write it to the memory stream
        ms.Position = 0; //Reset the memory stream pointer
        StreamReader sr = new StreamReader(ms); 
        return sr.ReadToEnd(); //Read the memory stream and return the resulting value
    }

    public LightData ToObject()
    {
        ms.Position = 0; //Reset the memory stream pointer
        LightData ldObj = (LightData)ser.ReadObject(ms); //Deserialize the memory stream, return an object and convert that object to a LightData object
        return ldObj;
    }
    
    [DataMember]
    public string id { get; set; }

    [DataMember]
    public string uuid { get; set; }

    [DataMember]
    public string label { get; set; }

    [DataMember]
    public bool connected { get; set; }

    [DataMember]
    public string power { get; set; }

    [DataMember]
    public Color color { get; set; }

    [DataMember]
    public double brightness { get; set; }

    [DataMember]
    public Group group { get; set; }

    [DataMember]
    public Location location { get; set; }

    [DataMember]
    public string last_seen { get; set; }

    [DataMember]
    public double seconds_since_seen { get; set; }

    [DataMember]
    public Product product { get; set; }
}

[CollectionDataContract]
public class LightCollection : ICollection<LightData>
{
    public List<LightData> Lights = new List<LightData>();

    private MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream();
    private DataContractJsonSerializer ser = new DataContractJsonSerializer(typeof(LightCollection));

    public void Add(LightData ld)
    {
        Lights.Add(ld);
    }

    public void Clear()
    {
        Lights = null;
    }

    public bool Contains(LightData ld)
    {
        if (Lights.Contains(ld))
        {
            return true;
        }
        else
        {
            return false;
        }
    }

    public void CopyTo(LightData[] ldArray, int index)
    {
        Lights.CopyTo(ldArray, index);
    }

    public bool Remove(LightData ld)
    {
        return Lights.Remove(ld);
    }

    public int Count { get; set; }

    public bool IsReadOnly { get; set; }

    public IEnumerator<LightData> GetEnumerator()
    {
        return Lights.GetEnumerator();
    }

    System.Collections.IEnumerator System.Collections.IEnumerable.GetEnumerator()
    {
        return this.GetEnumerator();
    }

    public string ToJSON()
    {
        ser.WriteObject(ms, this);
        ms.Position = 0;
        StreamReader sr = new StreamReader(ms);
        return sr.ReadToEnd();
    }

    public LightCollection FromJSON(string json)
    {
        MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream(Encoding.Unicode.GetBytes(json));
        ms.Position = 0;
        LightCollection Lights = (LightCollection)ser.ReadObject(ms);
        ms.Dispose();
        return Lights;
    }
}

}