strawberry shake v.11 deserializing dictionary<string, object> with any type (and custom scalar type) not working

[kimbendtsen]

Hi - we are trying to get into using hotchocolate / strawberry shake as a .net graphql client server solution.
We have hit a few hickups on the way but one deserializing issue that we are stucked with.

On the server / schema side we are creating

interface IMatcherItem {
      values: Any
      id: Int!
      uniqueSystemId: String
     }

The values is actually a Dictionary<string,object> and when making a query request it is serialized as a json dictionary. In the playground this all looks fine.

On the client side though we have tried to

• make no configuration changes - data does not get deserialized
• Following - https://chillicream.com/docs/strawberryshake/scalars (Any or JSON) - problem being the example doesn't compile since - the inherited member format has the same signature when inheriting ScalarSerializer<JsonElement, object>
• Tried to create a different type than any on the serverside, this works, but deserializing we cannot get the Dictionary<string, object> deserialized.

Any hints how to accomplish this?

ps: Many attempts end in the auto generated code DeserializeString(global::StrawberryShake.Json.JsonElementExtensions.GetPropertyOrNull(obj, "values") where the value of obj.values is
ValueKind = Object : "{"count":"06","ee":-3}"
The problem with the attempted deSerializing is that no GetString() exists. e.g. in the auto generated code

return _stringParser.Parse(obj.Value.GetString()!);

So howto hit a different serializer that will use my custom serializer? Or a standard one that can handle dictionary<string, object>

Br
Kim

[kimbendtsen]

We have continued working and come with a work around. Instead of a code first schema

Dictionary <string, object>

Then replacing this with

List<ValuePair>
Where ValuePair is

public class ValuePair
{
  string Name
  object Value
}

This does however require 12.0.0-preview-* to work.

I think however there are 2 issues not working in neither 11.* or 12.* - I'm considering creating bug reports for
1: Not possible to create a custom scalar as described on https://chillicream.com/docs/strawberryshake/scalars for the type

extend scalar Any
  @serializationType(name: "global::System.Object")
  @runtimeType(name: "global::System.Text.Json.JsonElement")

2: The code generation fails if the runtime type is a generic. e.g.

extend scalar ItemMatcherValue
@serializationType(name: "global::System.Text.Json.JsonElement")
@runtimeType(name: "global::System.Collections.Generic.Dictionary<global::System.String, global::System.Object>")