Could not create an instance of type X. Type is an interface or abstract class and cannot be instantiated

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The solution to this problem is to configure the deserializer to use the type information in the json. It is not used by default.

Serialization is done this way:

Newtonsoft.Json.JsonSerializer serializer = new Newtonsoft.Json.JsonSerializer();
serializer.Converters.Add(new Newtonsoft.Json.Converters.JavaScriptDateTimeConverter());
serializer.NullValueHandling = Newtonsoft.Json.NullValueHandling.Ignore;
serializer.TypeNameHandling = Newtonsoft.Json.TypeNameHandling.Auto;
serializer.Formatting = Newtonsoft.Json.Formatting.Indented;

using (StreamWriter sw = new StreamWriter(fileName))
using (Newtonsoft.Json.JsonWriter writer = new Newtonsoft.Json.JsonTextWriter(sw))
{
    serializer.Serialize(writer, obj, typeof(MyDocumentType));
}

At deserialization, the settings for TypeNameHandling must be set:

MyDocumentType  obj = Newtonsoft.Json.JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<MyDocumentType>(File.ReadAllText(fileName), new Newtonsoft.Json.JsonSerializerSettings 
{ 
    TypeNameHandling = Newtonsoft.Json.TypeNameHandling.Auto,
    NullValueHandling = Newtonsoft.Json.NullValueHandling.Ignore,
});

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