MVC3 JsonResult: How to disable serialization of child objects?

Question

I am using ASP.NET MVC3 and one of my action methods is set up to return a Json response:

[HttpPost]
public JsonResult AddUser(User user)
{
... do something to user and return it ...
return Json(user);

While processing with Entity Framework, the user object gets a few child objects. Json serializer is likely to be unable to cope with the entire object graph, and returns InvalidOperationError error (about a circular reference being identified).

I do not need any of the child objects actually, and I would like to get user serialized without child objects. How I can achieve this?

Thank you in advance!

Paul Tyng · Accepted Answer · 2011-10-08 22:16:53Z

2

You can use the ScriptIgnoreAttribute to tag members you don't want serialized.

answered Oct 8, 2011 at 22:16

Paul Tyng

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2 Comments

Alex Avrutin Over a year ago

What if I will need those members in other situations? Can I control serialization process from the code?

Paul Tyng Over a year ago

The only other option with the JavaScriptSerializer used by the JsonResult is to write your own JavaScriptConverter implementation for your type, but you won't be able to use the JsonResult any longer, you would need to write your own result and register your new converter with the serializer.

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