C# – Configure JSON.NET to ignore DataContract/DataMember attributes

cdatacontractdatamemberjsonjson.net

We are running into a situation on an MVC3 project with both the Microsoft JSON serializers and JSON.NET.

Everybody knows DateTime's are basically broken in Microsoft's serializers, so we switched to JSON.NET to avoid this issue. That works great, except that some of the classes we are trying to serialize are POCOs with DataContract/DataMember attributes. They are defined in an assembly that is referenced in multiple places. Additionally, they have some other display properties that are not marked as DataMembers for efficiency. For instance, a Customer

[DataContract]
public class Customer
{
   [DataMember]
   public string FirstName { get; set;}
   [DataMember]
   public string LastName { get; set;}
   public string FullName 
   {
       get
       {  return FirstName + " " + LastName; }
   }

}

When this customer is passed over WCF the client side can reference that assembly and use the FullName just fine, but when serialized with JSON.NET it sees that FullName isn't a [DataMember] and doesn't serialize it. Is there an option to pass to JSON.NET to tell it to ignore the fact that a class has [DataContract] attribute applied?

Note:
Using the JavaScriptSerializer in .NET works fine for the FullName property, but DateTimes are broken. I need JSON.NET to ignore the fact that this class has DataContract/DataMember attributes and just do standard public field serialization like it would if they weren't there.

Best Answer

Simply use Json.Net's OptOut attribute. It will take precedence over DataContract.

[DataContract]
[JsonObject(MemberSerialization.OptOut)]

Related Solutions

C# – Deserialize JSON object into dynamic object using Json.net

Json.NET allows us to do this:

dynamic d = JObject.Parse("{number:1000, str:'string', array: [1,2,3,4,5,6]}");

Console.WriteLine(d.number);
Console.WriteLine(d.str);
Console.WriteLine(d.array.Count);

Output:

 1000
 string
 6

Documentation here: LINQ to JSON with Json.NET

Wcf – When to use DataContract and DataMember attributes

Since a lot of programmers were overwhelmed with the [DataContract] and [DataMember] attributes, with .NET 3.5 SP1, Microsoft made the data contract serializer handle all classes - even without any of those attributes - much like the old XML serializer.

So as of .NET 3.5 SP1, you don't have to add data contract or data member attributes anymore - if you don't then the data contract serializer will serialize all public properties on your class, just like the XML serializer would.

HOWEVER: by not adding those attributes, you lose a lot of useful capabilities:

without [DataContract], you cannot define an XML namespace for your data to live in
without [DataMember], you cannot serialize non-public properties or fields
without [DataMember], you cannot define an order of serialization (Order=) and the DCS will serialize all properties alphabetically
without [DataMember], you cannot define a different name for your property (Name=)
without [DataMember], you cannot define things like IsRequired= or other useful attributes
without [DataMember], you cannot leave out certain public properties - all public properties will be serialized by the DCS

So for a "quick'n'dirty" solution, leaving away the [DataContract] and [DataMember] attributes will work - but it's still a good idea to have them on your data classes - just to be more explicit about what you're doing, and to give yourself access to all those additional features that you don't get without them...

Best Answer

Related Solutions

C# – Deserialize JSON object into dynamic object using Json.net

Wcf – When to use DataContract and DataMember attributes

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