C# – Entity to json error – A circular reference was detected while serializing an object of type

asp.net-mvc-4centity-frameworkjsonnet

Following error occurred when trying to convert entity object into JSON String. I'm using C# MVC4 with code first DB designing. It seams its because FKs and relationships between tables create this issue. What will be the workaround ?

A circular reference was detected while serializing an object of type System.Data.Entity.DynamicProxies.User

my code is

  User ma = db.user.First(x => x.u_id == id);
  return Json(ma, JsonRequestBehavior.AllowGet);

Best Answer

Its because it is trying to load child objects and it may be creating some circular loop that will never ending( a=>b, b=>c, c=>d, d=>a)

you can turn it off only for that particular moment as following.So dbcontext will not load customers child objects unless Include method is called on your object

  db.Configuration.ProxyCreationEnabled = false;
  User ma = db.user.First(x => x.u_id == id);
  return Json(ma, JsonRequestBehavior.AllowGet);

Related Solutions

C# – A circular reference was detected while serializing an object of type ‘SubSonic.Schema .DatabaseColumn’.

It seems that there are circular references in your object hierarchy which is not supported by the JSON serializer. Do you need all the columns? You could pick up only the properties you need in the view:

return Json(new 
{  
    PropertyINeed1 = data.PropertyINeed1,
    PropertyINeed2 = data.PropertyINeed2
});

This will make your JSON object lighter and easier to understand. If you have many properties, AutoMapper could be used to automatically map between DTO objects and View objects.

C# – EF 4.1 – Code First – JSON Circular Reference Serialization Error

You could try to remove the virtual keyword from all navigation properties to disable lazy loading and proxy creation and then use eager loading instead to load the required object graph explicitely:

public ActionResult GetAll()
{
    return Json(ppEFContext.Orders
                           .Include(o => o.Patient)
                           .Include(o => o.Patient.PatientAddress)
                           .Include(o => o.CertificationPeriod)
                           .Include(o => o.Agency)
                           .Include(o => o.Agency.Address)
                           .Include(o => o.PrimaryDiagnosis)
                           .Include(o => o.ApprovalStatus)
                           .Include(o => o.Approver)
                           .Include(o => o.Submitter),
        JsonRequestBehavior.AllowGet);
}

Referring to your previous post it looks like your application isn't relying on lazy loading anyway because you introduced there the virtual properties to load the object graph lazily, possibly causing now the serialization trouble.

Edit

It's not necessary to remove the virtual keyword from the navigation properties (which would make lazy loading completely impossible for the model). It's enough to disable proxy creation (which disables lazy loading as well) for the specific circumstances where proxies are disturbing, like serialization:

ppEFContext.Configuration.ProxyCreationEnabled = false;

This disables proxy creation only for the specific context instance ppEFContext.

(I've just seen, @WillC already mentioned it here. Upvote for this edit please to his answer.)

Best Answer

Related Solutions

C# – A circular reference was detected while serializing an object of type ‘SubSonic.Schema .DatabaseColumn’.

C# – EF 4.1 – Code First – JSON Circular Reference Serialization Error

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