JSON Self referencing loop

Question

I'm building some small booking app and I'm getting this error all the time.

I solved it with: config.Formatters.JsonFormatter.SerializerSettings.ReferenceLoopHandling = Newtonsoft.Json.ReferenceLoopHandling.Ignore;

but now I'm getting answer like this:

{
    "ApartmentId": 1,
    "Building": {
        "BuildingId": 1,
        "Apartments": [
            {
                "ApartmentId": 2,
            }
        ]
    },
}

For class building everything works fine. It's only going "to far" for the apartment. I tried solutions from this topic but it didn't work: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/7397207/json-net-error-self-referencing-loop-detected-for-type#=

Here are my classes:

public class Apartment
{
    public int ApartmentId { get; set; }
    public Building Building { get; set; }
}

public class Building
{
    public int BuildingId { get; set; }
    public List<Apartment> Apartments { get; set; }
}

The question is, what am I missing? How to get rid of listing of apartments for the second time?

Could you be more specific what is wrong with your result. If you could remove extra properties, it would be much easier to answer. — andnik, Feb 16 '18 at 15:05
When i ask for the apartment, I want to get building that it belongs to but not the listing of the apartments in that building. — NiishaO, Feb 16 '18 at 15:09
You have an unfortunate typo in `BedroomCount`. (I hope it's a typo. I don't know what type of business you run.) — Buh Buh, Feb 16 '18 at 15:14
You might want to try a Custom JsonConverter. Not sure. https://www.newtonsoft.com/json/help/html/CustomJsonConverter.htm — Buh Buh, Feb 16 '18 at 15:33

Guilherme Holtz · Answer 1 · 2018-02-16T15:26:15.140

0

Since youre using Newtosoft's Json library, you can use the attribute [JsonIgnore]. The property with this attribute won't show up in your json.

You can put it with the Apartments property in your Building class:

public class Building
{
    //All other properties ...

    [JsonIgnore]
    public List<Apartment> Apartments { get; set; }
}

If you want to have different serialising behaviours for the same class, I recommend implementing the DTO classes approach with each class for each data transfer scenario and add attributes as you wish.

Also this document from Microsoft about DTO pattern.

edited Feb 16 '18 at 15:26

answered Feb 16 '18 at 15:10

Guilherme Holtz

475
6
18

I tried that. But in that case I'm not getting that property listed when i need it in Buildings listing. – NiishaO Feb 16 '18 at 15:15
If you want the same class to behave in different ways when serialising, I think you have to implement DTO classes each with its own behaviour designed. – Guilherme Holtz Feb 16 '18 at 15:23
This is my first project so I'm trying to solve every possible problem without just running from it. I thought that maybe I made some "stupid" mistake that I'm not seeing but since its not the case ill try with DTO. – NiishaO Feb 16 '18 at 15:44

JSON Self referencing loop

1 Answers1