Handling entity framework relations in json.net

Question

I have an ASP MVC Web Api project that outputs json using json.net. I have for example the following models:

public class ModelA
{
    public int Id {get;set;}
    public string Name {get;set;}

    [JsonIgnore]
    public int TypeModelId {get;set;}
    public virtual TypeModel TypeModel {get;set;}
}

public class TypeModel
{
    [JsonIgnore]
    public int Id {get;set;}

    public string Name {get;set;}

    [JsonIgnore]
    public virtual IList<ModelA> ModelAs {get;set;}
}

When I serialize a ModelA the output will be something like this:

[
  {
    "Id": 1,
    "Name": "test",
    "TypeModel": {
      "Name": "testtype1"
    }
  }
]

Is it possible using json.net to have an output like this..

[
  {
    "Id": 1,
    "Name": "test",
    "TypeModel": "testtype1"
  }
]

..or do I have to copy the contents of ModelA to a new class which stores the TypeModel relation as string instead of reference? Maybe there are better solutions?

Ryan Amies · Accepted Answer · 2012-10-25 09:35:45Z

1

As you say the only way to do this is with a DTO. This is because, as you indicated, the type of TypeModel is a class TypeModel and not a string. If you are using Linq you could also just use an anonymous type in the following way.

return db.ModelAs.Single(x=>x.Id == id).Select(x=> new{
    x.Id,
    x.Name,
    TypeModel = x.TypeModel.Name
});

answered Oct 25, 2012 at 9:35

Ryan Amies

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2 Comments

Marthijn Over a year ago

Too bad a DTO is the only way, but your Linq solution is better than creating additional classes. Another solution I found is to json-ignore the TypeModel class, and creating a NotMapped get property for TypeModel.Name, but unfortunately that will get the datamodel classes a bit messy.

Ryan Amies Over a year ago

Yes I have recently had the same issue with Annotating my classes when trying to serialise object with Web Api, I've found using DTOs to be the best way (better than anonymous types) as you get better consistency. Good luck!

Community · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-23 11:49:55Z

0

Actually this is not true, json.net can handle loop reference handling, dto is an old method, still good, but you can enable in the serializer the option to handle loopreferences as long as it is mvc5 and maybe also mvc4. More details here: https://stackoverflow.com/a/23044770/1345207

edited May 23, 2017 at 11:49

CommunityBot

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answered Apr 13, 2014 at 15:34

L.Trabacchin

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