Self referencing loop detected serialization exception

Question

This is my class:

public partial class Event
{
    public Event()
    {
        this.Comments = new HashSet<Comment>();
        this.Rates = new HashSet<Rate>();
        this.RawDates = new HashSet<RawDate>();
    }

    public int ID { get; set; }
    public string Title { get; set; }
    public string Summary { get; set; }
    public string SiteURL { get; set; }
    public string ContactEmail { get; set; }
    public string LogoURL { get; set; }
    public int EventType_ID { get; set; }
    public Nullable<int> Location_ID { get; set; }
    public Nullable<System.DateTime> BegginingDate { get; set; }
    public string nTrain { get; set; }
    public string Content { get; set; }

    public virtual ICollection<Comment> Comments { get; set; }
    public virtual Conference Conference { get; set; }
    public virtual ICollection<Rate> Rates { get; set; }
    public virtual ICollection<RawDate> RawDates { get; set; }
    public virtual EventType EventType { get; set; }
    public virtual Location Location { get; set; }
}

When I call web api post method, exception mentioned in the title is thrown in this line:

var response = await client.PostAsJsonAsync("api/event", event);

I added [JsonIgnore] above every virtual field in Event class. This time serialization worked, but ignored fields were not serialized, their value is null. I really need all information contained in Event object. How can I solve this problem?

You might have a look at my answer on **[“Self Referencing Loop Detected” exception with JSON.Net](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/40472419/self-referencing-loop-detected-exception-with-json-net/51235783#51235783)** page. — Murat Yıldız, Jul 08 '18 at 20:37

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Apr 23 '14 at 11:29

Adding below configuration in WebAPIConfig.cs resolves the bug.

var json = config.Formatters.JsonFormatter;
//Below configuration to mandatory to resolve the Self referencing loop detected with       
"Newtonsoft.Json.JsonSerializationException" ,
json.SerializerSettings.PreserveReferencesHandling =    
Newtonsoft.Json.PreserveReferencesHandling.Objects;
config.Formatters.Remove(config.Formatters.XmlFormatter);

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 30 '13 at 18:27

0

Circular referencing objects cannot be JSON serialized. I would recommend you using a view model in which you will include the properties you need and then have your action return this view model instead of the actual domain model.

answered Mar 30 '13 at 18:27

Darin Dimitrov

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I could use Xml instead of Json. Would that solve the problem? – Xardas Mar 30 '13 at 18:59
No, it won't solve the problem. XML doesn't support circular references neither. – Darin Dimitrov Mar 30 '13 at 22:42

Self referencing loop detected serialization exception

2 Answers2