WCF custom serializer

Question

I'm creating a web service in WCF that returns JSON, but the DataContractJsonSerializer is balking on some circular references (which I can't remove in this particular case).

Instead, I'd like to use the Newtonsoft json library. What's the easiest way to create a custom serializer in WCF?

Note: I know I could just return a stream, but I don't want operation code aware of serialization stuff.

score 4 · Answer 1 · answered Jun 09 '09 at 06:57

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Re pure WCF: if you control both ends of the wire (on "full" .NET), then applying a custom serializer is relatively simple - you add a behaviour inherited from DataContractSerializerOperationBehavior, and override CreateSerializer - see here (with attribute here).

However! My understanding (untested) is that a JSON-enabled WCF service won't use this route, but will apply its own serializer directly.

answered Jun 09 '09 at 06:57

Marc Gravell

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This nearly works, but my json is getting wrapped in an xml root node, like so: {"Id":0,"IsFinalized":false,"IsTemplate":false} – rogueg Jun 09 '09 at 15:46
Links appear to be broken. – Adrian773 Oct 17 '16 at 02:23
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Found links [here](https://github.com/microsoft/vsminecraft/tree/master/dependencies/protobuf-net/protobuf-net/ServiceModel) – mehdi.loa Sep 29 '19 at 12:34

Morbia · Answer 2 · 2013-10-07T13:58:04.763

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Set IsReference attribute of DataContract to true, it is available with .NET 3.5SP1

[DataContract(IsReference = true)]
public class Employee

For more details see. MSDN DataContractAttribute.IsReference

edited Oct 07 '13 at 13:58

answered Sep 17 '09 at 12:52

Morbia

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score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 03 '09 at 09:22

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Very good article: XmlSerializer vs DataContractSerializer: Serialization in Wcf. There Dan Rigsby is showing different scenarios and how to make your own serializer in more detail.

answered Jul 03 '09 at 09:22

The_Ghost

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Link is broken. – Paul Tsai May 23 '17 at 15:19
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This link works: http://web.archive.org/web/20130430190551/http://www.danrigsby.com/blog/index.php/2008/03/07/xmlserializer-vs-datacontractserializer-serialization-in-wcf/ ...from this answer: https://stackoverflow.com/a/2505801/530545 – Granger Mar 08 '19 at 20:49

score 0 · Answer 4 · edited May 23 '17 at 11:47

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you can uses ScriptIgnore attribute as mentioned here:- Ignoring a field during .NET JSON serialization; similar to [XmlIgnore]? Though I am looking forward to implement something like you want, don't want to decorate lot of nested objects

edited May 23 '17 at 11:47

Community

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answered Aug 05 '11 at 16:22

Anand

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WCF custom serializer

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