Self-referencing objects and JSON serialization

[svallis]

Objects that self-reference are triggering an exception when being serialized:

JsonSerializationException: Self referencing loop detected with type 'Project.Object'. Path '[0].property1.property2'.

See:

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7397207/json-net-error-self-referencing-loop-detected-for-type

https://github.com/ALMMa/datatables.aspnet/blob/master/src/DataTables.AspNet.AspNetCore/DataTablesResponse.cs#L162

I'd imagine that ReferenceLoopHandling.Ignore would be a suitable default for this use case, but if there's concern around that it'd be great if the option was exposed in some way.

[jorismathijssen]

Hello @svallis im currently experiencing this problem. Is there a sollution or am i doing something wrong?

[svallis]

@jorismathijssen You can fork/copy the project and change the line I linked to above from:

var settings = new JsonSerializerSettings() { ContractResolver = new Newtonsoft.Json.Serialization.CamelCasePropertyNamesContractResolver() };

to

var settings = new JsonSerializerSettings() { ContractResolver = new Newtonsoft.Json.Serialization.CamelCasePropertyNamesContractResolver(), ReferenceLoopHandling = ReferenceLoopHandling.Ignore };

[jorismathijssen]

@svallis I did add the referenceLoopHandling to the global.asax file and had a lot of out of memory exceptions. I think there is a lot more wrong with my project. I will try this sollution!

[svallis]

@jorismathijssen If your types which reference each other reference the same instance of each other then you've got an infinite loop, yeah.