I have a domain model component with several entity classes. In another component i have entity repositories implemented using Json.NET serialization. I want to ignore some of the entity properties during serialization, so the straight forward solution would be to decorate those properties with the
JsonIgnore
public List<Pixel> Pixels
{
get { return this.Pixels; }
}
Ignore
I believe by default that Json.net Respects the DataContractAttribute. Although you have to be inclusive instead of exclusive, it also means that the serialization can change to Microsofts Binary (or maybe xml) and not have to redesign your domain models.
If a class has many properties and you only want to serialize a small subset of them then adding JsonIgnore to all the others will be tedious and error prone. The way to tackle this scenario is to add the DataContractAttribute to the class and DataMemberAttributes to the properties to serialize. This is opt-in serialization, only the properties you mark up with be serialized, compared to opt-out serialization using JsonIgnoreAttribute.
[DataContract]
public class Computer
{
// included in JSON
[DataMember]
public string Name { get; set; }
[DataMember]
public decimal SalePrice { get; set; }
// ignored
public string Manufacture { get; set; }
public int StockCount { get; set; }
public decimal WholeSalePrice { get; set; }
public DateTime NextShipmentDate { get; set; }
}