How to omit Get only properties in servicestack json serializer?

Question

I have an object which I am de-serializing using ToJson<>() method from ServiceStack.Text namespace.

How to omit all the GET only propeties during serialization? Is there any attribute like [Ignore] or something that I can decorate my properties with, so that they can be omitted?

Thanks

Solution

ServiceStack's Text serializers follows .NET's DataContract serializer behavior, which means you can ignore data members by using the opt-out [IgnoreDataMember] attribute

public class Poco 
{
    public int Id { get; set; }

    public string Name { get; set; }

    [IgnoreDataMember]
    public string IsIgnored { get; set; }
}

An opt-in alternative is to decorate every property you want serialized with [DataMember]. The remaining properties aren't serialized, e.g:

[DataContract]
public class Poco 
{
    [DataMember]
    public int Id { get; set; }

    [DataMember]
    public string Name { get; set; }

    public string IsIgnored { get; set; }
}

Finally there's also a non-intrusive option that doesn't require attributes, e.g:

JsConfig<Poco>.ExcludePropertyNames = new [] { "IsIgnored" };

Dynamically specifying properties that should be serialized

ServiceStack's Serializers also supports dynamically controlling serialization by providing conventionally named ShouldSerialize({PropertyName}) methods to indicate whether a property should be serialized or not, e.g:

public class Poco 
{
    public int Id { get; set; }

    public string Name { get; set; }

    public string IsIgnored { get; set; }

    public bool? ShouldSerialize(string fieldName)
    {
        return fieldName == "IsIgnored";
    }
}

More examples in ConditionalSerializationTests.cs

Comments

[Hitesh.Aneja]

Option 1 looks best for my scenario. Thanks for quick help.

[Loudenvier]

I must say that the third option is amazing! :-) When you have to deal with code you can't change that's the way to go. I also find it enormously elegant.

[Faisal Mq]

Yeah good detail provided. And 3rd option is cool as it provides runtime control.

[Erwin Mayer]

[IgnoreDataMember] does not work with OrmLite, or did I miss something?

[mythz]

@ErwinMayer Yeah it only applies to serialization. Use ServiceStack.DataAnnotations's [Ignore] attribute for OrmLite Data Models.

[Kamarey]

@mythz: Would be very helpful to support something like this: JsConfig.IgnoreReadOnlyProperties = true;

[Chris Bush]

Sorry if this is common knowledge now, but I did discover that you can do this: JsConfig.IgnoreAttributesNamed = new[] { nameof(IgnoreAttribute) }; and that will let you use the same Ignore attribute you use for ORMLite.

[Gábor]

ShouldSerialize() doesn't receive the field name, it receives the JSON name, so if you use DataMember with Name, you have to supply that and keep track in both places. It would really be nice to have an attribute to specify incoming only or outgoing only.