Json and Circular Reference Exception

Question

I have an object which has a circular reference to another object. Given the relationship between these objects this is the right design.

To Illustrate

Answer 1

Use to have the same problem. I have created a simple extension method, that "flattens" L2E objects into an IDictionary. An IDictionary is serialized correctly by the JavaScriptSerializer. The resulting Json is the same as directly serializing the object.

Since I limit the level of serialization, circular references are avoided. It also will not include 1->n linked tables (Entitysets).

    private static IDictionary JsonFlatten(object data, int maxLevel, int currLevel) {
        var result = new Dictionary();
        var myType = data.GetType();
        var myAssembly = myType.Assembly;
        var props = myType.GetProperties();
        foreach (var prop in props) {
            // Remove EntityKey etc.
            if (prop.Name.StartsWith("Entity")) {
                continue;
            }
            if (prop.Name.EndsWith("Reference")) {
                continue;
            }
            // Do not include lookups to linked tables
            Type typeOfProp = prop.PropertyType;
            if (typeOfProp.Name.StartsWith("EntityCollection")) {
                continue;
            }
            // If the type is from my assembly == custom type
            // include it, but flattened
            if (typeOfProp.Assembly == myAssembly) {
                if (currLevel < maxLevel) {
                    result.Add(prop.Name, JsonFlatten(prop.GetValue(data, null), maxLevel, currLevel + 1));
                }
            } else {
                result.Add(prop.Name, prop.GetValue(data, null));
            }
        }

        return result;
    }
    public static IDictionary JsonFlatten(this Controller controller, object data, int maxLevel = 2) {
        return JsonFlatten(data, maxLevel, 1);
    }

My Action method looks like this:

    public JsonResult AsJson(int id) {
        var data = Find(id);
        var result = this.JsonFlatten(data);
        return Json(result, JsonRequestBehavior.AllowGet);
    }