How do I serialize all properties of an NHibernate-mapped object?

Question

I have some web methods that return my objects back as serialized XML. It is only serializing the NHibernate-mapped properties of the object... anyone have some insight? I

Answer 1

Agree with sirrocco, I've had the most awful time trying to serialize NHibernate entities through WCF, and eventually went with a DTO solution done generically through reflection.

Edit: The entire solution is too big to post here, and is customized for my needs ofcourse, so I'll post a few relevant sections:

[DataContract]
public class DataTransferObject
{
    private Dictionary propertyValues = new Dictionary();
    private Dictionary fieldValues = new Dictionary();
    private Dictionary relatedEntitiesValues = new Dictionary();
    private Dictionary primaryKey = new Dictionary();
    private Dictionary> subEntities = new Dictionary>();

...

    public static DataTransferObject ConvertEntityToDTO(object entity,Type transferType)
    {
        DataTransferObject dto = new DataTransferObject();
        string[] typePieces = transferType.AssemblyQualifiedName.Split(',');

        dto.AssemblyName = typePieces[1];
        dto.TransferType = typePieces[0];

        CollectPrimaryKeyOnDTO(dto, entity);
        CollectPropertiesOnDTO(dto, entity);
        CollectFieldsOnDTO(dto, entity);
        CollectSubEntitiesOnDTO(dto, entity);
        CollectRelatedEntitiesOnDTO(dto, entity);

        return dto;
    }
....

     private static void CollectPropertiesOnDTO(DataTransferObject dto, object entity)
    {
        List transferProperties = ReflectionHelper.GetProperties(entity,typeof(PropertyAttribute));

        CollectPropertiesBasedOnFields(entity, transferProperties);

        foreach (PropertyInfo property in transferProperties)
        {
            object propertyValue = ReflectionHelper.GetPropertyValue(entity, property.Name);

            dto.PropertyValues.Add(property.Name, propertyValue);
        }
    }

then, when you want to resurrect the DTO:

    private static DTOConversionResults ConvertDTOToEntity(DataTransferObject transferObject,object parent)
    {
        DTOConversionResults conversionResults = new DTOConversionResults();

        object baseEntity = null;
        ObjectHandle entity = Activator.CreateInstance(transferObject.AssemblyName,
                                                       transferObject.TransferType);

        if (entity != null)
        {
            baseEntity = entity.Unwrap();

            conversionResults.Add(UpdatePrimaryKeyValue(transferObject, baseEntity));
            conversionResults.Add(UpdateFieldValues(transferObject, baseEntity));
            conversionResults.Add(UpdatePropertyValues(transferObject, baseEntity));
            conversionResults.Add(UpdateSubEntitiesValues(transferObject, baseEntity));
            conversionResults.Add(UpdateRelatedEntitiesValues(transferObject, baseEntity,parent));
....

    private static DTOConversionResult UpdatePropertyValues(DataTransferObject transferObject, object entity)
    {            
        DTOConversionResult conversionResult = new DTOConversionResult();

        foreach (KeyValuePair values in transferObject.PropertyValues)
        {
            try
            {
                ReflectionHelper.SetPropertyValue(entity, values.Key, values.Value);
            }
            catch (Exception ex)
            {
                string failureReason = "Failed to set property " + values.Key + " value " + values.Value;

                conversionResult.Failed = true;
                conversionResult.FailureReason = failureReason;

                Logger.LogError(failureReason);
                Logger.LogError(ExceptionLogger.BuildExceptionLog(ex));
            }
        }

        return conversionResult;
    }