.NET XmlSerializer and multiple references to the same object

Question

My repository has List, List and List where an Enrolment has Enrolment.Student and Enrol

Answer 1

You should/can use Reference Tracking with the datacontract serializer:

//deserilaize:
using(MemoryStream memStmBack = new MemoryStream()) {
  var serializerForth = new DataContractSerializer(
    typeof(YourType),
    null,
    0x7FFF /*maxItemsInObjectGraph*/ ,
    false /*ignoreExtensionDataObject*/ ,
    true /*preserveObjectReferences*/ ,
    null /*dataContractSurrogate*/ );

  byte[] data = System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(xml);
  memStmBack.Write(data, 0, data.Length);
  memStmBack.Position = 0;
  var lsBack = (YourType) serializerForth.ReadObject(memStmBack);

}
//serialize...
using(MemoryStream memStm = new MemoryStream()) {
    var serializer = new DataContractSerializer(
      typeof(YourType),
      knownTypes,
      0x7FFF /*maxItemsInObjectGraph*/ ,
      false /*ignoreExtensionDataObject*/ ,
      true /*preserveObjectReferences*/ ,
      null /*dataContractSurrogate*/ );

    serializer.WriteObject(memStm, yourType);

    memStm.Seek(0, SeekOrigin.Begin);

    using(var streamReader = new StreamReader(memStm)) {
        result = streamReader.ReadToEnd();

Or use

[Serializable]
[DataContract(IsReference = true)]