CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c#xml-serialization
MedicineMan
MedicineMan

Reputation: 15322

How do I find a circular reference during xml serialization?

I am trying to debug xml serialization. During xml serialization, the serializer "detected a circular reference". I'd like to find it and get rid of it. Is there some convenient tool / approach that I can use?

Upvotes: 5

Views: 786

Answers (2)

Hatem Sahli
Hatem Sahli

Reputation: 33

$normalizers->setCircularReferenceHandler(function ($object) {
    return $object->getId();
});

Upvotes: 0

Marc Gravell
Marc Gravell

Reputation: 1064204

Usually it is pretty obvious with manual inspection...

You might try serialising to a file, and just look at the end of the file - it won't be complete XML, obviously, but it should give a clue.

Note that DataContractSerializer is capable (by enabling an option) of serialising complete graphs, but it has less XML options than XmlSerializer has - and graph mode is even less XML-like; IMO removing the cycle is preferable. Usually this is just a case of something like:

[XmlIgnore]
public Person Parent {get;set;}

(i.e. serialize "downwards" references only)

Upvotes: 2

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