How can we hide a property in WebAPI?

Question

I have a model say under

public class Device
{        
        public int DeviceId { get; set; }
        public string DeviceTokenIds { get; set; }
        public byte[] Data { get; set; }
        public string FilePwd { get; set; }        
}

Now I have a ASP.net Web API where there is a POST method as under

[HttpPost]
[Route("AddDeviceRegistrations")]
public void InsertDeviceRegistrations(Device device)

If I expose the WebAPI, obviously all the fields will be available e.g.

{
  "DeviceId": 1,
  "DeviceTokenIds": "sample string 2",
  "Data": "QEBA",
  "FilePwd": "sample string 3"
}

What I want is that, whenever I expose my WebAPI, the DeviceID should not get expose. I mean I am looking for

{

      "DeviceTokenIds": "sample string 2",
      "Data": "QEBA",
      "FilePwd": "sample string 3"
}

Is it possible? If so how?

I can solve the problem by changing the function signature as

public void InsertDeviceRegistrations(string deviceTokenIds, byte[] data, string FilePwd).

But I wanted to know if it can be possible or not ? If so , how?

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

I just figured out

[IgnoreDataMember]
 public int DeviceId { get; set; }

The namespace is System.Runtime.Serialization

More information IgnoreDataMemberAttribute Class

Learnt something new today.

Thanks All.

Answer 2

There's good practice to use View Models for all GET/POST requests. In you case you should create class for receiving data in POST:

public class InsertDeviceViewModel
{        
    public string DeviceTokenIds { get; set; }
    public byte[] Data { get; set; }
    public string FilePwd { get; set; }        
}

and then map data from view model to you business model Device.