Ignore properties of class when using WCF ResponseFormat = WebMessageFormat.Json

Question

I'm using WCF for JSON services using this format:

[OperationContract]
[ServiceKnownType(typeof(ComplexResult))]
[WebInvoke(
            Method = "GET",
            BodyStyle = WebMessageBodyStyle.Bare,
            ResponseFormat = WebMessageFormat.Json)]
MyClass MyFunction(string myParams);

This works great, however it has a limitation. I can't ignore properties of my class that I'm serializing to JSON. If I use the JavaScriptSerializer class then I can put [ScriptIgnore] attributes on the properties I want to ignore and they won't be serialized in the JSON, however this does not work with the method above.

Is there a way to exclude properties of the classes getting serialized to JSON using the ResponseFormat Json method?

Answer 1

WCF by default uses the DataContractJsonSerializer to serialize objects. Depending on how MyClass is defined, you can use different attributes to prevent members from being serialized:

• If MyClass doesn't have any attribute (i.e., it's a "POCO" type), you can use the [IgnoreDataMember] attribute in the members you don't want serialized
• If MyClass is decorated with [Serializable], you can use the [NotSerialized] attribute in those members
• If MyClass is decorated with [DataContract], then you just need to not add [DataMember] to the members you don't want serialized.