Consider i have class Employer, i want serialize this class to json string and need ignore some properties conditionally. For ex: in my example, i want to include address1 and address2 only if it has valid values
public class Employer
{
public int id { get; set; }
public string name { get; set; }
public string ssn { get; set; }
public string address1 { get; set; }
public string address2 { get; set; }
}
Declare some values
Employer employer = new Employer(){ … address1 = "some value", address2 = null };
Now serialize it for json string
var jsonstring = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(employer,
Newtonsoft.Json.Formatting.None,
new JsonSerializerSettings
{
});
Here you will get all the properties.
Now lets see how to ignore the properties conditionally, you can choose either one of these options.
Option 1: Use ShouldSerialize property inside class itself like below. But you need add individual shouldSerialize property for each class property.
public class Employer
{
public int id { get; set; }
public string name { get; set; }
public string ssn { get; set; }
public string address1 { get; set; }
public string address2 { get; set; }
public bool
ShouldSerializeaddress1()
{
// don't
serialize if it is null or empty or add any your custom conditions
return !string.IsNullOrEmpty(address1);
}
public bool
ShouldSerializeaddress2()
{
// don't
serialize if it is null or empty or add any your custom conditions
return !string.IsNullOrEmpty(address2);
}
}
Option 2: Instead creating multiple ShouldSerialize property inside class, we can create ContractResolver and add it in Json serialization as below,
Create Resolver Class,
using Newtonsoft.Json;
using Newtonsoft.Json.Serialization;
using System.Linq;
using System.Reflection;
...
public class EmployerShouldSerializeContractResolver : DefaultContractResolver
{
public new static readonly EmployerShouldSerializeContractResolver Instance = new EmployerShouldSerializeContractResolver();
protected override JsonProperty CreateProperty(MemberInfo member,
MemberSerialization memberSerialization)
{
JsonProperty property = base.CreateProperty(member,
memberSerialization);
if (property.DeclaringType == typeof(Employer))
{
property.ShouldSerialize =
instance =>
{
//ignore default values
return
instance.GetType().GetProperty(member.Name).GetValue(instance, null) != property.DefaultValue;
};
}
return property;
}
}
Include it in JSON serialization,
var jsonstring = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(employer,
Newtonsoft.Json.Formatting.None,
new JsonSerializerSettings
{
ContractResolver = new EmployerShouldSerializeContractResolver()
});
