Last Updated: February 25, 2016

Serializing circular references in MongoDb

To serialize an object containing circular references to mongo, you need to set it to ignore the reference, and then initialize it during deserialization:

 [Test]
 public void CanSerializeCircularReferences()
 {
 var parent = new Parent();
 parent.Name = "Parent 1";
 parent.AddChild(new Child() { Name = "Child 1" });
 parent.AddChild(new Child() { Name = "Child 2" });

 var repository = new MongoRepository<Parent>("mongodb://localhost/tests");
 repository.Add(parent);
 var parent2 = repository.GetSingle(p => p.Name == "Parent 1");
 Assert.That(parent2, Is.Not.Null);
 Assert.That(parent2.Children[0].Father,Is.EqualTo(parent2));
 }

public class Parent : Entity, ISupportInitialize
{
 private List<Child> children = new List<Child>();
 public string Name { get; set; }
 public List<Child> Children
 {
 get { return children; }
 set { children = value; }
 }

 public void AddChild(Child toAdd)
 {
 Children.Add(toAdd);
 toAdd.Father = this;
 }

 public void BeginInit()
 {
 return;
 }

 public void EndInit()
 {
 this.Children.ForEach(child => child.Father=this);
 }
}

public class Child
{
 public string Name { get; set; }
 [BsonIgnore]
 public Parent Father { get; set; }
}

#mongodb

#c#