How do I serialize/deserialize a NHibernate entity that has references to other objects?
- by Daniel T.
I have two NHibernate-managed entities that have a bi-directional one-to-many relationship:
public class Storage
{
public virtual string Name { get; set; }
public virtual IList<Box> Boxes { get; set; }
}
public class Box
{
public virtual string Box { get; set; }
[DoNotSerialize] public virtual Storage ParentStorage { get; set; }
}
A Storage can contain many Boxes, and a Box always belongs in a Storage. I want to edit a Box's name, so I send it to the client using JSON. Note that I don't serialize ParentStorage because I'm not changing which storage it's in.
The client edits the name and sends the Box back as JSON. The server deserializes it back into a Box entity.
Problem is, the ParentStorage property is null. When I try to save the Box to the database, it updates the name, but also removes the relationship to the Storage.
How do I properly serialize and deserialize an entity like a Box, while keeping the JSON data size to a minimum?
