In C# - How do I ignore all the attributes with the postfix Specified generated by xsd while serializing and deserializing using json.net

Question

I have a C# Application.

I have a class that is generated from an xsd using xsd.exe. The class looks as follows

public class Transaction
{
    public bool amountSpecified {get; set;}

    public double amount {get; set;}
}

The following code shows an attempt at serialization

var transObj = new Transaction();
transObj.amount = 5.10;
var output =JsonConvert.Serialize(transObj);

The output string doesn't contain the amount field at all. It contains amountSpecified false which I don't want in my serialized json. However if I remove the amountSpecified field it works fine.

I have a huge set of classes and manually modifying each of them is a pain. My question is the following "Is there a way I can ignore all the fields with the PostFix "Specified" in Json.Net?" Or better still "Is it possible to generate c# class from xsd without the "Specified" postfix fields?"

I would be very glad if someone can point me in the right direction. Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Add Custom resolver class like this

 class CustomResolver : DefaultContractResolver
{
    protected override JsonProperty CreateProperty(MemberInfo member, MemberSerialization memberSerialization)
    {
        JsonProperty prop = base.CreateProperty(member, memberSerialization);

        if (prop.PropertyName.Contains("Specified"))
        {
            prop.ShouldSerialize = obj => false;
        }

        return prop;
    }
}

Then Use it with JsonSerializerSettings. following code is the demo:

// Here is the container class we wish to serialize
        Transaction pc = new Transaction
        {
            amountSpecified=true,
            amount=23
        };

        // Serializer settings
        JsonSerializerSettings settings = new JsonSerializerSettings();
        settings.ContractResolver = new CustomResolver();
        settings.PreserveReferencesHandling = PreserveReferencesHandling.None;
        settings.ReferenceLoopHandling = ReferenceLoopHandling.Ignore;
        settings.Formatting = Formatting.Indented;

        // Do the serialization and output to the console
        string json = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(pc, settings);
        Console.WriteLine(json);

Answer 2

In addition to my post ( XSD tool appends "Specified" to certain properties/fields when generating C# code ) which you already found, here is another link about that topic: http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/ae260f91-2907-4f31-a554-74c8162b3b38/xsdexe-tool-creates-properties-with-specified-postfix

So from my experience your solutions are:

• Remove all "specified" properties (manually/by script...)
• Write your own serializer to prevent those properties from being created
• Your could change the XSD properties to be nullable => xSpecified won't be created, but the properties are nullable

I guess that's not what you wanted to hear :-(