IsReference property in data contract

datacontract, wcf

Solution

It determines how objects are serialized, by default, `IsReference=false`.

Setting `IsReference = true` allows the serialization of trees of objects that can reference each other. So with a list of `Employees` that each have a property for `Manager` (who is also an `Employee`), a reference to the `Manager` for each `Employee` can be held rather than embedding the `Manager` within each `Employee` node:

`IsReference=false` would produce:

<Employee> 
      <Manager i:nil=“true“ /> 
      <Name>Kenny</Name> 
</Employee> 
<Employee> 
      <Manager> 
            <Manager i:nil=“true“ /> 
            <Name>Kenny</Name> 
      </Manager>  
      <Name>Bob</Name> 
</Employee> 
<Employee> 
      <Manager> 
            <Manager i:nil=“true“ /> 
            <Name>Kenny</Name> 
      </Manager>  
      <Name>Alice</Name> 
</Employee> 

Where as `IsReference=true` would produce:

<Employee z:Id=“i1“ xmlns:z=“http://schemas.microsoft.com/2003/10/Serialization/“> 
      <Manager i:nil=“true“ />  
      <Name>Kenny</Name> 
</Employee> 
<Employee z:Id=“i2“ xmlns:z=“http://schemas.microsoft.com/2003/10/Serialization/“> 
      <Manager z:Ref=“i1“ />  
      <Name>Bob</Name> 
</Employee> 
<Employee z:Id=“i3“ xmlns:z=“http://schemas.microsoft.com/2003/10/Serialization/“> 
      <Manager z:Ref=“i1“ />  
      <Name>Alice</Name> 
</Employee> 

Snippets taken from this weblog that has a full explanation along with examples of the generated XML with the property applied.

MSDN - IsReference Property provides details as well as Interoperable Object References.

Problem

Original source