Question

I’m trying to make Json .NET Ignore a property by using the Json Ignore Attribute when clients GET the object but I want to be able to receive that property when a client is POST’ing

In example I have:

When the client POSTs data, password should be sent:

{"email":"[e-mail]","password":"P@ssW0rd1!","firstname":"Joe","lastname":"Doe"}

However, when the client GETs the same object, I should Ignore the Password:

{"email":"[e-mail]","firstname":"Joe","lastname":"Doe"}

Class:

    public class User
    {
        public User()
        {
            this.JoinDate = DateTime.UtcNow;
            this.IsActive = false;
        }
        public int Id { get; set; }

        [Required(ErrorMessage = "Email is required!")]
        public string Email { get; set; }

        [JsonIgnore]
        public string HashedPassword { get; set; }

        [Required(ErrorMessage = "Password is required!")]
        public string Password { get; set; }

        public DateTime JoinDate { get; set; }

        [Required(ErrorMessage = "First Name is required!")]
        public string FirstName { get; set; }

        [Required(ErrorMessage = "Last Name is required!")]
        public string LastName { get; set; }

   }

Any ideas, suggestions, comments???

Answer 1

In your scenario here, I would recommend you to split your User class into 2 separate model classes:

1. Login class, which has the login information (i.e. Email, Password)
2. UserInfo class, which has the rest of the metadata about the User (i.e. FirstName, LastName)

This way, we are not depending on the serializer to hide sensitive data.

You could use [IgnoreDataMember] attributes and the out-of-box XML and JSON formatters will support them, but there is no guarantee that any other custom formatter registered will support it.

Note that [JsonIgnore] is only supported in the JSON formatter but not the XML formatter.