Deserialize Json, CreateInstance is called for already initialized collection properties

ServiceStack.Text JSON
1

In my constructor i’m inititialising some (ICollection) collections, but during deserialization the collection is re-created using the base constructor of the type.

public class Country : LookupItem {
		public Country() {
			Provinces = new EmbeddedList<Province>(this);
			Cultures = new EmbeddedItems<System.Globalization.CultureInfo>(this);
		}

		public EmbeddedList<Province> Provinces { get; private set; }

I’m storing the reference to the “owning” object in the collection, but due to the CreateInstance in the CollectionExtensions.CreateAndPopulate the collection is re-created. Shouldn’t this be skipped when the collection is not null and call collection.clear() before adding the items?

2

Note: you shouldn’t have any cyclical references in DTOs and no deserialization dehydrates a DTO from a payload, it doesn’t call Clear() to mutate existing collections.

3

This is not a DTO class, this is the database model class where some properties are stored as jsonb objects in the (postgresql) database and serialized/deserialized by OrmLite. The backreference is marked as IgnoreDataMember to prevent cyclical references.

4

Doesn’t matter what the role of the class is, if it’s being deserialized it shouldn’t have cyclical deps. Regardless, it’s not the issue here.