Serializing Entity Framework problems

Question

Like several other people, I'm having problems serializing Entity Framework objects, so that I can send the data over AJAX in a JSON format.

I've got the following server-side method, which I'm attempting to call using AJAX through jQuery

[WebMethod]
public static IEnumerable<Message> GetAllMessages(int officerId)
{

        SIBSv2Entities db = new SIBSv2Entities();

        return  (from m in db.MessageRecipients
                        where m.OfficerId == officerId
                        select m.Message).AsEnumerable<Message>();
}

Calling this via AJAX results in this error:

A circular reference was detected while serializing an object of type \u0027System.Data.Metadata.Edm.AssociationType

Which is because of the way the Entity Framework creates circular references to keep all the objects related and accessible server side.

I came across the following code from (http://hellowebapps.com/2010-09-26/producing-json-from-entity-framework-4-0-generated-classes/) which claims to get around this problem by capping the maximum depth for references. I've added the code below, because I had to tweak it slightly to get it work (All angled brackets are missing from the code on the website)

using System.Web.Script.Serialization;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Collections;
using System.Linq;
using System;


public class EFObjectConverter : JavaScriptConverter
{
  private int _currentDepth = 1;
  private readonly int _maxDepth = 2;

  private readonly List<int> _processedObjects = new List<int>();

  private readonly Type[] _builtInTypes = new[]{
    typeof(bool),
    typeof(byte),
    typeof(sbyte),
    typeof(char),
    typeof(decimal),
    typeof(double),
    typeof(float),
    typeof(int),
    typeof(uint),
    typeof(long),
    typeof(ulong),
    typeof(short),
    typeof(ushort),
    typeof(string),
    typeof(DateTime),
    typeof(Guid)
  };

  public EFObjectConverter( int maxDepth = 2,
                            EFObjectConverter parent = null)
  {
    _maxDepth = maxDepth;
    if (parent != null)
    {
      _currentDepth += parent._currentDepth;
    }
  }

  public override object Deserialize( IDictionary<string,object> dictionary, Type type, JavaScriptSerializer serializer)
  {
    return null;
  }     

  public override IDictionary<string,object> Serialize(object obj, JavaScriptSerializer serializer)
  {
    _processedObjects.Add(obj.GetHashCode());
    Type type = obj.GetType();
    var properties = from p in type.GetProperties()
                      where p.CanWrite &&
                            p.CanWrite &&
                            _builtInTypes.Contains(p.PropertyType)
                      select p;
    var result = properties.ToDictionary(
                  property => property.Name,
                  property => (Object)(property.GetValue(obj, null)
                              == null
                              ? ""
                              :  property.GetValue(obj, null).ToString().Trim())
                  );
    if (_maxDepth >= _currentDepth)
    {
      var complexProperties = from p in type.GetProperties()
                                where p.CanWrite &&
                                      p.CanRead &&
                                      !_builtInTypes.Contains(p.PropertyType) &&
                                      !_processedObjects.Contains(p.GetValue(obj, null)
                                        == null
                                        ? 0
                                        : p.GetValue(obj, null).GetHashCode())
                              select p;

      foreach (var property in complexProperties)
      {
        var js = new JavaScriptSerializer();

          js.RegisterConverters(new List<JavaScriptConverter> { new EFObjectConverter(_maxDepth - _currentDepth, this) });

        result.Add(property.Name, js.Serialize(property.GetValue(obj, null)));
      }
    }

    return result;
  }

  public override IEnumerable<System.Type> SupportedTypes
  {
    get
    {
      return GetType().Assembly.GetTypes();
    }
  }

}

However even when using that code, in the following way:

    var js = new System.Web.Script.Serialization.JavaScriptSerializer();
    js.RegisterConverters(new List<System.Web.Script.Serialization.JavaScriptConverter> { new EFObjectConverter(2) });
    return js.Serialize(messages);

I'm still seeing the A circular reference was detected... exception being thrown!