Member Formats

There are two possible formats:

• Compact - plain Google Protocol Buffers format without null support and reference tracking.
• Enhanced - not compatible with Compact, reading is compatible between different enhanced write modes:
• MinimalEnhancement - has null support but still can be applied to non-nullable types.
• Reference - adds reference tracking, includes MinimalEnhancement.
• LateReference - indicates that the value should not be traversed recursively, includes Reference.

Format specifying

You can specify desired mode on a type using an attribute. In this example Person will be serialized with null support:

[SerializableType(ValueFormat.MinimalEnhancement)]
class Person
{
 
}

[SerializableType]
class Foo
{
     [SerializableMember(1)]
     public Person PersonData { get; set; }
}

Or using code mapping:

RuntimeTypeModel model = TypeModel.Create();
model.Add(typeof(Person), true).DefaultFormat = ValueFormat.MinimalEnhancement;

The specified mode may be overridden with a member attribute:

[SerializableType]
class Foo
{
     [SerializableMember(5, ValueFormat.Reference)]
     public Person PersonData { get; set; }
}

Or using code mapping:

model.Add(typeof(Foo), true)[5]
    .SetSettings(x => x.V.Format = ValueFormat.Reference);

For collection members it may be overridden like this:

[SerializableType]
class Foo
{
     [SerializableMember(5)] // List<Person>
     [SerializableMemberNested(/* nested level: */ 1, ValueFormat.Reference)] // Person
     public List<Person> PersonData { get; set; }
}

Or using code mapping:

model.Add(typeof(Foo), true)[5]
    .SetSettings(x => x.V.Format = ValueFormat.Reference,
         /* nested level: */ 1);

Defaults

When a mode is not specified neither on a type nor on a member it's determined automatically:

Type	Default mode
class	Reference
nullable?	MinimalEnhancement
struct/enum	Compact

Legacy attributes

Types mapped with [ProtoContract] attributes have special rules applied:

AsReferenceDefault	Type	Mode
true	any	Reference
false / not specified	class	MinimalEnhancement
false / not specified	nullable?	MinimalEnhancement
false / not specified	struct/enum	Compact

Members mapped with [ProtoMember] attributes (and "partial") have special rules applied:

AsReference	Final mode
true	Reference
false	From the table above
not specified	From inherited type settings or (if not specified) from the table above

For collection members item settings are usually copied from [ProtoMember] attribute (in a state before applying inherited type settings).