DataContractSerializer.MaxItemsInObjectGraph Property

public:
 property int MaxItemsInObjectGraph { int get(); };

public int MaxItemsInObjectGraph { get; }

member this.MaxItemsInObjectGraph : int

Public ReadOnly Property MaxItemsInObjectGraph As Integer

The maximum number of items to serialize or deserialize. The default is Int32.MaxValue.

This property can be set in configuration or imperatively in code. To set it in configuration, add a custom behavior to the behaviors section and add the following setting.

<behaviors>
    <behavior name="MyServiceBehavior">
        <dataContractSerializer maxItemsInObjectGraph="3" />
    </behavior>
</behaviors>

To set this property imperatively in code, find the operation description of the service, then get the operation behavior, and finally set the property as shown in the following code.

OperationDescription operation = host.Description.Endpoints[0].Contract.Operations.Find("MyOperationName");
operation.Behaviors.Find<DataContractSerializerOperationBehavior>().MaxItemsInObjectGraph = 3;

The MaxItemsInObjectGraph property specifies the maximum number of objects that the serializer serializes or deserializes in a single ReadObject method call. (The method always reads one root object, but this object may have other objects in its data members. Those objects may have other objects, and so on.) The default is MaxValue. Note that when serializing or deserializing arrays, every array entry counts as a separate object. Also, note that some objects may have a large memory representation and so this quota alone may not be sufficient to prevent Denial of Service attacks. For more information, see Security Considerations for Data. If you need to increase this quota beyond its default value, it is important to do so both on the sending (serializing) and receiving (deserializing) sides. It applies both when reading and writing data.