Circular Reference Issue with DataSourceResult

[Ryan]

I'm very new to the Kendo framework and I'm having an issue that I cannot pin down. 

The code that I pasted below works without issue when I run it in my development environment. 

public ActionResult ClientSearch_Read([DataSourceRequest] DataSourceRequest oRequest, string sSearchValue)

{

if (sSearchValue != null)

{

var data = p_oDb.GetClientSearch(sSearchValue).ToDataSourceResult(oRequest);

return Json(data);

} return null;


However, when I deploy it to my production environment I do not get any results when there should be some.  I was able to use the Developer Tools in IE to finally track down why nothing was coming back.  It turned out to be due to a circular reference.  I cannot figure this out...I do not know what is causing this, how to fix it, or why it occurs in one environment but not the other.  Any help with this would be greatly appreciated.

Below is more details on the error I came across in the Developer Tools:
A circular reference was detected while serializing an object of type 'System.Data.Entity.DynamicProxies.Client_01B64F1E7422FE56835B4D229E8C469B1D4FDE4FCDE484EC36E547106D4A9766'.

[InvalidOperationException: A circular reference was detected while serializing an object of type 'System.Data.Entity.DynamicProxies.Client_01B64F1E7422FE56835B4D229E8C469B1D4FDE4FCDE484EC36E547106D4A9766'.]
System.Web.Script.Serialization.JavaScriptSerializer.SerializeValueInternal(Object o, StringBuilder sb, Int32 depth, Hashtable objectsInUse, SerializationFormat serializationFormat) +1549
System.Web.Script.Serialization.JavaScriptSerializer.SerializeValue(Object o, StringBuilder sb, Int32 depth, Hashtable objectsInUse, SerializationFormat serializationFormat) +194
System.Web.Script.Serialization.JavaScriptSerializer.SerializeCustomObject(Object o, StringBuilder sb, Int32 depth, Hashtable objectsInUse, SerializationFormat serializationFormat) +502
System.Web.Script.Serialization.JavaScriptSerializer.SerializeValueInternal(Object o, StringBuilder sb, Int32 depth, Hashtable objectsInUse, SerializationFormat serializationFormat) +1424
System.Web.Script.Serialization.JavaScriptSerializer.SerializeValue(Object o, StringBuilder sb, Int32 depth, Hashtable objectsInUse, SerializationFormat serializationFormat) +194
System.Web.Script.Serialization.JavaScriptSerializer.SerializeCustomObject(Object o, StringBuilder sb, Int32 depth, Hashtable objectsInUse, SerializationFormat serializationFormat) +282
System.Web.Script.Serialization.JavaScriptSerializer.SerializeValueInternal(Object o, StringBuilder sb, Int32 depth, Hashtable objectsInUse, SerializationFormat serializationFormat) +1424
System.Web.Script.Serialization.JavaScriptSerializer.SerializeValue(Object o, StringBuilder sb, Int32 depth, Hashtable objectsInUse, SerializationFormat serializationFormat) +194
System.Web.Script.Serialization.JavaScriptSerializer.SerializeEnumerable(IEnumerable enumerable, StringBuilder sb, Int32 depth, Hashtable objectsInUse, SerializationFormat serializationFormat) +126
System.Web.Script.Serialization.JavaScriptSerializer.SerializeValueInternal(Object o, StringBuilder sb, Int32 depth, Hashtable objectsInUse, SerializationFormat serializationFormat) +1380
System.Web.Script.Serialization.JavaScriptSerializer.SerializeValue(Object o, StringBuilder sb, Int32 depth, Hashtable objectsInUse, SerializationFormat serializationFormat) +194
System.Web.Script.Serialization.JavaScriptSerializer.SerializeCustomObject(Object o, StringBuilder sb, Int32 depth, Hashtable objectsInUse, SerializationFormat serializationFormat) +502
System.Web.Script.Serialization.JavaScriptSerializer.SerializeValueInternal(Object o, StringBuilder sb, Int32 depth, Hashtable objectsInUse, SerializationFormat serializationFormat) +1424
System.Web.Script.Serialization.JavaScriptSerializer.SerializeValue(Object o, StringBuilder sb, Int32 depth, Hashtable objectsInUse, SerializationFormat serializationFormat) +194
System.Web.Script.Serialization.JavaScriptSerializer.Serialize(Object obj, StringBuilder output, SerializationFormat serializationFormat) +26
System.Web.Script.Serialization.JavaScriptSerializer.Serialize(Object obj, SerializationFormat serializationFormat) +74
System.Web.Mvc.JsonResult.ExecuteResult(ControllerContext context) +342
System.Web.Mvc.ControllerActionInvoker.InvokeActionResult(ControllerContext controllerContext, ActionResult actionResult) +13
System.Web.Mvc.<>c__DisplayClass1a.<InvokeActionResultWithFilters>b__17() +23
System.Web.Mvc.ControllerActionInvoker.InvokeActionResultFilter(IResultFilter filter, ResultExecutingContext preContext, Func`1 continuation) +264
System.Web.Mvc.<>c__DisplayClass1c.<InvokeActionResultWithFilters>b__19() +20
System.Web.Mvc.ControllerActionInvoker.InvokeActionResultWithFilters(ControllerContext controllerContext, IList`1 filters, ActionResult actionResult) +176
System.Web.Mvc.Async.<>c__DisplayClass2a.<BeginInvokeAction>b__20() +71
System.Web.Mvc.Async.<>c__DisplayClass25.<BeginInvokeAction>b__22(IAsyncResult asyncResult) +128
System.Web.Mvc.Async.WrappedAsyncResult`1.End() +50
System.Web.Mvc.Async.AsyncControllerActionInvoker.EndInvokeAction(IAsyncResult asyncResult) +26
System.Web.Mvc.<>c__DisplayClass1d.<BeginExecuteCore>b__18(IAsyncResult asyncResult) +14
System.Web.Mvc.Async.<>c__DisplayClass4.<MakeVoidDelegate>b__3(IAsyncResult ar) +25
System.Web.Mvc.Async.WrappedAsyncResult`1.End() +55
System.Web.Mvc.Controller.EndExecuteCore(IAsyncResult asyncResult) +41
System.Web.Mvc.Async.<>c__DisplayClass4.<MakeVoidDelegate>b__3(IAsyncResult ar) +25
System.Web.Mvc.Async.WrappedAsyncResult`1.End() +55
System.Web.Mvc.Controller.EndExecute(IAsyncResult asyncResult) +28
System.Web.Mvc.Controller.System.Web.Mvc.Async.IAsyncController.EndExecute(IAsyncResult asyncResult) +10
System.Web.Mvc.<>c__DisplayClass8.<BeginProcessRequest>b__3(IAsyncResult asyncResult) +28
System.Web.Mvc.Async.<>c__DisplayClass4.<MakeVoidDelegate>b__3(IAsyncResult ar) +25
System.Web.Mvc.Async.WrappedAsyncResult`1.End() +55
System.Web.Mvc.MvcHandler.EndProcessRequest(IAsyncResult asyncResult) +30
System.Web.Mvc.MvcHandler.System.Web.IHttpAsyncHandler.EndProcessRequest(IAsyncResult result) +9
System.Web.CallHandlerExecutionStep.System.Web.HttpApplication.IExecutionStep.Execute() +8981789
System.Web.HttpApplication.ExecuteStep(IExecutionStep step, Boolean& completedSynchronously) +184

[Atanas Korchev]

Hello Ryan,

 You can check the troubleshooting help topic.

Regards,
Atanas Korchev
Telerik

[Ryan]

I have already read that part of the troubleshooting guide. It still doesn't help to explain why this is only an issue in my non-development environment. I've been working on this project for 4 months now with no issues only to find out about this major problem after it has been deployed. 

[Atanas Korchev]

Hi Ryan,

 We can't tell why this issue doesn't manifest itself in your development environment because we are not aware of the specifics of your application. All we know is that the JavaScriptSerializer cannot serialize object hierarchies with circular references. The solution is to use view model objects which is described in our documentation: http://docs.kendoui.com/getting-started/using-kendo-with/aspnet-mvc/helpers/grid/faq#how-do-i-avoid-circular-reference-exceptions?

Regards,
Atanas Korchev
Telerik