Set DataContract and DataMember Without All the Attributes

Question

I find the [DataContract] and [DataMember] attributes a bit messy and would rather do this with code in a config method or something. Is this possible?

Answer 1

No, the DataContractSerializer is an opt-in serializer - you have to tell it what you want included.

With other serializers you need to use things like NonSerializedAttribute or XmlIgnoreAttribute to tell the serializer to leave things alone.