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Unexpected Serialization Behavior with System.Text.Json in .NET 7 When Using Custom JsonConverter

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c# .net json serialization system.text.json C#

I'm reviewing some code and I'm experiencing an scenario with the serialization of objects using `System.Text.Json` in .NET 7. I have a custom `JsonConverter` for a class that includes a collection of objects, but when I attempt to serialize the parent object, the collection is not being serialized as expected. Here's the relevant code snippet for my converter: ```csharp public class MyCustomConverter : JsonConverter<MyClass> { public override MyClass Read(ref Utf8JsonReader reader, Type typeToConvert, JsonSerializerOptions options) { // Implementation for reading... } public override void Write(Utf8JsonWriter writer, MyClass value, JsonSerializerOptions options) { writer.WriteStartObject(); writer.WriteNumber("Id", value.Id); // Attempting to serialize the collection writer.WritePropertyName("Items"); JsonSerializer.Serialize(writer, value.Items, options); writer.WriteEndObject(); } } ``` The serialization seems to skip the `Items` property entirely, producing an output like this: ```json { "Id": 1 } ``` I've registered the converter in my `JsonSerializerOptions`: ```csharp var options = new JsonSerializerOptions { Converters = { new MyCustomConverter() } }; var jsonString = JsonSerializer.Serialize(myClassInstance, options); ``` I’ve verified that `Items` is not null and contains data. To debug, I added logging inside the `Write` method, and it seems to be called correctly, but the output doesn’t reflect the serialized collection. I also checked for any policies in the `JsonSerializerOptions` that might ignore empty collections, but everything seems fine. Could there be any additional settings or common pitfalls that I might be overlooking with the custom converter? Any insights would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance! I'm using C# LTS in this project. Am I approaching this the right way?