I've got a JavaScript object definition which contains a circular reference: it has a property that references the parent object.

It also has functions that I don't want to be passed through to the server. How would I serialize and deserialize these objects?

I've read that the best method to do this is to use Douglas Crockford's stringify. However, I'm getting the following error in Chrome:

TypeError: Converting circular structure to JSON

The code:

function finger(xid, xparent){

    this.id = xid;

    this.xparent;

    //other attributes

}



function arm(xid, xparent){

    this.id = xid;

    this.parent = xparent;

    this.fingers = [];



    //other attributes



    this.moveArm = function() {

        //moveArm function details - not included in this testcase

        alert(moveArm Executed);

    }

}



 function person(xid, xparent, xname){

    this.id = xid;

    this.parent = xparent;

    this.name = xname

    this.arms = []



    this.createArms = function () {

        this.arms[this.arms.length] = new arm(this.id, this);

    }

}



function group(xid, xparent){

    this.id = xid;

    this.parent = xparent;

    this.people = [];

    that = this;



    this.createPerson = function () {

        this.people[this.people.length] = new person(this.people.length, this, someName);

        //other commands

    }



    this.saveGroup = function () {

        alert(JSON.stringify(that.people));

    }

}

This is a test case that I created for this question. There are errors within this code but essentially I have objects within objects, and a reference passed to each object to show what the parent object is when the object is created. Each object also contains functions, which I don't want stringified. I just want the properties such as the Person.Name.

How do I serialize before sending to the server and deserialize it assuming that the same JSON is passed back?