One of my WCF endpoints has this method:
GetData(DataTable dt)
I tried to create a class on the client that inherits from the DataTable class
public class ExtendedDataTable : DataTable{
//...implementation
}
and pass it along with the endpoint call:
GetData(new ExtendedDataTable());
Then I got the SerializationException. Accordingly to the error, it suggests that I use either DataContractResolver or the KnownType attribute.
I don't want to use the KnownType, because I shouldn't have to update the endpoint every time someone decides to inherit my DataContract. I can't write any DataContractResolver, because I didn't extend the exact structure of the DataTable class. Is it possible to to extend a DataContract from the client?
If so, what's the best practice?
Thanks!
I don't recommend using the Datatable, which makes it easy for WCF to have problems with client and server serialization, such as the need to specify a table name. It is best to use a custom data type, we can use the inheritance type with the KnownType attribute.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/framework/wcf/feature-details/data-contract-known-types
On my side, I can't use the inherited Datatable, while I could use an arbitrary custom class by using Knowntype attribute.
Please refer to my code segments.
[DataContract]
[KnownType(typeof(Product))]
public class MyData
{
[DataMember]
public ProductBase Product { get; set; }
}
[DataContract]
public class ProductBase
{
[DataMember]
public int ID { get; set; }
}
[DataContract]
public class Product : ProductBase
{
[DataMember]
public string Name { get; set; }
}
You can try to inherit DataTable and explicitly use DataContract attribute to declare it's name as "DataTable".
But I'm not sure about purpose of this replacement. Server side will see only what is related to original data contract. Even when new properties gets serialized, deserializatin will only work for server side properties. Unless some custom deserialization will be provided.
In all scenarios, using DataTable is not good idea at all as Abraham Qian already pointed out.
Related
I am using Microsoft.AspNet.Identity.UserLoginInfo class in my WCF service.
However, I am getting following error -
Type 'Microsoft.AspNet.Identity.UserLoginInfo' cannot be serialized.
Consider marking it with the DataContractAttribute attribute, and
marking all of its members you want serialized with the
DataMemberAttribute attribute. If the type is a collection, consider
marking it with the CollectionDataContractAttribute. See the
Microsoft .NET Framework documentation for other supported types
As the class is in-build provided in Microsoft.Aspnet.Identity library, and also marked as Sealed, I am not getting much help on extending that to make it accessible within my WCF service.
Any help on this will be much appreciated.
Thanks
As it says... you can't. The "Consider marking it with the DataContractAttribute attribute..." is misleading since you CAN'T do this unless you have the source code. I'm assuming that your just want to send some serialized object with a couple properties back to your client. I'd try to just map the current identity to a serializable object and send it back.
[DataContract]
public class MyUserLoginInfo
{
[DataMember]
public string LoginProvider { get; set; }
[DataMember]
public string ProviderKey { get; set; }
}
The later on...
//Return me to client
var loginInfo = new MyUserLoginInfo { LoginProvider = myIdentity.LoginProvider, ProviderKey = myIdentity.ProviderKey };
I have a question about the [DataContract] attribute.
I have written my code like below: here I am not using [DataContract] attribute for my test class.
class test
{
[Datamember]
public string Strproperty
{
get;
set;
}
[Datamemer]
public string Strproperty2
{
get;
set;
}
}
class checktotal:Iservice
{
public string testmethod(test obj)
{
return obj.Strproperty+Strproperty2;
}
}
For that I am sending data from client I am getting the values correctly.
Here is it necessary to use [DataContract] attribute for that test class?
If I removed [Datamember] for test class property is getting error while sending from client. But I am not getting any errors even if I am not using the [DataContract] attribute.
Please give me a brief explanation with example so that I can understand when to give that attribute and when do not give that attribute.
Thanks,
Satya Pratap.
The DataContractSerializer can deal with classes that do not have the DataContract attribute if they provide a default constructor. See the MSDN documentation for more details.
As of .NET 3.5 Service Pack 1, you can omit (not use) the [DataContract] and [DataMember] attributes. If you do that, then the DataContractSerializer in WCF will behave just like the XML serializer - it will serialize all public properties only.
I prefer to use [DataContract] and [DataMember] explicitly anyway - it gives me the opportunity to specify options (like the data contract's XML namespace, the order of the [DataMember]) and it lets me e.g. also exclude certain properties from serialization.
As soon as you start using [DataMember] on one property, then only those properties decorated with a [DataMember] will be looked at for the WCF serialization.
I have a WCF DataContract called RecipientDto defined as:
[DataContract]
public class RecipientDto
{
[DataMember]
public string Name
{
get;
private set;
}
[DataMember]
public string EmailAddress
{
get;
private set;
}
public RecipientDto(string name, string emailAddress)
{
Name = name;
EmailAddress = emailAddress;
//Initialize other property here
}
}
I want to have constructor of RecipientDto being exposed to the client as it involve some basic initialization of other properties (not shown here).
Please guide how can I achieve this.
Thank you!
You cannot achieve that unless you share assembly with your DTOs between client and server. Metadata (WSDL + XSD) can describe only data transferred by DTO. They cannot describe any logic defined in DTO on service side.
What you could do is the create a second source file for the RecipientDto class, that contains a second declaration of the class with the "partial" keyword. Add your constructor to it and include that file in your client project using Visual Studio's "Add Link" functionality available on the "Add existing item" dialog. If you only need that constructor on the client then just define that second source file directly in the client project.
I'm trying to take a datacontract object that I received on the server, do some manipulation on it and then return an upcasted version of it however it doesn't seem to be working. I can get it to work by using the KnownType or ServiceKnownType attributes, but I don't want to roundtrip all of the data. Below is an example:
[DataContract]
public class MyBaseObject
{
[DataMember]
public int Id { get; set; }
}
[DataContract]
public class MyDerivedObject : MyBaseObject
{
[DataMember]
public string Name { get; set; }
}
[ServiceContract(Namespace = "http://My.Web.Service")]
public interface IServiceProvider
{
[OperationContract]
List<MyBaseObject> SaveMyObjects(List<MyDerivedObject> myDerivedObjects);
}
public class ServiceProvider : IServiceProvider
{
public List<MyBaseObject> SaveMyObjects(List<MyDerivedObject> myDerivedObjects)
{
... do some work ...
myDerivedObjects[0].Id = 123;
myDerivedObjects[1].Id = 456;
myDerivedObjects[2].Id = 789;
... do some work ...
return myDerivedObjects.Cast<MyBaseObject>().ToList();
}
}
Anybody have any ideas how to get this to work without having to recreate new objects or using the KnownType attributes?
I think that your problem is that you are trying to send over a generic list.
It will work if you encapsulate the list in an object. That is create an object with a single public property which is the generic list.
You also need to make sure that all classes that are not used directly in the contract are marked as serializable.
If you want to return the derived objects then there will always be a round trip because the client and the service are separate. In order for the client to update its own list of MyBaseObjects it has to deserialize the list of MyDerivedObjects that came from the server.
The use of KnownType and/or ServiceKnownType is needed because this leads to the addition of that type information into WSDL, which is in turn used by the client to deserialize the messages to the correct type.
For starters, a useful tool for testing the scenario you've described: http://www.wcfstorm.com
You might try creating a DataContractSurrogate (IDataContractSurrogate) and returning your base type for the call to GetDataContractType. I'm not really sure that's how it was intended to be used so you still may be better of with "the extra work", but maybe I don't understand the scope of that extra work.
One of the problems with WCF (and .net remoting) is that it they tries to make “message passing” look like method calls.
This fall down when you try to use too many “oop” type designs.
The fact that the messages are
represented by .net classes, does not
make all of their behaviour like .net
class.
See this, and this, for more on the problem of Leaking Abstraction.
So you need to start thinking about message passing not object when designing your WCF interfaces, or you will hit lots of problems like this.
Can I have a data contract of this shape??
[DataContract]
public class YearlyStatistic{
[DataMember]
public string Year{get;set;}
[DataMember]
public string StatisticName {get;set;}
[DataMember]
public List<MonthlyStatistic> MonthlyStats {get;set}
};
I am assuming here that class MonthlyStatistic will also need to be a DataContract. Can you do this in a web service?
To use the same model for web services, mark your class as Serializable use the XmlRoot and XmlElement in the System.Xml.Serialization namespace. Here is a sample using your example:
[Serializable]
[XmlRoot("YearlyStatistic")]
public class YearlyStatistic
{
[XmlElement("Year")]
public string Year { get; set; }
[XmlElement("StatisticName")]
public string StatisticName { get; set; }
[XmlElement("MonthlyStats")]
public List<MonthlyStatistic> MonthlyStats { get; set; }
}
You will have to do the same thing for your complex object properties of the parent object.
Yep, thats standard WCF serialization right there. Are you trying to say the MonthlyStats collection has a property called WeeklyStats, or that each individual MonthlyStatistic has a WeeklyStat collection? If its the former, that doesnt work in WCF natively. You will have to do some fiddling in order to get it to work. If its the latter, its perfectly fine.
Yes, you can send the data contract you mentioned above back and forth from a WCF service. Like you said, MonthlyStatistic and all its members will have to be defined as data contracts themselves or be built in types (like strings).
You can even send and receive more complex types like when you have a base class but want to send or receive an object of a derived class (you would do that using the KnownType attribute). While receiving (de-serialization), from Javascript, there's a trick using which you have to specify the type for WCF. If you are interested, feel free to ask.