Service fabric remoting serializer - serialization

Question

In experimenting with Service Fabric remoting I have some data types that are not serialized correctly. This is causing me many issues.
From the documentation it appears that everything needs to be decorated with [DataContract]. After using this on some test types it does appear that they serialize correctly.
However I frankly don't want to have to decorate everything. That would be a huge step backwards for me. I would prefer to use custom serialization all the way around.
This documentation seems to suggest that it is possible to register a custom serializer however it appears to only be for stateful services. I am primarily using remoting with stateless services.

Answer 1

The current remoting stack requires that your types use DataContract. Supposedly the team is close to releasing a new remoting stack in the near future that contains the ability to plug in custom serialization and a lot of improvements on the performance side but this is not available yet.
In the meantime, a workaround (not a very nice one mind you) is to make all of your proxies receive string or byte[] or something like that and take care of serialization/deserialization manually using something like JSON.Net. Personally I'd bite the bullet and make your types Data Contract Serializable until the new remoting bits are available.

Answer 2

With the release of Service Fabric V2 Remoting, this is now possible. See here for further details. Below
Here is an implementation of MessagePack remoting serializer I have used, but in your case the JSON example in the docs would probably suffice.
public class MessagePackMessageFactory : IServiceRemotingMessageBodyFactory
{
public IServiceRemotingRequestMessageBody CreateRequest(string interfaceName, string methodName, int numberOfParameters)
{
return new MessagePackRemotingRequestMessageBody(numberOfParameters);
}
public IServiceRemotingResponseMessageBody CreateResponse(string interfaceName, string methodName)
{
return new MessagePackServiceRemotingResponseMessageBody();
}
}
[MessagePackObject]
public class MessagePackRemotingRequestMessageBody : IServiceRemotingRequestMessageBody
{
[Key(0)]
public object Value;
public MessagePackRemotingRequestMessageBody()
{
}
public MessagePackRemotingRequestMessageBody(int parameterInfos)
{
}
public void SetParameter(int position, string paramName, object parameter)
{
Value = parameter;
}
public object GetParameter(int position, string paramName, Type paramType)
{
return Value;
}
}
[MessagePackObject]
public class MessagePackServiceRemotingResponseMessageBody : IServiceRemotingResponseMessageBody
{
[Key(0)]
public object Response;
public object Get(Type paramType)
{
// ignore paramType?
return Response;
}
public void Set(object response)
{
Response = response;
}
}
public class ServiceRemotingResponseMessagePackMessageBodySerializer : IServiceRemotingResponseMessageBodySerializer
{
public OutgoingMessageBody Serialize(IServiceRemotingResponseMessageBody responseMessageBody)
{
if (!(responseMessageBody is MessagePackServiceRemotingResponseMessageBody body))
{
return new OutgoingMessageBody(new[] { new ArraySegment<byte>(new byte[0]) });
}
var bytes = MessagePackSerializer.Serialize(body, ServiceFabricResolver.Instance);
return new OutgoingMessageBody(new[] { new ArraySegment<byte>(bytes) });
}
public IServiceRemotingResponseMessageBody Deserialize(IncomingMessageBody messageBody)
{
using (var stream = messageBody.GetReceivedBuffer())
{
if (stream.Length == 0)
{
return new MessagePackServiceRemotingResponseMessageBody();
}
var body = MessagePackSerializer.Deserialize<MessagePackServiceRemotingResponseMessageBody>(stream, ServiceFabricResolver.Instance);
return body;
}
}
}
public class ServiceRemotingMessagePackSerializationProvider : IServiceRemotingMessageSerializationProvider
{
public IServiceRemotingRequestMessageBodySerializer CreateRequestMessageSerializer(Type serviceInterfaceType,
IEnumerable<Type> requestBodyTypes)
{
return new ServiceRemotingRequestMessagePackMessageBodySerializer();
}
public IServiceRemotingResponseMessageBodySerializer CreateResponseMessageSerializer(Type serviceInterfaceType, IEnumerable<Type> responseBodyTypes)
{
return new ServiceRemotingResponseMessagePackMessageBodySerializer();
}
public IServiceRemotingMessageBodyFactory CreateMessageBodyFactory()
{
return new MessagePackMessageFactory();
}
}
public class ServiceRemotingRequestMessagePackMessageBodySerializer : IServiceRemotingRequestMessageBodySerializer
{
public OutgoingMessageBody Serialize(IServiceRemotingRequestMessageBody serviceRemotingRequestMessageBody)
{
if (serviceRemotingRequestMessageBody == null) return null;
if (!(serviceRemotingRequestMessageBody is MessagePackRemotingRequestMessageBody body))
{
return new OutgoingMessageBody(new[] { new ArraySegment<byte>(new byte[0]) });
}
var bytes = MessagePackSerializer.Serialize(body, ServiceFabricResolver.Instance);
return new OutgoingMessageBody(new[] { new ArraySegment<byte>(bytes) });
}
public IServiceRemotingRequestMessageBody Deserialize(IncomingMessageBody messageBody)
{
using (var stream = messageBody.GetReceivedBuffer())
{
if (stream.Length == 0)
{
return new MessagePackRemotingRequestMessageBody();
}
var body = MessagePackSerializer.Deserialize<MessagePackRemotingRequestMessageBody>(stream, ServiceFabricResolver.Instance);
return body;
}
}
}