c# WCF web service serialization error

Question

What am I doing wrong here? I'm trying to create a WCF web service that access a different dll project. The return is a custom list that contains strings and integars. When debugging I get the following error when simply navigating to Service1.svc:

An ExceptionDetail, likely created by IncludeExceptionDetailInFaults=true, whose value is: System.InvalidOperationException: An exception was thrown in a call to a WSDL export extension: System.ServiceModel.Description contract: http://tempuri.org/:IService1 ----> System.Runtime.Serialization.InvalidDataContractException: Type 'RoTools.RoAmCalls+CustomItem' cannot be serialized. Consider marking it with the 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

So researching the error online I thought adding the KnownType would help, but I'm still getting the same error. Thanks for your help. Here is the code from the Service1.cs.

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Runtime.Serialization;
using System.ServiceModel;
using System.ServiceModel.Web;
using System.Text;

namespace RoWebService
{
[ServiceContract]
public interface IService1
{
    [OperationContract]
    List<RoTools.RoAmCalls.CustomItem> SingleProductCheck(string productId); 
}


[KnownType(typeof(RoTools.RoAmCalls.CustomItem))]
[DataContract]
public class CompositeType
{

    List<RoTools.RoAmCalls.CustomItem> myResults;

    [DataMember]
    public List<RoTools.RoAmCalls.CustomItem> myResults
    {
        get { return myResults; }
        set { myResults = value; }
    }
}

And here is the code from the Service1.svc.cs:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Runtime.Serialization;
using System.ServiceModel;
using System.ServiceModel.Web;
using System.Text;

namespace RoWebService
{
public class Service1 : IService1
{
    public List<RoTools.RoAmCalls.CustomItem> SingleProductCheck(string productId)
    {
        log4net.ILog log = log4net.LogManager.GetLogger(System.Reflection.MethodBase.GetCurrentMethod().DeclaringType);


        var myReturn = 
        RoTools.RoAmCalls.GetPriceAndStatusSingleItem(productId, log, System.Configuration.ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["something1"],
            System.Configuration.ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["something2"]);

        return myReturn;
    }
}
}

All user-defined types used in WCF (RoTools.RoAmCalls.CustomItem in this case) must be marked with [DataContract] attribute. Its members must be marked with [DataMember] attribute. Hope this helps. — Yevgeniy
– Yevgeniy, Commented May 12, 2017 at 15:29
I already have DataContract and DataMember marked. Did I do them incorrectly? — Roro
– Roro, Commented May 12, 2017 at 16:10
I don't know, you haven't posted RoTools.RoAmCalls.CustomItem implementation. — Yevgeniy
– Yevgeniy, Commented May 12, 2017 at 16:11
Maybe that's my mistake then. All the code shown above is what I have right now. I'm not sure how to go about what your stating though. — Roro
– Roro, Commented May 12, 2017 at 16:15
Do you have access to RoTools.RoAmCalls.CustomItem source code? — Yevgeniy
– Yevgeniy, Commented May 12, 2017 at 16:23

Yevgeniy · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-12 16:40:35Z

1

All user-defined types used in WCF (RoTools.RoAmCalls.CustomItem in this case) must be marked with [DataContract] attribute. Its members must be marked with [DataMember] attribute.

Mark RoTools.RoAmCalls.CustomItem with [DataContract] attribute or consider create a separate class, that will store the data from RoTools.RoAmCalls.CustomItem and will be passed through WCF.

answered May 12, 2017 at 16:40

Yevgeniy

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2 Comments

Roro Over a year ago

To add to this for anyone that finds this in the future. I actually had to go into the DLL class files and mark the original CustomItem, which was not in the WPF project, with [DataMember]. it was originally meant for a console application. Adding [DataMember] to the class did not negatively affect the console application so I did not need to create a separate class. Thank you very much for your help.

Roro Over a year ago

UPDATE : Although Yevgeniy's answer did stop my errors on the page after implementing this I actually found out that it did not return any data. I instead had to switch the DLL reference from [DataMember] to [Serialized] to return the data I needed.

Omer Faruk Zorlu · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-12 16:21:23Z

0

Can you please replace your Composite class to:

[DataContract]
public class CompositeType
{
    [DataMember]
    public List<RoTools.RoAmCalls.CustomItem> myResults { get; set; }
}

answered May 12, 2017 at 16:21

Omer Faruk Zorlu

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1 Comment

Omer Faruk Zorlu Over a year ago

So sorry, CustomItem class have not a DataContract attribute?

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