CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c#wcfgenerics
sebastian.roibu
sebastian.roibu

Reputation: 2859

Build a WCF with generic type

I want to build a service that will pass the data read from the database to the client in JSON format. I don't know the schema table and the types.

I thought about implementing the WCF over Dictionary but the JSON is very complicated and contains objects like "key = ...; value = ..." and i want just "key=value" and i need to return list of Dictionary objects. Sometimes from database i will receive a comma separated array, so i will insert in my Dictionary a key with a new Dictionary as value.

In PHP my boss said that it can be done through associative arrays. Please help me with some ideas or link because i don't know where to start to look.

If there is something that you didn't understood please comment and i will try another explanation.

Edits:

  1. I need it to be a rest service, so JSON is mandatory.
  2. How can i load data from the table ? What type can i use ?

Edit #2 : This is what i want to get : CorectJSON

Edit #3 : This is my current json :

stdClass Object
(
    [areaGetStreetTypesResult] => stdClass Object
        (
            [responseMessage] => [{"name":"IMPASSE","street_type":"IMP"}{"name":"LOTISSEMENT","street_type":"LOT"}{"name":"ROUTE","street_type":"RTE"}{"name":"RUE","street_type":"RUE"}]
            [response_status] => stdClass Object
                (
                    [message] => Success : JSON created into the responseMessage variable !
                    [status] => 0
                )

        )

)

Is not containing some commas between so it cannot be decoded by php. What should i do ?

This is my method Code

Upvotes: 0

Views: 1073

Answers (3)

Giedrius
Giedrius

Reputation: 8540

I think that doing everything as a dictionary in webservice API is bad practice and I hate when I need to work with API's like this. If it is a WCF, it produces WSDL and WDSL describes the data is going in and out, so if everything is dictionary, WSDL can not provide anything meaningfull, so your datacontracts tell you nothing about the data.
If you need simply forward database data through webservice, WCF has DataServices http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/data/bb931106 although I think you should create API that fits your business needs and is not simple proxy between database and your client.

Upvotes: 2

Thorsten Dittmar
Thorsten Dittmar

Reputation: 56697

What is the reason why you need to pass JSON? If you want to create a WCF REST service, it is sufficient to tell WCF to create JSON messages as described here: http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/327420/WCF-REST-Service-with-JSON

If you access the service from a C# application, you don't need to care about how data is passed back and forth. Just take "normal" method parameters and use return values like you'd do locally and you're set.

Example:

string[] GetResultStrings(List<Rectangle> sourceRectangles);

If you really need to pass JSON strings, just pass strings and use the JSON serializer and deserializer to encode the reply and decode the parameters.

For example:

string GetJSONString(string jsonRequest);

The following information may help on using the JSON serializer and deserializer: http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/272335/JSON-Serialization-and-Deserialization-in-ASP-NET

EDIT
I'm using the following method to serialize serializable objects to JSON:

public static string SerializeJSON(this object obj)
{
    DataContractJsonSerializer serializer = new DataContractJsonSerializer(obj.GetType());
    using (MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream())
    {
        serializer.WriteObject(ms, obj);
        return Encoding.UTF8.GetString(ms.ToArray());
    }
}

This works just fine for any DataContract class like:

[DataContract]
public class MyJSONReturnableClass
{
    [DataMember]
    public string ThisBecomesANamedString;

    [DataMember]
    public MyJSONReturnableClass[] AndWorksAlsoForNestedArrays;
}

Upvotes: 1

st_stefanov
st_stefanov

Reputation: 1186

Populate your dictionary, then serialize it using JSon. Pass it to your client using WCF or RabbitMq...

JsonConvert.SerializeObject(yourDict);

Download the NewtonSoft.dll

Put using:

using Newtonsoft.Json;

Upvotes: 1

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