CODEWITHSUNDEEP
wcfxmldocumentdatacontract
Josh
Josh

Reputation: 1610

Returning XmlDocument from WCF service not working

I am trying to update some WCF service methods that return strings to return XmlDocument objects. I've tried returning it as-is and encapsulating it in a datacontract object. Either way I'm hitting an error upon attempting to update the service reference. The error suggest encapsulating it in a datacontract with an operations contract which I am doing. Is there a trick to this?

Upvotes: 0

Views: 3819

Answers (2)

carlosfigueira
carlosfigueira

Reputation: 87228

There's a way to return a XmlDocument from WCF, but you need to use the XmlSerializer instead of the default serializer (DataContractSerialier) - the code below shows how it can be done. Having said that, do consider using data transfer objects as mentioned in the comments, unless your scenario really requires a XmlDocument to be transferred.

public class StackOverflow_8951319
{
    [ServiceContract]
    public interface ITest
    {
        [OperationContract]
        string Echo(string text);
        [OperationContract, XmlSerializerFormat]
        XmlDocument GetDocument();
    }
    public class Service : ITest
    {
        public string Echo(string text)
        {
            return text;
        }

        public XmlDocument GetDocument()
        {
            XmlDocument doc = new XmlDocument();
            doc.LoadXml(@"<products>
  <product id='1'>
    <name>Bread</name>
  </product>
  <product id='2'>
    <name>Milk</name>
  </product>
  <product id='3'>
    <name>Coffee</name>
  </product>
</products>");
            return doc;
        }
    }
    static Binding GetBinding()
    {
        var result = new WSHttpBinding(SecurityMode.None);
        //Change binding settings here
        return result;
    }
    public static void Test()
    {
        string baseAddress = "http://" + Environment.MachineName + ":8000/Service";
        ServiceHost host = new ServiceHost(typeof(Service), new Uri(baseAddress));
        host.AddServiceEndpoint(typeof(ITest), GetBinding(), "");
        host.Open();
        Console.WriteLine("Host opened");

        ChannelFactory<ITest> factory = new ChannelFactory<ITest>(GetBinding(), new EndpointAddress(baseAddress));
        ITest proxy = factory.CreateChannel();
        Console.WriteLine(proxy.Echo("Hello"));

        Console.WriteLine(proxy.GetDocument().OuterXml);

        ((IClientChannel)proxy).Close();
        factory.Close();

        Console.Write("Press ENTER to close the host");
        Console.ReadLine();
        host.Close();
    }
}

Upvotes: 2

Richard Blewett
Richard Blewett

Reputation: 6109

If you want to be able to pass arbitrary XML on the wire the best way to do it is to use XElement rather than XmlDocument

XmlDocument isn't serializable

Upvotes: 1

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