CODEWITHSUNDEEP
.netwcfserializationdatacontract
Devin
Devin

Reputation: 61

Can you make a DataContract with a Single ValueType based Value?

I am curious if it is possible to create a DataContract that will serialize like so:

<MyCustomName>string value</MyCustomName>

OR

<MyCustomName>int</MyCustomName>

What I am ultimately trying to do is return a basic type with a Custom element name. I've tried the following:

[DataContract(Name = "MyCustomName")]
public class MyCustomName : String
{
}

But obviously you can't inherit a string or int value. Any help would be appreciated.

Upvotes: 4

Views: 136

Answers (2)

BrandonAGr
BrandonAGr

Reputation: 6017

If you are returning that type as a field in another class, then you could just use a surrogate property such as:

public TreeId Id { get; set; }

[DataMember(Name = "Id")]
private string IdSurrogate
{
    get
    {
        return Id.ToString();
    }
    set
    {
        Id = new TreeId(value);
    }
}

So instead of having to put DataContract on the TreeId class, the property IdSurrogate just handles translating it directly to a string value

Upvotes: 0

ChrisWue
ChrisWue

Reputation: 19060

I'm not sure if there is an easier way but as far as I know the DataContractSerializer will respect it if your type implements IXmlSerializable. So you could implement this interface and roll your own serialization of MyCustomName

Upvotes: 2

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