A nice feature in XSD is the IDREF restriction, e.g.:
<xs:restriction base="xs:IDREF">
<xs:pattern value="[0-9a-zA-Z\-]+"/>
</xs:restriction>
I used this restriction with great benefit in a Java JAXWS-project. An object serialized in a SOAP XML datamodel can hold a reference (pointer) to another object in the same SOAP message.
I want to try the same approach in a C# WCF-project, can it be done? On the web site Data Contract Schema Reference I can see e.g. Id ignored, Ref forbidden, but I am not sure whether I understand what that means.