Creating a new resource initiates a POST request which initializes all properties

Question

I'm consuming a set of data services with the help of a service reference and using the call

svc.AddToXXX(new XXX() {//some properties})

to create a new resource of type XXX. However unlike the update resource call, which uses a MERGE request, this results in a POST request which ends up initializing all unspecified properties with their default value. Is there a way to force it to only initialize the specified properties?

Answer 1

We discussed this a bit more on MSDN forums and the full resolution can be found here: http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/adodotnetdataservices/thread/9284cb7c-46d9-4495-84ec-875e21af56fb/ In short, WCF Data Service client doesn't support property level tracking, it only tracks changes on the entire entity. In order to support the scenario from this question, property level tracking needs to be added. It is possible to do this in code above WCF Data Services, but it's not exactly easy.