Data Member Order is missing from wcf client proxy generated class.

Question

Hello,

Have mapped table from sql database to linq in Employee dbml file.

[global::System.Runtime.Serialization.DataContractAttribute()]
public partial class tbEmployee
{

    private int _Employeeid;

    private string _EmployeeName;



    public tbEmployee()
    {
    }

    [global::System.Data.Linq.Mapping.ColumnAttribute(Storage = "_Employeeid", DbType = "Int NOT NULL")]
    [global::System.Runtime.Serialization.DataMemberAttribute(Order = 0)]
    public int EmployeeID
    {
        get
        {
            return this._PeriodContextRefId;
        }
        set
        {
            if ((this._Employeeid != value))
            {
                this._Employeeid = value;
            }
        }
    }

    [global::System.Data.Linq.Mapping.ColumnAttribute(Storage = "_EmployeeName", DbType = "NVarChar(2) NOT NULL", CanBeNull = false)]
    [global::System.Runtime.Serialization.DataMemberAttribute(Order = 1)]
    public string EmployeeName
    {
        get
        {
            return this._EmployeeName;
        }
        set
        {
            if ((this._EmployeeName != value))
            {
                this._EmployeeName = value;
            }
        }
    }

}

and in Service i am just returning the object of type

List<tbEmployee>

when i add the service reference in my client the date member order information is skipping.

as i am using the protobuf-net for serialization/deserialization it is giving the problem while deserializing at my client side.

Answer 1

Yes, that is a nuisance. There are 2 options for fixing this; the first (and easiest) is to use WCF's ability to share a contract assembly between client and server. If you can share the DTO layer, that'll keep things simple.

The second is to add additional markers at the client to give it a clue. You can do this via a partial class, for example in a separate code file (don't edit the generated file):

namespace YourNamespace {
    [ProtoContract(DataMemberOffset = 1)] /* shift all DataMember orders */
    public partial class tbEmployee {}
}

a more explicit alternative is:

namespace YourNamespace {
    [ProtoPartialMember(1, "EmployeeID")]
    [ProtoPartialMember(2, "EmployeeName")]
    public partial class tbEmployee {}
}