when WCF method returns XmlElement , the client sees XElement returned?

Question

i return an xmlElement from a WCf method. when i do a service reference in the client, the same method is returning XElement instead of XmlElement. i tried everything: updating the service reference, making a new service reference, but it doesn't help.

This is my client:

ServiceReference1.BasicServiceClient basicWCfClient = new ServiceReference1.BasicServiceClient();
        XmlElement xmlelement =  basicWCfClient.GetData(5); 
        basicWCfClient.Close();

i get an error : "Cannot implicitly convert type 'System.Xml.Linq.XElement' to 'System.Xml.XmlElement'"

when the method in the server side:

 public XmlElement GetData(int value)
    {
        XmlDocument xmldoc = new XmlDocument();
        xmldoc.LoadXml("<msg><node1>Hello</node1><node2>World</node2><request_params><mynode>More</mynode></request_params></msg>");
        XmlElement xmlElement = xmldoc.DocumentElement;
        return xmlElement;
     }

and the interface:

    [ServiceContract]
public interface IBasicService
{

    [OperationContract]       
    [WebGet(UriTemplate = "GetData?value={value}")] // Add support for HTTP GET Requests
    XmlElement GetData(int value);}

what is going on ?

Answer 1

Nothing is wrong. Client doesn't know which .NET type has been used and service reference informs it only that any XML can be returned. It takes XML and provides it as XElement. It is build in behavior and I think it was chosen by MS because of newer and more comfortable API. Why do you need the method to return XmlElement?