ASP.NET ScriptService deserialization problem with derived types

Question

I have a ScriptService web method (.NET 3.5) which takes a single parameter of an abstract base type:

[WebMethod(EnableSession=true)]
[ScriptMethod()]
public bool Test(Item item) { ... }

And:

namespace Namespace {
public abstract class Item
{
    public int id;
}

public class Group : Item
{
    public Item[] items;
}

public class Instance : Item
{
    public string whatever;
}
}

Usually, when the method is called, item will be a Group which contains Instance and/or Group objects. I'm calling this service from jQuery; I'm not using the Microsoft client-side framework. Calls to other methods work fine.

The problem: When I make the call, an exception is thrown before my method is even invoked. For example, if my call is:

POST /WebService.asmx/Test HTTP/1.1
Content-Type: application/json; charset=UTF-8
Accept: application/json, text/javascript, */*

{"item":{"id":0,"__type":"Namespace.Group","items":[]}}

...I get an InvalidOperationException:

{"Message":"Operation is not valid due to the current state of the object.","StackTrace":"   at System.Web.Script.Serialization.ObjectConverter.ConvertDictionaryToObject(IDictionary`2 dictionary, Type type, JavaScriptSerializer serializer, Boolean throwOnError, Object& convertedObject)\r\n   at System.Web.Script.Serialization.ObjectConverter.ConvertObjectToTypeInternal(Object o, Type type, JavaScriptSerializer serializer, Boolean throwOnError, Object& convertedObject)\r\n   at System.Web.Script.Serialization.ObjectConverter.ConvertObjectToTypeMain(Object o, Type type, JavaScriptSerializer serializer, Boolean throwOnError, Object& convertedObject)\r\n   at System.Web.Script.Serialization.JavaScriptObjectDeserializer.DeserializeInternal(Int32 depth)\r\n   at System.Web.Script.Serialization.JavaScriptObjectDeserializer.DeserializeDictionary(Int32 depth)\r\n   at System.Web.Script.Serialization.JavaScriptObjectDeserializer.DeserializeInternal(Int32 depth)\r\n   at System.Web.Script.Serialization.JavaScriptObjectDeserializer.BasicDeserialize(String input, Int32 depthLimit, JavaScriptSerializer serializer)\r\n   at System.Web.Script.Serialization.JavaScriptSerializer.Deserialize(JavaScriptSerializer serializer, String input, Type type, Int32 depthLimit)\r\n   at System.Web.Script.Serialization.JavaScriptSerializer.Deserialize[T](String input)\r\n   at System.Web.Script.Services.RestHandler.ExecuteWebServiceCall(HttpContext context, WebServiceMethodData methodData)","ExceptionType":"System.InvalidOperationException"}

If I drop the __type member of the JSON object or change it to Namespace.Item (and remove the abstract modifier from Item), the exception goes away, but the resulting deserialized object is obviously kinda useless.

What am I missing?

Answer 1

Ah ha! Clicking around the related links on the right side of this question, I found an answer that helped me solve this problem.

The GenerateScriptType attribute must be applied to the web service class:

[WebService( ... )]
[WebServiceBinding(ConformsTo = WsiProfiles.BasicProfile1_1)]
[ScriptService]
[GenerateScriptType(typeof(Group))]
[GenerateScriptType(typeof(Instance))]
public class WebService : System.Web.Services.WebService
{
    [WebMethod(EnableSession=true)]
    [ScriptMethod()]
    public bool Test(Item item) { ... }
}

Without these attributes, the deserializer doesn't know about my derived types.