Question

Can I have a data contract of this shape??

[DataContract]  public class YearlyStatistic{  [DataMember] public string Year{get;set;}  [DataMember] public string StatisticName {get;set;}  [DataMember] public List<MonthlyStatistic> MonthlyStats {get;set} }; 

I am assuming here that class MonthlyStatistic will also need to be a DataContract. Can you do this in a web service?

Answer 1

To use the same model for web services, mark your class as Serializable use the XmlRoot and XmlElement in the System.Xml.Serialization namespace. Here is a sample using your example:

[Serializable] [XmlRoot('YearlyStatistic')] public class YearlyStatistic {     [XmlElement('Year')]     public string Year { get; set; }      [XmlElement('StatisticName')]     public string StatisticName { get; set; }      [XmlElement('MonthlyStats')]     public List<MonthlyStatistic> MonthlyStats { get; set; }  } 

You will have to do the same thing for your complex object properties of the parent object.