Question

I have a wcf method that accepts an object “Order” as its input and returns an object “ResultSet”. I created a test project, added a reference to my objectModel project and can consume my service no problem.

I added DataContract and DataMember attributes to my Order objects properties (my Order class is in a separate project than the wcf services not sure if this comes into play or not?). What I am foggy on is, is what if the client consuming this service is doing it in java app or something? How is he gonna pass to my service an object of type Order? Furthermore how is he going to receive and object of type ResultSet?

Would this scenario even work as is? Is this information about the object automatically populated in the service reference? Even if it is how is it possible for say a java app to even pass my an object of type Order?

Answer 1

The Java app doesn’t have to pass an object of the same type, it has to pass a message that satisfied the contract laid out by your service interface.

Consider a .NET only service. Let’s say you have this service / data contract:

namespace MyServer
{
   [ServiceContract(Namespace="http://example.com/foo")]
   public interface IMyService 
   {
        void Foo(Bar bar);
   }

   [DataContract(Namespace="http://example.com/foo")]
   public class Bar
   {
       [DataMember]
       public string Result { get; set; }
   }
 }

Now, let’s say you want to hand code a client, you could make your own data contract implementation (note that it’s in a difference namespace and likely in a different assembly than the above code):

namespace MyClient
{
   [DataContract(Namespace="http://example.com/foo")]
   public class Bar
   {
       [DataMember]
       public string Result { get; set; }
   }
 }

It’s a different type, but it will still serialize / deserialize correctly through WCF because the message is constructed correctly. The same principle works with a Java client. As long as your java code is capable of constructing the correct message, it will work fine.