Question

I have a WCF service that I have built from an XSD from a client. The client XSD calls for a field named 3rdPartyTrackingNumber. Because in c# I can’t have a field that starts with a number I have named it ThirdPartyTrackingNumber. Is there a meta tag or something that I can put on the column that will render it as 3rdartyTrackingNumber when serialized?

public class OSSShipmentGroup
{
    public string status { get; set; }
    public string shipmentNumber { get; set; }
    public object shipFrom { get; set; }
    public string carrierName { get; set; }

    [Some meta tag here]
    public string ThirdPartyTrackingNumber {get; set;}
    public OSSOrderDates dates { get; set; }
    public OSSOrderAddress[] address {get; set;}
    public OSSOrderShipmentItem[] containedItems { get; set; }
    public OSSShipmentInvoice[] invoice {get; set;}
}

I know I can implement ISerializable and make the changes in GetObjectData, but if it is only one field i was hoping I could just add a meta tag to the field.

Answer 1

It depends on what serializer you are using. For example if you are using DataContractSerializer which is the default in WCF basicHttpBinding and wsHttpBinding you could use the [DataMember] attribute

[DataMember(Name = "ABC")]
public string ThirdPartyTrackingNumber { get; set; }

If you are using XmlSerializer then the [XmlElement] attribute should do the job:

[XmlElement(ElementName = "ABC")]
public string ThirdPartyTrackingNumber { get; set; }