Question

I have an enum:

public enum ComponentType
{
    None = -1,
    Equipment = 0,
    Cable = 2,
    Port = 4,
    Space = 8,
    Site = 9,
    Building = 10,
    Floor = 11,
    DataCenter = 12,
    Area = 13,
    Rack = 14,
    Conduit = 16,
    Person = 17,
    Pit = 18
}

I would like to use this enum on the other side of a WCF service. As such, I need to serialize it!

I see the serializer generating the following:

/// <remarks/>
[System.CodeDom.Compiler.GeneratedCodeAttribute("System.Xml", "4.0.30319.233")]
[System.SerializableAttribute()]
[System.Xml.Serialization.XmlTypeAttribute(Namespace="http://www.website.com/api")]
public enum ComponentType {

    /// <remarks/>
    None,

    /// <remarks/>
    Equipment,

    /// <remarks/>
    Cable,

    /// <remarks/>
    Port,

    /// <remarks/>
    Space,

    /// <remarks/>
    Site,

    /// <remarks/>
    Building,

    /// <remarks/>
    Floor,

    /// <remarks/>
    DataCenter,

    /// <remarks/>
    Area,

    /// <remarks/>
    Rack,

    /// <remarks/>
    Conduit,

    /// <remarks/>
    Person,

    /// <remarks/>
    Pit,
}

Unfortunately, that’s no good. The following code works differently on either end.

int componentId = 123;
int flag = ComponentDao.GetFlagForComponentById(componentId);

ComponentType componentType = ((ComponentType)flag);
//componentType == ComponentType.None (client end of service)
//componentType == ComponentType.Equipment (server end of service)

I looked around at some attribute decorators thinking I might find something useful: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.xml.serialization.xmlenumattribute.aspx. This link shows how to change the serialization name, but does not state anything about the value.

Does this mean that I am not able to maintain my enum values using this serialization engine?

Answer 1

I ended up just adding a direct reference to the DLL containing the enum and avoided serialization altogether. Sorry, not a great answer, but I was unable to make this work.