Question

I’ve created a base class, and 2 inherited classes. I want to create a WCF operation contract where the parameter is the base class. Is there a decoration I can put on the parameter or classes that indicates that the value supplied must be one of the inherited classes?

Answer 1

Jeremy,

On the base class, you can use the known type attribute.

[DataContract]
[KnownType(typeof(CircleType))]
[KnownType(typeof(TriangleType))]
public class CompanyLogo2
{
    [DataMember]
    private Shape ShapeOfLogo;
    [DataMember]
    private int ColorOfLogo;

}

Please reference http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms730167.aspx

The are other ways of accomplishing this.

Here is a great MSDN article by Juval Lowy on Data Contract Inheritance:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/gg598929.aspx