WCF: Serializing and Deserializing generic collections
- by Fabiano
I have a class Team that holds a generic list:
[DataContract(Name = "TeamDTO", IsReference = true)]
public class Team
{
[DataMember]
private IList<Person> members = new List<Person>();
public Team()
{
Init();
}
private void Init()
{
members = new List<Person>();
}
[System.Runtime.Serialization.OnDeserializing]
protected void OnDeserializing(StreamingContext ctx)
{
Log("OnDeserializing of Team called");
Init();
if (members != null) Log(members.ToString());
}
[System.Runtime.Serialization.OnSerializing]
private void OnSerializing(StreamingContext ctx)
{
Log("OnSerializing of Team called");
if (members != null) Log(members.ToString());
}
[System.Runtime.Serialization.OnDeserialized]
protected void OnDeserialized(StreamingContext ctx)
{
Log("OnDeserialized of Team called");
if (members != null) Log(members.ToString());
}
[System.Runtime.Serialization.OnSerialized]
private void OnSerialized(StreamingContext ctx)
{
Log("OnSerialized of Team called");
Log(members.ToString());
}
When I use this class in a WCF service, I get following log output
OnSerializing of Team called
System.Collections.Generic.List 1[Person]
OnSerialized of Team called
System.Collections.Generic.List 1[Person]
OnDeserializing of Team called
System.Collections.Generic.List 1[ENetLogic.ENetPerson.Model.FirstPartyPerson]
OnDeserialized of Team called
ENetLogic.ENetPerson.Model.Person[]
After the deserialization members is an Array and no longer a generic list although the field type is IList< (?!)
When I try to send this object back over the WCF service I get the log output
OnSerializing of Team called
ENetLogic.ENetPerson.Model.FirstPartyPerson[]
After this my unit test crashes with a System.ExecutionEngineException, which means the WCF service is not able to serialize the array. (maybe because it expected a IList<)
So, my question is: Does anybody know why the type of my IList< is an array after deserializing and why I can't serialize my Team object any longer after that?
Thanks
