Exposing a service to external systems - How should I design the contract?
- by Larsi
Hi!
I know this question is been asked before here but still I'm not sure what to select.
My service will be called from many 3 party system in the enterprise. I'm almost sure the information the service will collect (MyBigClassWithAllInfo) will change during the products lifetime. Is it still a good idea to expose objects?
This is basically what my two alternatives:
[ServiceContract]
public interface ICollectStuffService
{
[OperationContract]
SetDataResponseMsg SetData(SetDataRequestMsg dataRequestMsg);
}
// Alternative 1: Put all data inside a xml file
[DataContract]
public class SetDataRequestMsg
{
[DataMember]
public string Body { get; set; }
[DataMember]
public string OtherPropertiesThatMightBeHandy { get; set; } // ??
}
// Alternative 2: Expose the objects
[DataContract]
public class SetDataRequestMsg
{
[DataMember]
public Header Header { get; set; }
[DataMember]
public MyBigClassWithAllInfo ExposedObject { get; set; }
}
public class SetDataResponseMsg
{
[DataMember]
public ServiceError Error { get; set; }
}
The xml file would look like this:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Message>
<Header>
<InfoAboutTheSender>...</InfoAboutTheSender>
</Header>
<StuffToCollectWithAllTheInfo>
<stuff1>...</stuff1>
</StuffToCollectWithAllTheInfo>
</Message>
Any thought on how this service should be implemented?
Thanks Larsi
