Serialization is the process of converting an object to transferable data format. By default WCF uses DataContractSerializer. And vice-versa process is called De-Serialization.
publicclassProduct
{
publicint ProductID
{
get;set;
}
publicstring ProductName
{
get;set;
}
publicstring ProductSeller
{
get;set;
}
publicdecimal ProductCost
{
get;set;
}
}
Browse the service and open WSDL file.
Notice a namespace containing datacontract Open the URL highlighted below.
You may notice the details that I added in Product class.
After adding Serializable attribute:
[Serializable]
publicclassProduct
{ }
Now you may notice the change in xml file. Serializable attribute serialize all private properties.
Now if you want a control over serialization. Means you don’t want all data to send to client only few of the you want to exchange.
Use DataContract and DataMember attribute
[DataContract]
publicclassProduct
{
[DataMember]
publicint ProductID
{
get;set;
}
[DataMember]
publicstring ProductName
{
get;set;
}
publicstring ProductSeller
{
get;set;
}
publicdecimal ProductCost
{
get;set;
}
}
In below code, i have added DataMemeber attribute with ProductID and ProductName
Let’s see the WSDL file.
You may notice only ProductID and ProductName is showing below why because I have used DataMember attribute with these two.
Summary:
If we use Serialize attribute then we will not have any control over fields. All fields will be serialize.
If we use DataContract attribute then we can control the fields by adding DataMember attribute if we want to serialize else with no attribute.
