How to get from ProtoBuf.Meta.MetaType Type it is mede from attributes?

Question

How to get from ProtoBuf.Meta.MetaType Type it is mede from attributes ( ProtoIncludeAttribute for example)?

for example we had created an assembly from:

[ProtoContract]
[ProtoInclude(TypeCode.MyClassChildCode, typeof(MyClassChild))]
public class MyClass {}

[ProtoContract]
public class MyClassChild: MyClass{}

We have got ProtoBuf.Meta.MetaType for our MyClassChild . And we want to get TypeCode.MyClassChildCode from it. How to do such thing?

Answer 1

I'm not entirely sure that I understand the question, but it sounds like you are asking either:

• can I tell whether a MetaType was made from attributes, vs by hand
• or: can I get the actual attributes that were used

If that/those is/are the question(s), then: MetaType does not explicitly track this. The information from the attributes is used to configure the MetaType , and is then discarded. It is not uncommon, for example, to partially configure a type via attributes, and then apply some tweaks through code (for parts only known at runtime). All of the configuration is available on the MetaType , though. You mention ProtoIncludeAttribute , which is the sub-type data: once the MetaType has been constructed, this is available via .GetSubtypes() . Likewise there is .GetFields() , and a range of properties for type-level configuration options ( UseConstructor , etc).

There are some pieces which might be tricky to query at the moment - surrogates and factories leap to mind.