Issue while generating Class from xsd file using svcutil.exe

Question

I am working on Sharing DataContracts between WCF Services using the svcutil.exe tool

I have defined [DataMembar] in library. For sharing data contract I am converting DataContract.dll to DataContract.xsd files.

Command is

svcutil /dconly <my DataContractDLL path>

After generating .xsd, I am generating class file from DataContract.xsd using the command

svcutil /dconly /language:CS DataContract.xsd /out:ClientDataContracts.cs

Every thing went fine and worked in above steps.

Issue faced:

I added Dictionary * type in one of the entities of my DataContract.dll library as follows (ie I added TimeLogs DataMember of Dictionary type.)

public partial class RecordDto
{
    /// <summary>
    /// Gets or sets the Comment.
    /// </summary>
    /// <value>Insurance Company.</value>
    [WcfSerialization::DataMember(Name = "InsuranceCompany", IsRequired = false, Order = 25)]
    public InsuranceCompanyDto InsuranceCompany { get; set; }

    [WcfSerialization::DataMember(Name = "TimeLogs", IsRequired = false, Order = 26)]
    public Dictionary<String, DateTime> TimeLogs
    {
        get;
        set;
    }
}

After adding the Dictionary type I started getting errors while converting .xsd to .cs :

After adding Dictionary type why I am getting the error?

How do I resolve it?

Answer 1

the interface IDictionary is not serializable, you should implement your own dictionary like this

[XmlRoot("dictionary")]
public class SerializableDictionary<TKey, TValue>
    : Dictionary<TKey, TValue>, IXmlSerializable
{
    public System.Xml.Schema.XmlSchema GetSchema()
    {
        return null;
    }

    public void ReadXml(System.Xml.XmlReader reader)
    {
        XmlSerializer keySerializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(TKey));
        XmlSerializer valueSerializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(TValue));

        bool wasEmpty = reader.IsEmptyElement;
        reader.Read();

        if (wasEmpty)
            return;

        while (reader.NodeType != System.Xml.XmlNodeType.EndElement)
        {
            reader.ReadStartElement("item");
            reader.ReadStartElement("key");
            TKey key = (TKey)keySerializer.Deserialize(reader);
            reader.ReadEndElement();

            reader.ReadStartElement("value");
            TValue value = (TValue)valueSerializer.Deserialize(reader);
            reader.ReadEndElement();

            this.Add(key, value);
            reader.ReadEndElement();
            reader.MoveToContent();
        }
        reader.ReadEndElement();
    }

    public void WriteXml(System.Xml.XmlWriter writer)
    {
        XmlSerializer keySerializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(TKey));
        XmlSerializer valueSerializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(TValue));

        foreach (TKey key in this.Keys)
        {
            writer.WriteStartElement("item");
            writer.WriteStartElement("key");

            keySerializer.Serialize(writer, key);
            writer.WriteEndElement();

            writer.WriteStartElement("value");
            TValue value = this[key];
            valueSerializer.Serialize(writer, value);
            writer.WriteEndElement();

            writer.WriteEndElement();
        }
    }
}

Hope this helps.