How to ignore timezone of DateTime in .NET WCF client?

Question

WCF client is receiving a Date value from a Java web service where the date sent to the client in XML is :

<sampleDate>2010-05-10+14:00</sampleDate>

Now the WCF client receiving this date is in timezone (+08:00) and when the client deserialises the Date value it is converted into the following DateTime value :

2010-05-09 18:00 +08:00

However we would like to ignore the +14:00 being sent from the server so that the serialised Date value in the client is :

2010-05-10

Note that the +14:00 is not consistent and may be +10:00, +11:00 etc so it is not possible to use DateTime conversions on the client side to get the desired date value.

How can this be easily achieved in WCF?

Thanks in advance.

UPDATE

Would the correct WCF solution to this be to implement IClientMessageFormatter?

SOLUTION

The cleanest solution for me was to implement the IClientMessageFormatter as suggested above. Here is an example :

C# code

public class ClientMessageFormatter : IClientMessageFormatter
{
    IClientMessageFormatter original;

    public ClientMessageFormatter(IClientMessageFormatter actual)
    {
        this.original = actual;
    }

    public void RemoveTimeZone(XmlNodeList nodeList)
    {
        if (nodeList != null)
        {
            foreach (XmlNode node in nodeList)
            {
                node.InnerText = Regex.Replace(node.InnerText, @"[\+\-]\d\d:\d\d", "");
            }
        }
    }

    #region IDispatchMessageFormatter Members

    public object DeserializeReply(Message message, object[] parameters)
    {
        Message newMessage = null;
        Message tempMessage;
        MessageBuffer buffer;
        MemoryStream ms;
        XmlDocument doc;
        XmlDictionaryReader reader;
        XmlReader xr;
        XmlWriter xw;

        try
        {
            buffer = message.CreateBufferedCopy(int.MaxValue);
            tempMessage = buffer.CreateMessage();
            reader = tempMessage.GetReaderAtBodyContents();

            if (reader != null)
            {
                doc = new XmlDocument();
                doc.Load(reader);
                reader.Close();

                if (doc.DocumentElement != null)
                {
                    /* enables switching between responses */
                    switch (doc.DocumentElement.LocalName)
                    {
                        case "sampleRootElement":
                            RemoveTimeZone(doc.DocumentElement.SelectNodes("childElement1/childElement2"));
                            break;
                    }
                }

                ms = new MemoryStream();
                xw = XmlWriter.Create(ms);
                doc.Save(xw);
                xw.Flush();
                xw.Close();

                ms.Position = 0;
                xr = XmlReader.Create(ms);

                newMessage = Message.CreateMessage(message.Version, null, xr);
                newMessage.Headers.CopyHeadersFrom(message);
                newMessage.Properties.CopyProperties(message.Properties);
            }
        }
        catch (Exception ex)
        {
            throw ex;
        }

        return original.DeserializeReply((newMessage != null) ? newMessage : message, parameters);
    }

    public Message SerializeRequest(MessageVersion messageVersion, object[] parameters)
    {
        return original.SerializeRequest(messageVersion, parameters);
    }

    #endregion

}

public class ClientOperationBehavior : IOperationBehavior
{

    public void AddBindingParameters(OperationDescription description, BindingParameterCollection bindingParameters)
    {
    }

    public void ApplyClientBehavior(OperationDescription description, ClientOperation proxy)
    {
        IClientMessageFormatter currentFormatter = proxy.Formatter;
        proxy.Formatter = new ClientMessageFormatter(currentFormatter);
    }

    public void ApplyDispatchBehavior(OperationDescription description, DispatchOperation operation)
    {
    }

    public void Validate(OperationDescription description)
    {
    }
}

public class ClientEndpointBehavior : IEndpointBehavior
{

    #region IEndpointBehavior Members
    public void AddBindingParameters(ServiceEndpoint endpoint, BindingParameterCollection bindingParameters)
    {
    }

    public void ApplyClientBehavior(ServiceEndpoint endpoint, ClientRuntime clientRuntime)
    {
        foreach (OperationDescription operation in endpoint.Contract.Operations)
        {
            operation.Behaviors.Add(new ClientOperationBehavior());
        }
    }

    public void ApplyDispatchBehavior(ServiceEndpoint endpoint, EndpointDispatcher endpointDispatcher)
    {
    }

    public void Validate(ServiceEndpoint endpoint)
    {
    }
    #endregion
}

public class ClientBehaviorExtensionElement : BehaviorExtensionElement
{
    public override Type BehaviorType
    {
        get
        {
            return typeof(ClientEndpointBehavior);
        }
    }

    protected override object CreateBehavior()
    {
        return new ClientEndpointBehavior();
    }
}

App.config/Web.config

The client configuration file would then use the above formatter as follows :

<system.serviceModel>
    ....
    ....
    <extensions>
        <behaviorExtensions>
            <add name="clientMessageFormatterBehavior" type="..." />
        </behaviorExtensions>
    </extensions>
    <behaviors>
        <endpointBehaviors>
            <behavior name="clientMessageFormatterBehavior">
                <clientMessageFormatterBehavior />
            </behavior>
        </endpointBehaviors>
    </behaviors>
    <client>
        <endpoint address="https://www.example.com/service" behaviorConfiguration="clientMessageFormatterBehavior" .... />
    </client>
    ....
    ....
</system.serviceModel>

References

Link

Answer 1

Hi my improved and more universal solution

public static class TimeZoneMessageHelper
{
    public static Message RemoveTimeZone(this Message message)
    {
        try
        {
            using (XmlDictionaryReader messageBodyReader = message.GetReaderAtBodyContents())
            {
                XmlDocument xmlDocument = new XmlDocument();
                Message returnMessage = null;
                xmlDocument.Load(messageBodyReader);

                RemoveTimeZone(xmlDocument);

                StringBuilder stringBuilder = new StringBuilder();
                using(XmlWriter xmlWriter = XmlWriter.Create(stringBuilder))
                {
                    xmlDocument.Save(xmlWriter);
                }

                // do not dispose to early
                XmlReader resultMessageBodyReader = XmlReader.Create(new StringReader(stringBuilder.ToString()));

                returnMessage = Message.CreateMessage(message.Version, null, resultMessageBodyReader);
                returnMessage.Headers.CopyHeadersFrom(message);
                returnMessage.Properties.CopyProperties(message.Properties);

                return returnMessage;
            }
        }
    }

    private static void RemoveTimeZone(XmlNode xmlNode)
    {            
        if (xmlNode.ChildNodes.Count == 0)
        {
            RemoveTimeZoneCore(xmlNode);
        }
        else
        {
            foreach(XmlNode node in xmlNode.ChildNodes)
                RemoveTimeZone(node);
        }            
    }

    public static void RemoveTimeZoneCore(XmlNode xmlNode)
    {
        if (xmlNode != null)
        {
            if (Regex.IsMatch(xmlNode.InnerText, @"^\d\d\d\d-\d\d-\d\dT\d\d:\d\d:\d\d(\.\d\d)?(\+|-)\d\d:\d\d$", RegexOptions.Compiled))
            {
                xmlNode.InnerText = xmlNode.InnerText.Substring(0, xmlNode.InnerText.Length - 6);                    
            }                
        }            
    }
}

public class RemoveTimeZoneClientMessageFormatter : IClientMessageFormatter
{
    private readonly IClientMessageFormatter original;

    public RemoveTimeZoneClientMessageFormatter(IClientMessageFormatter original)
    {
        this.original = original;
    }

    #region Implementation of IClientMessageFormatter

    public Message SerializeRequest(MessageVersion messageVersion, object[] parameters)
    {
        return original.SerializeRequest(messageVersion, parameters).RemoveTimeZone();
    }

    public object DeserializeReply(Message message, object[] parameters)
    {
        return original.DeserializeReply(message.RemoveTimeZone() ?? message, parameters);
    }

    #endregion
}

public class RemoveTimeZoneDispatchMessageFormatter : IDispatchMessageFormatter
{
    private readonly IDispatchMessageFormatter original;

    public RemoveTimeZoneDispatchMessageFormatter(IDispatchMessageFormatter original)
    {
        this.original = original;
    }

    #region Implementation of IDispatchMessageFormatter

    public void DeserializeRequest(Message message, object[] parameters)
    {            
        original.DeserializeRequest(message.RemoveTimeZone() ?? message, parameters);
    }  

    public Message SerializeReply(MessageVersion messageVersion, object[] parameters, object result)
    {
        return original.SerializeReply(messageVersion, parameters, result).RemoveTimeZone();
    }

    #endregion
}

public class RemoveTimeZoneEndpointBehavior : IEndpointBehavior
{

    #region IEndpointBehavior Members
    public void AddBindingParameters(ServiceEndpoint endpoint, BindingParameterCollection bindingParameters)
    {
    }

    public void ApplyClientBehavior(ServiceEndpoint endpoint, ClientRuntime clientRuntime)
    {            
        foreach (OperationDescription operation in endpoint.Contract.Operations)
        {
            operation.Behaviors.Add(new RemoveTimeZoneOperationBehavior());
        }
    }

    public void ApplyDispatchBehavior(ServiceEndpoint endpoint, EndpointDispatcher endpointDispatcher)
    {
        foreach(OperationDescription operation in endpoint.Contract.Operations)
        {
            operation.Behaviors.Add(new RemoveTimeZoneOperationBehavior());
        }
    }

    public void Validate(ServiceEndpoint endpoint)
    {
    }
    #endregion
}

public class RemoveTimeZoneOperationBehavior : IOperationBehavior
{

    public void AddBindingParameters(OperationDescription description, BindingParameterCollection bindingParameters)
    {
    }

    public void ApplyClientBehavior(OperationDescription description, ClientOperation proxy)
    {            
        proxy.Formatter = new RemoveTimeZoneClientMessageFormatter(proxy.Formatter);
    }

    public void ApplyDispatchBehavior(OperationDescription description, DispatchOperation operation)
    {
        operation.Formatter = new RemoveTimeZoneDispatchMessageFormatter(operation.Formatter);
    }

    public void Validate(OperationDescription description)
    {
    }
}

public class RemoveTimeZoneExtensionElement : BehaviorExtensionElement
{
    public override Type BehaviorType
    {
        get
        {
            return typeof(RemoveTimeZoneEndpointBehavior);
        }
    }

    protected override object CreateBehavior()
    {
        return new RemoveTimeZoneEndpointBehavior();
    }
}\

Answer 2

Try this

DateTime newDate = DateTime.SpecifyKind(oldDate, DateTimeKind.Unspecified);

Coding Best Practices Using DateTime in the .NET Framework

Related links

http://daveonsoftware.blogspot.com/2008/07/wcf-datetime-field-adjusted.html

http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/forums/en-US/wcf/thread/36ae825a-ffc6-4ac3-9981-c82692039d58

Best practices for DateTime serialization in .NET 3.5