How to handle xs:any in WCF Data Contract

Question

scratching my head on WCF ... I've got XML messages where the children of <DataFields> could be anything, e.g. ...

<Test1Root> 
  <CaseNo></CaseNo>
  <Activity></Activity>
  <DataFields>
     <AccountRef></AccountRef>
     <PropRef></PropRef>
     <User></User>
  </DataFields>
</Test1Root>

I've handled this in BizTalk using the <xs:any> for the <DataFields> ...

<xs:element name="DataFields">
  <xs:complexType>
    <xs:sequence>
      <xs:any minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="unbounded" processContents="skip" />
    </xs:sequence>
  </xs:complexType>
</xs:element>

But I'm struggling to see how to handle this in a WCF [DataContract] ...

I tried using both svcutil.exe and xsd.exe to create the classes, and they both give the main elements (CaseNo, Activity, etc.) but neither seems to handle the xs:any of DataFields ...

svcutil has DataFields as an XmlElement
xsd has it as a class, but with an Any property of type XmlElement []

Is it possible to get a better handling of the child elements ?

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 05 '10 at 05:49

2

Well, xs:any can be anything, so the best the .NET tools could do is give you an array of objects....

Since it can be anything, there's really not much you can do about it, right? It could be anything... so you need to use a type that could be anything.

If you really need that xs:any in your XML schema, and can't replace by e.g. a set of more specific xs:element (possibly inheriting from one another), I don't see how you could get better support...

answered Jul 05 '10 at 05:49

marc_s

732,580
175
1,330
1,459

Thanks for the response, I was sort of expecting it, but had a (faint) hope there was a really neat way to handle this – SteveC Jul 05 '10 at 06:50

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 25 '12 at 22:18

0

I had some problems with an old web service with the WSDL defining the response property using an "any" element.

Solved the problem with a custom message formatter. Wrote a post about it describing the solution in more detail http://devdump.wordpress.com/2012/10/26/working-with-legacy-web-services-and-wcf/, hope it saves others time as this was the only discussion I could find about this subject.

answered Oct 25 '12 at 22:18

user1775660

1

3

It would be better to summarize the contents of the link to make this a canonical answer that will not break when the link does. – mnel Oct 25 '12 at 22:37
1

@mnel Why not edit the answer yourself rather than complaining? – Carl Onager Aug 06 '13 at 08:03

score 0 · Answer 3 · edited Jun 09 '11 at 08:36

0

You can do this. I have done it many times in a service. I haven't done WCF services much, but I believe they work the same way. The <xs:any> in the schema gets converted to XmlElement in the code. In your case an array of XmlElement.

edited Jun 09 '11 at 08:36

SteveC

15,808
23
102
173

answered Jun 08 '11 at 15:24

nick

1

1

Looks like my '' got processed from above. It was supposed to read: '' in the schema gets converted to XmlElement in the code. – nick Jun 08 '11 at 15:25
Err, sorry ... I'm not getting your point ?? I mentioned that XSD.EXE generates an XmlElement[], so what are you saying ? – SteveC Jun 09 '11 at 08:34

How to handle xs:any in WCF Data Contract

3 Answers3