Will WCF allow me to send custom object graphs over the wire?

I'm creatting a Wimforms SmartClient app where I control both sides of the
wire.
Will WCF allow me to send my custom objects (including private fields) over
the wire as I might have wisdth binary serialization and Remoting?
--
Greg

Hi Greg,

Take a look at the DataContractAttribute and the DataMemberAttribute.
You can attribute your classes and fields with these attributes and they
can be used over the wire. Here is an example of a small class that
is send across the wire in a service. In this example, all the fields
are marked as 'Public', however they could just have been marked
private. The data contract and OO interface do not have to coincide.
Whatever is marked as <DataMember()> will be serialized regardless of
the OO scope (private|internal|public).


HTH,
Damon



<DataContract()> _
Public Class PurchaseOrder

<DataMember()> _
Public Quantity As Integer

<DataMember()> _
Public Part As String

<DataMember()> _
Public CustomerID As String

End Class



<ServiceContract()> _
Public Interface IOrderPersist

<OperationContract(IsOneWay:=True)> _
Sub PersistOrder(ByVal order As PurchaseOrder)

End Interface



Public Class OrderPersist
Implements IOrderPersist

Public Sub PersistOrder(ByVal order As PurchaseOrder)
Implements IOrderPersist.PersistOrder
Console.WriteLine("Persisting Order. Customer Id: " &
order.CustomerID)
System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(5000) '// ToDo: SQL persistence.
Console.WriteLine("Order Peristed")
End Sub
End Class


Greg Banister wrote:
> I'm creatting a Wimforms SmartClient app where I control both sides of the
> wire.
> Will WCF allow me to send my custom objects (including private fields) over
> the wire as I might have wisdth binary serialization and Remoting?

Hello Greg,

The short answer is yes - as long as you have a serializable graph, even
the same graph from remoting will work just fine.
The long answer is that in a SO application, the interaction between a service
provider and a service consumer should be in terms of "DoSomething()" not
"GetMeYourData()". It is likely that complex graphs are technology specific
and increase overall coupling.

Hope that helps,

Juval Lowy



> I'm creatting a Wimforms SmartClient app where I control both sides of
> the
> wire.
> Will WCF allow me to send my custom objects (including private fields)
> over
> the wire as I might have wisdth binary serialization and Remoting?

Juval,
I understand your point Re: SOA when implementing Domain Service type
functionality, however would you limit the functionality of the client (which
is WinForms in my case) in order to maintain the SOA metaphor? Or given a
rich client environment would you consider breaking the "DoSomething()"
metaphor in order to maintain the type fidelity of your entity data, and
enable the utilization of the client environment to execute the kind of logic
(validation and even some business logic) that may be isolated to a single
aggregate?

I appreciate your feedback,
Greg Banister

--


"Juval Lowy" wrote:

> Hello Greg,
>
> The short answer is yes - as long as you have a serializable graph, even
> the same graph from remoting will work just fine.
> The long answer is that in a SO application, the interaction between a service
> provider and a service consumer should be in terms of "DoSomething()" not
> "GetMeYourData()". It is likely that complex graphs are technology specific
> and increase overall coupling.
>
> Hope that helps,
>
> Juval Lowy
>
>
>
> > I'm creatting a Wimforms SmartClient app where I control both sides of
> > the
> > wire.
> > Will WCF allow me to send my custom objects (including private fields)
> > over
> > the wire as I might have wisdth binary serialization and Remoting?
>
>
>

Hello Greg,

My reservation was not due to cross-technology or interop issues. I simply
think that DoSomething() is better than GetMeTheData() as far as decoupling
goes.
WCF is not going to stand in your way when sending complex data graphs.

Thanks,

Juval Lowy

> Juval,
> I understand your point Re: SOA when implementing Domain Service type
> functionality, however would you limit the functionality of the client
> (which
> is WinForms in my case) in order to maintain the SOA metaphor? Or
> given a
> rich client environment would you consider breaking the
> "DoSomething()"
> metaphor in order to maintain the type fidelity of your entity data,
> and
> enable the utilization of the client environment to execute the kind
> of logic
> (validation and even some business logic) that may be isolated to a
> single
> aggregate?
> I appreciate your feedback,
> Greg Banister
>> Hello Greg,
>>
>> The short answer is yes - as long as you have a serializable graph,
>> even the same graph from remoting will work just fine. The long
>> answer is that in a SO application, the interaction between a service
>> provider and a service consumer should be in terms of "DoSomething()"
>> not "GetMeYourData()". It is likely that complex graphs are
>> technology specific and increase overall coupling.
>>
>> Hope that helps,
>>
>> Juval Lowy
>>
>>> I'm creatting a Wimforms SmartClient app where I control both sides
>>> of
>>> the
>>> wire.
>>> Will WCF allow me to send my custom objects (including private
>>> fields)
>>> over
>>> the wire as I might have wisdth binary serialization and Remoting?