CSV Output from WCF Data service?

Question

Hi,

I'd like to implement a WCF data service that also optionally supports CSV as output format. Would this this be possible? And if it is possible, how can I implement it?

Thanks,

Adrian

Answer 1

Hi,

It is possible, but not nice or efficient. One way to do this would be to use custom hosting through IDataServiceHost2 interface. When the request asks for CSV format, you actually ask WCF Data Services for an ATOM format. Then when the service replies, you parse the response and turn it into CSV.

Other than the hack above WCF Data Services currently doesn't support custom serializers.

Thanks,

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Vitek Karas [MSFT]

Answer 2

Hi Vitek,

Thanks for your reply.

I am already using a custom data service provider, but it does not not seem to have to do anything with IDataServiceHost2... Is there any blog article or other resource describing how to implement something like this?

Also, how is the JSONPSupportBehavior attribute implemented? That does seem to do something very similar...

Thanks,

 

Adrian

Answer 3

Hi,

I'm not sure about the JSONPSupportBehavior, although adding JSONP is somewhat simpler (you don't need to parse/overwrite the response, you just need to prepand/append astuff to it).

Unfortunately we don't have a good sample of usage of IDataServiceHost2 yet. The closest I could find is this: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/tom_laird-mcconnell/archive/2010/01/18/using-ado-net-wcf-data-services-for-streaming-infinite-event-result-sets.aspx

The blog itself is about something a bit different (although very interesting on its own), but it shows how you can implement the custom host in ASP.NET environment.

Thanks,

---

Vitek Karas [MSFT]

Answer 4

I have implemented an extension and uploaded at codePlex , dropping the link here may me it could help some 

http://wcformatextensions.codeplex.com/