Locally augmenting a partial class

Question

Tell me if this is possible or if I am pursuing the right approach.

I have a set of XSDs that define various types. I notice that when the xsd tool generates classes from these XSDs all of the classes are 'partial'. So theoretically I could augment these classes with method or members that are not a part of the original XSD definition. The question comes when the objects are serialized/deserialized from a service that does not share my augmented class. So when I use the XmlSerializer class with a typeof(X) X will be the augmented type (because that is what I have access to) but the serial bytes coming from the web service will have no knowledge of any change to the class. When I deserialize such a stream what values will the added members take on? Will I even be able to deserialize the stream since the definition of the type differs? Hopefully the added members will take on a 'default' value (NULL or zero). What about the other way around? If I try to serialize the augmented type the serial stream will contain serial versions of the members that I have added. When the web service deserializes the stream will it just throw away the members that it doesn't know about?

Thank you.

Kevin

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Kevin Burton

Answer 1

With ASMX services, no class you create on the server will ever be seen on the client, and vice versa.

See Basics: How Web Services Work.

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John Saunders
WCF is Web Services. They are not two separate things.
Use WCF for All New Web Service Development, instead of legacy ASMX or obsolete WSE
Use File->New Project to create Web Service Projects

Answer 2

I don't want the class to be seen on the server. I was more concerned that an error/exception would occur if I tried to deserialize to a type that has been changed on the client side or if I serialized an augmented type what the server would do with the extra serialization information. If the server sees this extra information would it also throw an exception?

Kevin

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Kevin Burton

Answer 3

Simply don't add any public read/write properties, or if you do, decorate them with [XmlIgnore].

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John Saunders
WCF is Web Services. They are not two separate things.
Use WCF for All New Web Service Development, instead of legacy ASMX or obsolete WSE
Use File->New Project to create Web Service Projects