Tricky one (at least for me)

[Sebastian]

Here's the thing I have a web aplication (1.1) and one of my classes
has an array as a property (let's say Class A, has an ArrayList of Bs).

On the other side I have a win form app which uses web services from
the first app.
The thing is that when I create an instance of A in my win form app, I
can't add bs to de arraylist. I can't even see the ArrayList.
I also tryied with DataTables with no luck, should I try a DataSet.
What am I doing wrong???

TIA.
Regards,

Sebastián
http://sgomez.blogspot.com

[Cyr1dian]

Silly thing perhaps, but you have updated the service after making a
build? Otherwise any changes you simply aren't going to show up.

Sorry if I hugely underestimated your skill-level but it's the first thing
that came to mind.

HTH,
Cyr1dian

[Sebastian]

Don't worry about it Cyr1dian, that's a must do question, I should
have said so myself.
But the answer is yes, I have.

Thanx anyways.

--
http://sgomez.blogspot.com

[Cyr1dian]

Okay then :)

The really obvious stuff out of the way it, as you said, does get tricky..

Sketch of what I assume you're doing (pseudo C#):

[Serializable]
Class A
{
Public int[] bs
{
get;
set;
}
}

Class ws: Webservice
{
[WebMethod]
Public A GetA();
{
A a = new A();
return a;
}
}

Class client: forms
{
client.ws.ws ServMe = new client.ws.ws();
ServMe.Credenti als = System.Net.Cred entialCache.Def aultCredentials ;
A a = ServMe.GetA();

a.bs[] = ... //but you can't see the bs property?
}

Aside from the fact that this is, obviously, a sketch; I don't see a
problem with the concept.
Is it an option for you to perhaps publish the array independantly from
the object?

grtz,
Cyr

[Peter Kelcey]

Sebastian,

For your datatable issue, datatables are not serializable across web
services. You have to wrap the datatable in a dataset before it will
become serializable and returned from a web service. In .NET 2.0,
datatables can be returned directly from web services.

As for your arraylist issue, I've put together a working sample based
on Cyr's outline. There is one issue with ArrayLists that might be
causing your trouble, so I'll walk through what I did. Note: I changed
Cyr's arrays into arraylist objects as I believe this is what you are
trying to use.

1) I created the "A" class. You need to make sure that your property
has both a set and a get feature if you want to serialize your property
out through a web service.

[Serializable]
public class A
{
private System.Collecti ons.ArrayList myObject = new
System.Collecti ons.ArrayList(1 0);

public System.Collecti ons.ArrayList bs
{
get{
return myObject;
}
set{
bs = value;
}
}

2) I created my webmethod

[WebMethod]
public A GetArray()
{
A o = new A();
return o;
}

3) From my client, I added my web reference to my new web service

4) Here's the key when using ArrayLists, I manually opened the web
service proxy class (reference.cs) generated in my client application
and modified the stub.

The proxy will be generated with something like this in it

/// <remarks/>
[System.Xml.Seri alization.XmlTy peAttribute(Nam espace="http://tempuri.org/")]
public class A {

/// <remarks/>
public object[] bs;
}

As you can see, the bs property of the "A" class has been changed from
an arraylist into an object array. This is because the wsdl.exe tool
uses a least common denomiator approach to generating your proxies.
This will prevent you from accessing any methods associated witht the
arraylist class.

What you need to do, is manually change the type back into an array
list.

/// <remarks/>
[System.Xml.Seri alization.XmlTy peAttribute(Nam espace="http://tempuri.org/")]
public class A {

/// <remarks/>
public System.Collecti ons.ArrayList bs;
}

5) Write your client code to use the new web service

localhost1.Seri alizeTest myServiceProxy = new
localhost1.Seri alizeTest();
localhost1.A myClass = new localhost1.A();

myClass = myServiceProxy .GetArray();

myClass .bs.Add("my entry");
As I said, this is working for me, so if it still doesn't work for you,
then something else is going on that we need to find.

Hope that helps.

Peter Kelcey}

[Sebastian]

Thanx Peter, great tip.
I've solved using DataSets though...

The only problem that I see with your implementation is that you're
defining the array length, and I don't know at design time how big the
array is gonna get. So I'll keep with my DataSets and wait for VS2005
to come out (in Uruguay).

Thank you both guys.