.NET SOAP Serialisation vs. VAST interoperability issues

[martin.skarsaune]

Hi all!

I have a couple of questions regarding the SOAP serialized from classes
generated by Visual Studio from a wsdl. The SOAP server is written in
Smalltalk using the VisualAge Sst framework. There are some differences in
the SOAP messages constructed from the WSDL in the two products, and I need
help to better understand and control the .NET side

1. soapenc:Array

Whenever an element say "message" has maxoccurs unbounded, .NET uses
soapenc:array to represent the item. e.g:

<soapenc:Array " id="id6" soapenc:arrayType="q7:message[1]">
<Item href="#id9"/>
</soapenc:Array>

where as the server will use normal XML representation of a repeated element

<message....
<message...
<message...

How do I instruct .NET to avoid wrapping these elements in an array?

2. id/#href
The above example also illustrates that EVERY complex child node in the
document, is created as a separate node and connected to the parent node via
href. In our case this is not neccesary since the message is guaranteed to be
a hierarchy and not a graph.
How do I instruct .NET to avoid using href?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. This is all down to my limited
knowledge of .NET, so be gentle with me ;-).

Regards

Martin Skarsaune, Norway

[Josh Twist]

I may have misunderstood your question - please tell me if I have.

But the .NET class that would represent this XML structure

<root>
<someOtherClass>...snip...</someOtherClass>
<someElement>boo</someElement>
<repeatingElement>string1</repeatingElement>
<repeatingElement>string2</repeatingElement>
<repeatingElement>string3</repeatingElement>
</root>

would look something like this (it uses .NET attributes to control the
serialization)

using System.Xml.Serialization;

[XmlRoot("root")] // this controls the xml elements name
public class Root
{
[XmlElement("someOtherClass")] // this changes the case of the types
name in XML
public SomeOtherClass OtherClass;

[XmlElement("someElement")] // as above
public string SomeElement;

[XmlElement("repeatingElement")] // as abovce
public string[] repeatingElements; // this is an array marked
XmlElement - so it isn't wrapped
}

Does that help at all (at least part 1 of your query)?

Josh
http://www.thejoyofcode.com/

[martin.skarsaune]

Hey Josh!

I believe so. I will look into it first thing tomorrow.

Thanks

"Josh Twist" wrote:

I may have misunderstood your question - please tell me if I have.

But the .NET class that would represent this XML structure

<root>
<someOtherClass>...snip...</someOtherClass>
<someElement>boo</someElement>
<repeatingElement>string1</repeatingElement>
<repeatingElement>string2</repeatingElement>
<repeatingElement>string3</repeatingElement>
</root>

would look something like this (it uses .NET attributes to control the
serialization)

using System.Xml.Serialization;

[XmlRoot("root")] // this controls the xml elements name
public class Root
{
[XmlElement("someOtherClass")] // this changes the case of the types
name in XML
public SomeOtherClass OtherClass;

[XmlElement("someElement")] // as above
public string SomeElement;

[XmlElement("repeatingElement")] // as abovce
public string[] repeatingElements; // this is an array marked
XmlElement - so it isn't wrapped
}

Does that help at all (at least part 1 of your query)?

Josh
http://www.thejoyofcode.com/

[Oystein]

Hi!

Thank you for you suggestion, but it seems like it doesn't work.
I suspect there is a difference between "normal" xml serialization and SOAP
serialization.

Our code looks like:
[System.SerializableAttribute()]
[System.Xml.Serialization.SoapTypeAttribute
(Namespace="http://www.company.com/Types")]
public partial class Responses {

private string[] answersField;

[XmlElement("answers")] /// <- Suggested by you
public string[] answers {
get {
return this.answersField;
}
set {
this.answersField = value;
}
}
...

When the soap message is sent it looks like:
...
<answers href="#id7" />
...
<soapenc:Array id="id7"
soapenc:arrayType="xsd:string[2]">
<Item>A</Item>
<Item>B</Item>
</soapenc:Array>
...

but we would like:
<answers>A</answers>
<answers>B</answers>

regards,
Oystein

"Josh Twist" wrote:

I may have misunderstood your question - please tell me if I have.

But the .NET class that would represent this XML structure

<root>
<someOtherClass>...snip...</someOtherClass>
<someElement>boo</someElement>
<repeatingElement>string1</repeatingElement>
<repeatingElement>string2</repeatingElement>
<repeatingElement>string3</repeatingElement>
</root>

would look something like this (it uses .NET attributes to control the
serialization)

using System.Xml.Serialization;

[XmlRoot("root")] // this controls the xml elements name
public class Root
{
[XmlElement("someOtherClass")] // this changes the case of the types
name in XML
public SomeOtherClass OtherClass;

[XmlElement("someElement")] // as above
public string SomeElement;

[XmlElement("repeatingElement")] // as abovce
public string[] repeatingElements; // this is an array marked
XmlElement - so it isn't wrapped
}

Does that help at all (at least part 1 of your query)?

Josh
http://www.thejoyofcode.com/

[Josh Twist]

Hmm... the class you above XmlSerializes fine - so as you say there
must be something else going on.

How are your confirming what is going across the wire?

Also, Is the class above generated using WSDL.exe by pointing it at a
WSDL (or add web-reference in Visual Studio)?

Josh

[Oystein]

> the class you above XmlSerializes fine
Do you mean like this:
<answers>A</answers>
<answers>B</answers>

How are your confirming what is going across the wire? The result is pasted directly from the Smalltalk server which writes out the
soap message as it comes over the wire before processing it.
Also, Is the class above generated using WSDL.exe by pointing it at a
WSDL (or add web-reference in Visual Studio)? It is generated by "add web-reference" in Visual Studio.

regards,
Oystein

"Josh Twist" wrote:
Hmm... the class you above XmlSerializes fine - so as you say there
must be something else going on.

How are your confirming what is going across the wire?

Also, Is the class above generated using WSDL.exe by pointing it at a
WSDL (or add web-reference in Visual Studio)?

Josh