WCF Data Services 5.0 Workaround for returning POCOs?

Question

I'm pretty sure it hasn't, but apologies if this question has already been asked. And additional apologies if this is just flat out a dumb question but I feel like I'm either completely missing something or have the right idea and just need some backup for my own sanity.

I've been implementing WCF Data Services 5.0 in our application and am having no issues with read operations returning entity objects.

Unfortunately there is that nasty limitation when it comes to service operations that they can only return primitive types (See MSDN). It's very annoying given that it has no problems with the entity objects.

I know that one workaround is to create a "dummy" complex type since WCFDS will recognize that but I don't want to just throw random POCOs into my data model that aren't actually in the database.

So the solution that occurred to me was to create an extension method for my objects that can serialize them into JSON strings to be returned by the service. My question is; are there any compelling arguments why I shouldn't do this or can anyone suggest any better alternatives?

---

Edit: Additional information to clarify my current issues

I created a very simple example of what I'm doing that originally raised this question. My service class follows first:

[JsonpSupportBehavior]
public partial class SchedulingService : DataService<ChronosDataContext>, ISchedulingService
{
    public static void InitializeService(DataServiceConfiguration config)
    {
        #if DEBUG
        config.UseVerboseErrors = true;
        #endif

        config.DataServiceBehavior.MaxProtocolVersion = DataServiceProtocolVersion.V3;

        config.SetServiceOperationAccessRule(
        "TestService",
        ServiceOperationRights.All);
    }

    [WebGet]
    public SchedulingResult TestService(
         string testParam1,
         string testParam2)
    {
         // NOTE: I never use the params, they're just there for this example.
         SchedulingResult result = SchedulingResult.Empty;

         result.Status = OperationStatus.Success;
         result.ResponseID = Guid.NewGuid();
         result.AffectedIDs = new List<int>(new int[] { 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 });
         result.RecordsAffected = 10;

         return result;
    }
}

Attempting to access this service using my browser, I get the following request error:

The server encountered an error processing the request. The exception message is 
'Unable to load metadata for return type 
    'Chronos.Services.SchedulingResult' of method 
    'Chronos.Services.SchedulingResult TestService(System.String, System.String)'.'. 
See server logs for more details. 

The exception stack trace is:
at System.Data.Services.Providers.BaseServiceProvider.AddServiceOperation(MethodInfo method, String protocolMethod) 
at System.Data.Services.Providers.BaseServiceProvider.AddOperationsFromType(Type type) 
at System.Data.Services.Providers.BaseServiceProvider.LoadMetadata() 
at System.Data.Services.DataService`1.CreateMetadataAndQueryProviders(IDataServiceMetadataProvider& metadataProviderInstance, IDataServiceQueryProvider& queryProviderInstance, BaseServiceProvider& builtInProvider, Object& dataSourceInstance) 
at System.Data.Services.DataService`1.CreateProvider() 
at System.Data.Services.DataService`1.HandleRequest() 
at System.Data.Services.DataService`1.ProcessRequestForMessage(Stream messageBody) 
at SyncInvokeProcessRequestForMessage(Object , Object[] , Object[] ) 
at System.ServiceModel.Dispatcher.SyncMethodInvoker.Invoke(Object instance, Object[] inputs, Object[]& outputs) 
at System.ServiceModel.Dispatcher.DispatchOperationRuntime.InvokeBegin(MessageRpc& rpc) 
at System.ServiceModel.Dispatcher.ImmutableDispatchRuntime.ProcessMessage5(MessageRpc& rpc) 
at System.ServiceModel.Dispatcher.ImmutableDispatchRuntime.ProcessMessage41(MessageRpc& rpc) 
at System.ServiceModel.Dispatcher.ImmutableDispatchRuntime.ProcessMessage4(MessageRpc& rpc) 
at System.ServiceModel.Dispatcher.ImmutableDispatchRuntime.ProcessMessage31(MessageRpc& rpc) 
at System.ServiceModel.Dispatcher.ImmutableDispatchRuntime.ProcessMessage3(MessageRpc& rpc) 
at System.ServiceModel.Dispatcher.ImmutableDispatchRuntime.ProcessMessage2(MessageRpc& rpc) 
at System.ServiceModel.Dispatcher.ImmutableDispatchRuntime.ProcessMessage11(MessageRpc& rpc) 
at System.ServiceModel.Dispatcher.ImmutableDispatchRuntime.ProcessMessage1(MessageRpc& rpc) 
at System.ServiceModel.Dispatcher.MessageRpc.Process(Boolean isOperationContextSet)

Below are the classes that make up the SchedulingResult that I'm trying to return:

public class SchedulingResult : ServiceInvocationResponse
{
    public SchedulingResult()
        : base()
    {
        this.Payload = new object[] 
        {
            new List<int>(),
            new List<int>()
        };
    }

    public List<int> AffectedIDs 
    {
        get { return (List<int>)Payload[0]; }
        set { Payload[0] = value; }
    }

    public List<int> FailedIDs
    {
        get { return (List<int>)Payload[1]; }
        set { Payload[1] = value; }
    }

    public static SchedulingResult Empty
    {
        get { return new SchedulingResult(); }
    }
}

public class ServiceInvocationResponse : AbstractJsonObject<ServiceInvocationResponse>
{
    public ServiceInvocationResponse()
    {
        this.Status = OperationStatus.Unknown;
        this.Severity = ErrorSeverity.None;
    }

    public virtual int RecordsAffected { get; set; }

    public virtual Exception ErrorObject { get; set; }

    internal virtual object[] Payload { get; set; }
}


public abstract class AbstractJsonObject<TBaseType>
{
    public virtual object Deserialize(string source)
    {
        return JsonConvert.DeserializeObject(source);
    }

    public virtual T Deserialize<T>(string source)
    {
        return JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<T>(source);
    }

    public string Serialize()
    {
        return JsonConvert.SerializeObject(
            this, Formatting.Indented);
    }

    public override string ToString()
    {
        return this.Serialize();
    }

    public static TBaseType FromString(string json)
    {
        return JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<TBaseType>(json);
    }
}

Answer 1

It is possible to return one or many primitive, complex, or entity types from a service operation.

• A primitive type is what you'd expect: string, int, bool, etc.
• A complex type is a class that doesn't have a unique key (a property named ID or the [DataServiceKey("<yourkeyhere>")] attribute)
• An entity type is a class that does have a unique key

For instance:

using System.Data.Services;
using System.Data.Services.Common;
using System.Linq;
using System.ServiceModel;
using System.ServiceModel.Web;

namespace Scratch.Web
{
    [ServiceBehavior(IncludeExceptionDetailInFaults = true)]
    public class ScratchService : DataService<ScratchContext>
    {
        public static void InitializeService(DataServiceConfiguration config)
        {
            config.SetEntitySetAccessRule("*", EntitySetRights.All);
            config.SetServiceOperationAccessRule("*", ServiceOperationRights.AllRead);
            config.DataServiceBehavior.MaxProtocolVersion = DataServiceProtocolVersion.V3;
            config.UseVerboseErrors = true;
        }

        [WebGet]
        public string GetPrimitive()
        {
            return "Success";
        }

        [WebGet]
        public IQueryable<string> GetPrimitives()
        {
            return new[] { "Success", "Hello World" }.AsQueryable();
        }

        [WebGet]
        public ComplexType GetComplexType()
        {
            return new ComplexType { Property1 = "Success", Property2 = "Hello World" };
        }

        [WebGet]
        public IQueryable<ComplexType> GetComplexTypes()
        {
            return new[] {
                           new ComplexType { Property1 = "Success", Property2 = "Hello World" },
                           new ComplexType { Property1 = "Success", Property2 = "Hello World" }
                       }.AsQueryable();
        }

        [WebGet]
        public EntityType GetEntityType()
        {
            return new EntityType { Property1 = "Success", Property2 = "Hello World" };
        }

        [WebGet]
        public IQueryable<EntityType> GetEntityTypes()
        {
            return new[] {
                           new EntityType { Property1 = "Success1", Property2 = "Hello World" },
                           new EntityType { Property1 = "Success2", Property2 = "Hello World" }
                       }.AsQueryable();
        }
    }

    public class ScratchContext { }

    public class ComplexType
    {
        public string Property1 { get; set; }
        public string Property2 { get; set; }
    }

    [DataServiceKey("Property1")]
    public class EntityType
    {
        public string Property1 { get; set; }
        public string Property2 { get; set; }
    }
}

Perhaps you're running into some other problem?