How do I expose a TimeSpan through a WCF Data Service?

Question

I am creating a WCF Data Service for my database of appointments.

I'm storing the appointment as a DateTime with a duration of type TimeSpan. When I attempt to access my data service, I get the following error:

"The server encountered an error processing the request. The exception message is 'The property 'Duration' on type 'Appointment' is of type 'Time' which is not a supported primitive type.'. See server logs for more details."

Any idea how I can represent a time duration and have it accessible through my WCF Data Service?

Answer 1

I would suggest exposing a new property for serialization (marked with the DataMemberAttribute) that use the Ticks property of your original timespan.

For example:

[DataMember("TheTimeSpanTicks")]
public long TheTimeSpanTicks
{
    get { return TheTimeSpan.Ticks; }
    set { TheTimeSpan = new TimeSpan(value); }
} 

I'm not sure what the accessor requirements for serialization will be. Maybe you could use protected instead of public.

Answer 2

You could expose the duration as Ticks, TotalSeconds, or some other primitive that can be calc'ed to hours, minutes, etc?