WCF chokes on properties with no "set ". Any workaround?

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I have some class that I'm passing as a result of a service method, and that class has a get-only property:

[DataContract]
public class ErrorBase
{
  [DataMember]
  public virtual string Message { get { return ""; } }
}

I'm getting an exception on service side:

System.Runtime.Serialization.InvalidDataContractException: No set method for property 'Message' in type 'MyNamespace.ErrorBase'.

I have to have this property as only getter, I can't allow users to assign it a value. Any workaround I could use? Or am I missing some additional attribute?

9 Answers

Give Message a public getter but protected setter, so that only subclasses (and the DataContractSerializer, because it cheats :) may modify the value.

Even if you dont need to update the value, the setter is used by the WCFSerializer to deserialize the object (and re-set the value).

This SO is what you are after: WCF DataContracts

Couldn't you just have a "do-nothing" setter??

[DataContract]
public class ErrorBase
{
  [DataMember]
  public virtual string Message 
  {
      get { return ""; } 
      set { }
  }
}

Or does the DataContract serializer barf at that, too??

Properties with DataMember attribute always requires set. You should re write simmilar object on the client application since DataContract members can always be assigned values.

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