ObservableCollection turns into an Array after transported using WCF

I got a class called "Board" and one of its property's is an ObservableCollection. When i send the ObservableCollection through WCF (from server to client) end call it from my proxy, it's turned into开发者_如何学Go an Array, which is no good for me.

Can i keep the ObservableCollection after being sent, or do i have to kick the Array till it becomes an ObservableCollection again?

Check out the 'Configure Service Reference' option in the context menu in VS for the reference. You can choose the collection type that is transmitted across the service. By default I think it is set to array but there are several choices (I believe list and observablecollection are options).

EDIT: I just checked, and unfortunately observable collection is not one of the choices. It looks like you'll have to pick from:

• Array
• ArrayList
• LinkedList
• List
• Collection
• BindingList

By default - no, you cannot do anything about it. WCF will serialize your structures into something that can be represented with XML schema. XML Schema has no knowledge of anything but raw, and fairly simplistic data structures. You can only transfer concrete, raw data - no "magic" behavioral addon.

There is one solution to the problem, IF you own both ends of the wire: you could put your service and data contracts into a separate class library assembly, and share those between server and client. In that case, you only ever have one single implementation of your data contract - your ObservableCollection.

If you share that assembly between your service (implementation) class, and the client (add the reference to that assembly before you "Add Service Reference" from Visual Studio!), then your client should pick up that ObservableCollection and continue to use that (instead of creating a XML schema compatible Array on the client side).

Thank you both for the answer. I will look at both solutions when i continue the project, and will start with try and change the Collection send through the wcf service.

I'll let you know what works for me...