c# - Not all parameters in WCF data contract make it through the web service call

Question

While creating a WCF Rest service, I've noticed that not all the parameters in my web service are making it into my implementation.

Here's the interface:

[ServiceContract(Namespace="http://example.com/recordservice")]
public interface IBosleySchedulingServiceImpl
{
    [OperationContract]
    [WebInvoke(UriTemplate = "Record/Create",
        RequestFormat = WebMessageFormat.Xml, 
        ResponseFormat = WebMessageFormat.Xml,
        BodyStyle = WebMessageBodyStyle.Bare, Method = "POST")]
    string CreateRecord(Record record);
}

[DataContract(Namespace="http://example.com/recordservice")]
public class Appointment
{
    [DataMember]
    public int ResponseType { get; set; }

    [DataMember]
    public int ServiceType { get; set; }

    [DataMember]
    public string ContactId { get; set; }

    [DataMember]
    public string Location { get; set; }

    [DataMember]
    public string Time { get; set; }        
}

I'm passing this XML in:

<Appointment xmlns="http://ngs.bosley.com/BosleySchedulingService">
  <ContactId>1123-123</ContactId>
  <Location>Fresno</Location>
  <Time>2012-05-05T08:30:00</Time>
  <ResponseType>45</ResponseType>
  <ServiceType>45</ServiceType>
</Appointment>

In my service, I'm just outputting the values to a log so I can verify the values are coming through for the time being:

logger.Debug("ContactId: " + appointment.ContactId);
logger.Debug("Time Field: " + appointment.Time);
logger.Debug("Location: " + appointment.Location);
logger.Debug("Response Type: " + Convert.ToInt32(appointment.ResponseType));
logger.Debug("ServiceType: " + Convert.ToInt32(appointment.ServiceType));

However, in my output, the integer values are coming across as zeroes:

ContactId: 1123-123
Time Field: 2012-05-05T08:30:00
Location: Fresno
Response Type: 0
ServiceType: 0

When I remove the strings from the DataContract and the service implementation, the integer values come through without a problem.

Response Type: 45
ServiceType: 45

I am utterly confused by this and any help would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

By default when you send an object through wcf the properties will be sent in Alphabetical order unless you specify the order.

You can specify the order of the properties or change the ordering so that they appear in alphabetical order.

[DataContract(Namespace="http://example.com/recordservice")]
public class Appointment
{
    [DataMember(Order = 1)]
    public int ResponseType { get; set; }

    [DataMember(Order = 2)]
    public int ServiceType { get; set; }

    [DataMember(Order = 3)]
    public string ContactId { get; set; }

    [DataMember(Order = 4)]
    public string Location { get; set; }

    [DataMember(Order = 5)]
    public string Time { get; set; }        
}