CollectionDataContractAttribute Class

The CollectionDataContractAttribute is intended to ease interoperability when working with data from non- providers and to control the exact shape of serialized instances. To this end, the ItemName property enables you to control the names of the repeating items inside a collection. This is especially useful when the provider does not use the XML element type name as the array item name, for example, if a provider uses "String" as an element type name instead of the XSD type name "string".

The CollectionDataContractAttribute is also intended to be used with dictionary types to handle keyed collections. Dictionary types are classes that implement either the IDictionary or the IDictionary<TKey, TValue> interface, for example, the Dictionary<TKey, TValue>. Use the KeyName and ValueName properties to set custom names when using the Dictionary<TKey, TValue> class.

For more information about using the DataContractSerializer, see Data Contracts Overview.

The following example applies the CollectionDataContractAttribute to a class that inherits from the List<T> class. The code sets the Name and ItemName properties to custom values.

[CollectionDataContract(Name = "Custom{0}List", ItemName = "CustomItem")]
public class CustomList<T> : List<T>
{
    public CustomList()
        : base()
    {
    }

    public CustomList(T[] items)
        : base()
    {
        foreach (T item in items)
        {
            Add(item);
        }
    }
}

When the Service Model Metadata Utility Tool (Svcutil.exe) is used to generate code for the client, the code resembles the following example. Notice that the name of the class is changed, as well as the ItemName. When using generics, the type parameter name is used to create the resulting type name.

// This is the generated code. Note that the class is renamed to "CustomBookList", 
// and the ItemName is set to "CustomItem".
[System.CodeDom.Compiler.GeneratedCodeAttribute("System.Runtime.Serialization", "3.0.0.0")]
[System.Runtime.Serialization.CollectionDataContractAttribute(ItemName = "CustomItem")]
public class CustomBookList : System.Collections.Generic.List<Microsoft.Security.Samples.Book>
{
}

.NET Framework

.NET Framework Client Profile

Portable Class Library

Windows 7, Windows Vista SP1 or later, Windows XP SP3, Windows Server 2008 (Server Core not supported), Windows Server 2008 R2 (Server Core supported with SP1 or later), Windows Server 2003 SP2

Reference