Adding Service Reference to WCF does not always create .datasource files

Question

In some projects when I add a service reference to a WCF service, it creates datasource files for classes shared in a common class library, however in others the datasources are not created. The Reference.cs file is different where in the first case the types are from the class library and in the latter it's in the Reference.cs file it self. These are not compatible.

What is it that triggers the automatic generation of the datasource files in this case? Advanced options in Add Service Reference dialog are identical so something else must be playing tricks on me.

UPDATE: Turns out the datasource files are not needed. It's the code generated in the Reference.cs file that makes the whole difference. I can manually edit the parameters for the methods to point to the class-library, and it works. This is of course not a solution in the long run, since I have to do this every time I update the Service Reference. Hopefully someone will come along who knows the trigger of this problem.

Answer 1

The file is created by VS when you add a service reference. It's used to enable client UI components to bind to the models (data contracts). I don't know why they are not created for "all" services (but I guess it depends on how that service defines and uses data contracts (as in: no contract no data file)).

Here are some useful links: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee373840.aspx What are the WCF Service Reference .datasource files?

UPDATE: You are right it should not depend on the consumed service. Here are two related links (that impliece that the files are included by VS): http://objectmix.com/dotnet/797048-wcf-service-reference-datasource-file-name-length-problem.html Disable automatic generation of datasources file when updating service references

So it looks like the file is created by VS, if you don't wan/need it you can exclude it by creating the proxy with svcutil.exe