Exposing Unused Enum from a WCF service

Question

I want to expose an enum to my client application without referencing it in my WCF Service. However the enum is not visible in the client application. Below is my code:

[DataContract]
public enum Columns
{
    [EnumMember]
    Column1= 0,
    [EnumMember]
    Column2= 1
}

[ServiceKnownType(typeof(Columns))]
public interface IService
{
    [OperationContract]
    Response GetObjects(Request request);
}

Please let me know what am I doing wrong?

Answer 1

The Columns enumeration needs to be a property of either Request or Response classes as these are the only types included in the WSDL. The types that are exposed in the WSDL and thus visible to the client are only those that are used as input or output parameters (and all that are part of their class hierarchy) to the operation contract methods. So for example you could add the enum to the Request class:

[DataContract]
public class Request
{
    [DataMember]
    public Columns Columns { get; set; }

    // ... some other properties
}