How do I return an interface from a WCF Service?

Question

Lets say I have some interfaces:

public interface IFoo {
  IBar DoesStuff();
}
public interface IBar {
  string Thingo { get; }
}

I'm consuming this code throughout my code base. The IFoo process needs to be moved onto a different system (a difference of x64 vs x32), this is our reason for using WFC. My WCF service implements this interface. When I create the "service reference" the proxy stubs are created but the interface is altered.

public interface IFoo {
   object DoesStuff();
}   

I tried defining IBar/Bar as both a DataService and DataContract with no difference. Is there a way to generate the proxy code using my interface?

I'm thinking if mock objects can produce a object of my interface for testing, then shouldn't I be able to get the service to honor it as well? Or did do something silly and wrong?

Answer 1

IBar needs to be concrete and a DataContract. WCF isn't about distributed objects, but rather a way to transfer data and have services work on that data. You can't return an object in WCF that has behavior.