Create Webservice's datacontract dynamically

Question

I have a webservice which needs to return data.

[DataMember]
public Int32 RequestId
{
    get { return requestId; }
    set { requestId = value; }
}

[DataMember]
public string StatusCode
{
    get { return statusCode; }
    set { statusCode = value; }
}

[DataMember]
public List<string> ErrorMessages
{
    get { return errorMessages; }
    set { errorMessages = value; }
}

[DataMember]
public string PeriodStatus
{
    get { return status; }
    set { status = value; }
}
[DataMember]
public string PhoneNumber
{
    get { return status; }
    set { status = value; }
}

Now some users of the service want to receive the phonenumber, others don't want to receive that field.

These preferences are stored in a database.

Is there a way to make the response dynamically based on whether they have chosen to receive the field or not?

Answer 1

I think you can't change returning data from service in runtime, because client has a batch of files including wsdl as description of web service. Evenmore , when web service has been modified , client need to update web references.

In your case, when you don't know number of fields must be returning from service , you can return the collection of fields.

[WebService(Namespace = "http://tempuri.org/")]
[WebServiceBinding(ConformsTo = WsiProfiles.BasicProfile1_1)]
[XmlInclude(typeof(CustomFieldCollection))]
[XmlInclude(typeof(CustomField))]
[XmlInclude(typeof(CustomField[]))]
public class Service : System.Web.Services.WebService
{

    public Service()
    {
    }

    [WebMethod]
    public CustomFieldCollection GetFieldsCollection()
    {
        CustomFieldCollection collection = new CustomFieldCollection();
        collection["fieldA"] = 1;
        collection["fieldB"] = true;
        collection["fieldC"] = DateTime.Now;
        collection["fieldD"] = "hello";
        CustomFieldCollection collection1 = new CustomFieldCollection();
        collection1["fieldA"] = 1;
        collection1["fieldB"] = true;
        collection1["fieldC"] = DateTime.Now;
        collection1["fieldD"] = "hello";
        collection.Collection[0].CustomFields = collection1;
        return collection;
    }
}
public class CustomFieldCollection
{
    private List<CustomField> fields = new List<CustomField>();

    public object this[String name]
    {
        get { return fields.FirstOrDefault(x => x.Name == name); }
        set
        {
            if (!fields.Exists(x => x.Name == name))
            {
                fields.Add(new CustomField(name, value));
            }
            else
            {
                this[name] = value;
            }
        }
    }

    public CustomField[] Collection
    {
        get { return fields.ToArray(); }
        set { }
    }
}


public class CustomField
{
    public string Name { get; set; }
    public object Value { get; set; }
    public CustomFieldCollection CustomFields { get; set; }

    public CustomField()
    {
    }

    public CustomField(string name, object value)
    {
        Name = name;
        Value = value;
    }
}

You can modify GetFieldsCollection method, return collection of fields for specific type passed as parameter.