dotnet-svcutil - Generate Proxy Code With Collection Types

In the last post (WCF Proxy generation – using dotnet-svcutil) we have seen how to generate WCF proxy code using dotnet-svcutil.

You might have noticed that dotnet-svcutil has generated the collection types as arrays. For example, if the target service has any collection type in contract property like List<string>, then it is shown as array of string (string[]) in generated code.

You have to tell dotnet-svcutil to use that collection type by specifying a collection type parameter ct. But also you have to specify another reference parameter r to provide full path for the System.Collections assembly, otherwise it will give you error.

First run this command without providing the assembly path for System.Collection.

dotnet-svcutil https://localhost:8081/OrderManagement/OrderManagement.svc 
               -ct "System.Collections.Generic.List`1"

You will get this error message:

Error: No type could be loaded for the value 'System.Collections.Generic.List1' 
passed to the --collectionType option. Ensure that the assembly this type belongs 
to is specified via the --reference option.

Now provide a valid assembly path for System.Collection in r parameter:

dotnet-svcutil https://localhost:8081/OrderManagement/OrderManagement.svc
	-ct "System.Collections.Generic.List`1" 
	-r "C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk\NuGetFallbackFolder\
           microsoft.netcore.app\2.2.0\ref\netcoreapp2.2\System.Collections.dll"

This command will create a Reference.cs file within ServiceReference folder, this time with collection type List<string> rather than string[].

Note: If you are running this command from powershell you might still get above error. Try to run from Windows Command Prompt and it will run successfully.

References:

• WCF dotnet-svcutil tool for .NET Core

Related Post(s):

• .Net Core - Add WCF Reference
• WCF Proxy generation – using SvcUtil.exe
• WCF Proxy generation – using dotnet-svcutil
• .Net Core - Call WCF Service with Https link