WCF Service Reference - Getting “XmlException: Name cannot begin with the '<' character, hexadecimal value 0x3C” on Client Side

Question

I have a smart client application communicating with its server via WCF. Data is created on the client and then sent over the service to be persisted. The server and client use

Answer 1

Either use full properties with [Serializable], or use [DataContract] and [DataMember].

The following was giving me an error, probably because .Net was creating a backing variable under the hood, with some character that the XmlSerializer didn't like.

[Serializable]
public class MyClass
{
    public int MyValue { get; private set; }
    ...
}

Either create full properties

[Serializable]
public class MyClass
{
    int _myValue;
    public int MyValue
    {
        get { return _myValue; }
        private set { _myValue = value; }
    }
    ...
}

Or use the DataContract and DataMember attributes

[DataContract]
public class MyClass
{
    [DataMember]
    public int MyValue { get; private set; }
    ...
}