Using enums in WCF Data Services

As follow-up, the "wrapper" approach is ultimately what worked. Essentially, a small class is written to wrap the enum and return primitive int values in the Data Service:

[IgnoreProperties("EnumValue")]
public class OrderStatusWrapper
{
    private OrderStatus _t;

    public int Value
    {
        get{ return (int)_t; }
        set { _t = (OrderStatus)value; }
    }

    public OrderStatus EnumValue
    {
        get { return _t; }
        set { _t = value; }
    }

    public static implicit operator OrderStatusWrapper(OrderStatus r)
    {
        return new OrderStatusWrapper { EnumValue = r };
    }

    public static implicit operator OrderStatus(OrderStatusWrapper rw)
    {
        if (rw == null)
            return OrderStatus.Unresolved;
        else
            return rw.EnumValue;
    }
}  

This was largely based on the advice given for working around EF4's enum limits:

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/alexj/archive/2009/06/05/tip-23-how-to-fake-enums-in-ef-4.aspx

Hope this technique helps others that follow.

Assuming DataContract Serialization, like so:

[DataContract]
public class Order
{
   [DataMember]
   public int ID {get; set;}
   [DataMember]
   public string Description {get; set;}
   [DataMember]
   public OrderStatus Status {get; set;}
}

[DataContract]
public enum OrderStatus
{
    [EnumMember]
    New,
    [EnumMember]
    InProcess,
    [EnumMember]   
    Complete
}

Maybe we can "cheat" it with the below workaround:

[System.Data.Services.IgnoreProperties("Status")]
public class Order
{
   public int ID {get; set;}
   public string Description {get; set;}
   public OrderStatus Status {get; set;}
   public int StatusValue
   {
      get
      {
           return (int)this.Status;
      }
      set
      {
          // Add validation here
          this.Status = (OrderStatus)value;
      } 
   }
}

public enum OrderStatus
{
   New,
   InProcess,
   Complete
}

You need to make the enum a Data Contract.

See here for an example: http://consultingblogs.emc.com/merrickchaffer/archive/2007/04/03/Passing-Enum-values-into-WCF-Service-operations.aspx

[Edit] Apparently, that's not always the case as seen here: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/187505/sharing-enum-with-wcf-service

You need to write own QueryPrivider

    public object GetPropertyValue(object target, ResourceProperty resourceProperty)
    {
        object result = null;
        PropertyInfo info = target.GetType().GetProperty(resourceProperty.Name);
        if (info != null)
            result = info.GetValue(target, null);
        if (result is Enum)
            return Convert.ToInt32(result);
        return result;
    }


    public ResourceType GetResourceType(object target)
    {
        ResourceType result = null;
        Type tp = target.GetType();
        if (tp.IsEnum)
        {
            result =  ResourceType.GetPrimitiveResourceType(typeof(Int32));
            return result;
        }
        ....
        return result;
    }