How force a maximum string length in a C# web service object property?

Question

In this class for example, I want to force a limit of characters the first/last name can allow.

public class Person
{
     public string FirstName { get; set; }
     public string LastName { get; set; }
}

Is there a way to force the string limit restriction for the first or last name, so when the client serializes this before sending it to me, it would throw an error on their side if it violates the lenght restriction?

Update: this needs to be identified and forced in the WSDL itself, and not after I've recieved the invalid data.

Solution 1

necro time... It worth mentioning though.

using System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations;
public class Person
{
     [StringLength(255, ErrorMessage = "Error")]
     public string FirstName { get; set; }
     [StringLength(255, ErrorMessage = "Error")]
     public string LastName { get; set; }
}

Solution 2

You can apply XML Schema validation (e.g., maxLength facet) using SOAP Extensions:

[ValidationSchema("person.xsd")]
public class Person { /* ... */ }

<!-- person.xsd -->

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<xsd:schema xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">

  <xsd:element name="Person" type="PersonType" />

  <xsd:simpleType name="NameString">
     <xsd:restriction base="xsd:string">
        <xsd:maxLength value="255"/>
     </xsd:restriction>
  </xsd:simpleType>

  <xsd:complexType name="PersonType">
    <xsd:sequence>
         <xsd:element name="FirstName" type="NameString" maxOccurs="1"/>
         <xsd:element name="LastName"  type="NameString" maxOccurs="1"/>
     </xsd:sequence>
  </xsd:complexType>
</xsd:schema>