How to add a custom element to a SOAP Header in c#

Question

I am new to SOAP and web-services, and not an expert on c# either so sorry if I have made an infuriatingly simple error.
I am calling several web-services and I now need to add an element called *pcimask* to the SoapHeader in order to get a response that is PCI Compliant.
The web-services/WSDL don't expose this property so I guess I need to add it at runtime.
My application creates SOAP messages like the below: (the Soap Request and Response are output into a text file by a SOAP Logging class)
<soap:Envelope xmlns:soap="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
<soap:Header>
<AutHeader xmlns="http://edb.com/ws/WSCommon_v21">
<SourceApplication>myApp</SourceApplication>
<DestinationApplication>theirApp</DestinationApplication>
<Function>CardCreate</Function>
<Version>3.0.0</Version>
<ClientContext>
<userid>myID</userid>
<credentials>SecureToken</credentials>
<channel>NBA</channel>
<orgid>123456</orgid>
<orgunit>654321</orgunit>
<customerid />
<locale xsi:nil="true" />
<ip>123.456.789.012</ip>
</ClientContext>
</AutHeader>
</soap:Header>
As I understand it, I need to add an element `pcimask="true` to the
<ClientContext element, and it must be after the <ip>
However the wsdl doesn't expose this as a property.
So I have looked at the below resources:
 Bytes.com - how-add-soap-header-soap-message
 Stackoverflow: (18980689) adding-custom-soapheader-in-c-sharp-for-a-web-service-call
 Stackoverflow: (4035423) add-child-elements-to-custom-soap-header-in-spring-ws
and I came up with a little class inside my `common.cs` as below:
using System.Web.Services.Protocols;
using System.Xml.Serialization;
namespace EvryCardManagement
[XmlRoot(Namespace = "http://edb.com/ws/WSCommon_v21")]
[SoapHeader("EDBHeaderType", Direction = SoapHeaderDirection.In)]
public class CardCreateEx : SoapHeader
public string Value;
public CardCreateEx pcimask;
public static class Common
public static bool closeMe { get; set; }
public static int iMQRowID;
public static string impNme;
public static string impPwd;
and I wanted to try and use it in my code that creates the SoapHeader as below:
private EDBHeaderType wsSoapHeader()
EDBHeaderType wsSoapHeader = new EDBHeaderType();
/* ClientContext */
ClientContextType clientContext = new ClientContextType();
clientContext.userid = edb_service[0].userid;
clientContext.credentials = Common.SOToken;
//clientContext.pc
clientContext.orgid = edb_service[0].orgid;
clientContext.orgunit = edb_service[0].orgunit;
clientContext.customerid = "";
clientContext.channel = edb_service[0].channel;
clientContext.ip = edb_service[0].ip;
/* PCI MASK added to ClientContext in header; P-02925; Jan 2015 */
CardCreateEx cardCreateExt = new CardCreateEx(); // P-02925; Jan 2015
cardCreateExt.Value = "true";
/* EDBHeader */
wsSoapHeader.SourceApplication = edb_service[0].SourceApplication;
wsSoapHeader.DestinationApplication = edb_service[0].DestinationApplication;
wsSoapHeader.Function = edb_service[0].Function;
wsSoapHeader.Version = edb_service[0].Version; // P-02925; Oct-Nov 2014
wsSoapHeader.ClientContext = clientContext;
return wsSoapHeader;
but I get a build error:
    Attribute 'SoapHeader' is not valid on this declaration type. It is only valid on 'method' declarations.
so what is the correct way to do this?

Answer 1

Hi,
>>Attribute 'SoapHeader' is not valid on this declaration type. It is only valid on 'method' declarations.
Base on this situation, just as the error message says, the 'SoapHeader' attribute can only use on method, such as:
[SoapHeader("myHeader", rection=SoapHeaderDirection.InOut)]
//Receive any SOAP headers other than MyHeader.
[SoapHeader("unknownHeaders",Required=false)]
public string MyWebMethod() {
return "Hello";
For mire information:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.web.services.protocols.soapheader(v=vs.110).aspx
Besides, about Defining and Processing SOAP Headers:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/77hkfhh8(v=vs.71).aspx
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/18980689/adding-custom-soapheader-in-c-sharp-for-a-web-service-call
Regards