with azure brokeredmessage get the body without knowing the type

If the intent is to only grab the message body regardless of the content you can get it as a stream.

Stream stream = message.GetBody<Stream>();StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(stream);string s = reader.ReadToEnd();

Here is the complete code to deserialize from the brokeredmessage:

public T GetBody<T>(BrokeredMessage brokeredMessage){  var ct = brokeredMessage.ContentType;  Type bodyType = Type.GetType(ct, true);  var stream = brokeredMessage.GetBody<Stream>();  DataContractSerializer serializer = new DataContractSerializer(bodyType);  XmlDictionaryReader reader = XmlDictionaryReader.CreateBinaryReader(stream, XmlDictionaryReaderQuotas.Max);  object deserializedBody = serializer.ReadObject(reader);  T msgBase = (T)deserializedBody;  return msgBase;}

In sample before ContentType utilized to detect body type. I believe ContentType should be set by sender.I do similar logic, I set one of message properties to type of object on sender side and call GetBody<>() on receiver with type retrived from message property.like this:

public void SendData(object payloadData)    {        if (payloadData == null) return;        var queueClient = QueueClient.CreateFromConnectionString(ConnectionString, _queueName);        var brokeredMessage = new BrokeredMessage(payloadData);        brokeredMessage.Properties["messageType"] = payloadData.GetType().AssemblyQualifiedName;        queueClient.Send(brokeredMessage);    }

Message property "messageType" has full name of type.

On receiving side I do like this:

 var messageBodyType = Type.GetType(receivedMessage.Properties["messageType"].ToString());                if (messageBodyType == null)                {                    //Should never get here as a messagebodytype should                    //always be set BEFORE putting the message on the queue                    Trace.TraceError("Message does not have a messagebodytype" +                                     " specified, message {0}", receivedMessage.MessageId);                    receivedMessage.DeadLetter();                }                //read body only if event handler hooked                    var method = typeof(BrokeredMessage).GetMethod("GetBody", new Type[] { });                    var generic = method.MakeGenericMethod(messageBodyType);                    try                    {                        var messageBody = generic.Invoke(receivedMessage, null);                         DoSomethingWithYourData();                        receivedMessage.Complete();                    }                    catch (Exception e)                    {                        Debug.Write("Can not handle message. Abandoning.");                        receivedMessage.Abandon();                    }                }