I have an List<AnimalsEnum> Foo property in a class that I'm serializing to XML with RestSharp for the body of a request. I'd like the output to be:
<rootNode>
... existing content...
<Foo>Elephant</Foo>
<Foo>Tiger</Foo>
.... more content
Instead, for the relevant serialisation part, I have
<Foo>
<AnimalsEnum />
<AnimalsEnum />
</Foo>
I'd like to convert the enum values to strings and remove the container element that is automatically added. Is this possible with RestSharp? I thought it may be possible with attributes, but apparently not. Am I going to have to wrangle this output myself with a custom serialiser?
Code is difficult to post, but keeping with the example:
class Bar
{
public string Name{get;set;}
public List<AnimalsEnum> Foo{get;set;}
public enum AnimalsEnum {Tiger,Elephant,Monkey}
}
and to serialize into a request
var req = new RestSharp.RestRequest(RestSharp.Method.POST);
req.RequestFormat = RestSharp.DataFormat.Xml;
req.AddQueryParameter("REST-PAYLOAD", "");
req.AddXmlBody(myBar);
You can use the built-in DotNetXmlSerializer of RestSharp to make Microsoft's XmlSerializer do the actual serialization. Then you can use XML serialization attributes to specify that the List<AnimalsEnum> of Bar should be serialized without an outer container element by applying [XmlElement]:
public class Bar
{
public string Name { get; set; }
[System.Xml.Serialization.XmlElement]
public List<AnimalsEnum> Foo { get; set; }
public enum AnimalsEnum { Tiger, Elephant, Monkey }
}
Then, when making the request, do:
var req = new RestSharp.RestRequest(RestSharp.Method.POST);
// Use XmlSerializer to serialize Bar
req.XmlSerializer = new RestSharp.Serializers.DotNetXmlSerializer();
req.RequestFormat = RestSharp.DataFormat.Xml;
req.AddQueryParameter("REST-PAYLOAD", "");
req.AddXmlBody(myBar);
Note that Bar must be public because XmlSerializer can only serialize public types.
Related
I do have a problem with serializing a ArrayList. Most propably I use wrong XML Attributes for it since I when I changed them it would not even serialize it and got errors like 'The type may not be used in this context.'
I need to use a non generic ArrayList. On adding [XmlArray("LineDetails")] made this code to run but the output is not correct, it should give me the LineDetails structure. Any idea how to fix this?
This is a part of a whole xml like Document > Header > LineCollection > LineDeatails.
The problem is only with this details if I use a standard string field it is ok but the range of the colletion if changing with every document.
[XmlType(TypeName = "LineCollection")]
public class LineCollection
{
public String LineCount{ get; set; }
// [XmlElement(ElementName = "LineDetails")]
[XmlArray("LineDetails")]
public ArrayList LineDetails{ get; set; }
}
public class LineDetails: ArrayList
{
public String LineNum{ get; set; }
public String ItemId{ get; set; }
public String ItemName{ get; set; }
//... only strings
}
public class Utf8StringWriter : StringWriter
{
public override Encoding Encoding => new UTF8Encoding(false);
}
public string Serialize()
{
// var xmlserializer = new XmlSerializer(this.GetType());
var xmlserializer = new XmlSerializer(this.GetType(), new Type[] { typeof(LineDetails) });
var Utf8StringWriter = new Utf8StringWriter();
var xns = new XmlSerializerNamespaces();
xns.Add(string.Empty, string.Empty);
using (var writer = XmlWriter.Create(Utf8StringWriter))
{
xmlserializer.Serialize(writer, this, xns);
return Utf8StringWriter.ToString();
}
}
And the incorrect output of this...
<LineColletion>
<LineDetails>
<anyType xmlns:p5="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" p5:type="ArrayOfAnyType"/>
<anyType xmlns:p5="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" p5:type="ArrayOfAnyType"/>
<anyType xmlns:p5="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" p5:type="ArrayOfAnyType"/>
</LineDetails>
</LineColletion>
it should be like this
<LineColletion>
<LineDetails>
<LineNum>1</LineNum>
<ItemId>Item_2321</ItemId>
<ItemName>TheItemName</ItemName>
</LineDetails>
<LineDetails>
<LineNum>2</LineNum>
<ItemId>Item_232100000</ItemId>
<ItemName>TheItemName0</ItemName>
</LineDetails>
<LineDetails>
<LineNum>3</LineNum>
<ItemId>Item_23217777</ItemId>
<ItemName>TheItemName7</ItemName>
</LineDetails>
</LineColletion>
Now the wrong xml looks like this...
<LineDetails>
<anyType xmlns:p5="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" p5:type="LineDetails">
<LineNum>1</LineNum>
<ItemId>Item_2321</ItemId>
<ItemName>TheItemName</ItemName>
</anyType>
<anyType xmlns:p5="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" p5:type="LineDetails">
<LineNum>2</LineNum>
<ItemId>Item_2321</ItemId>
<ItemName>TheItemName</ItemName>
</anyType>
</LineDetails>
You may generate the required XML by modifying your data model as follows:
[XmlType(TypeName = "LineColletion")] // Fixed: TypeName. But do you want LineColletion (misspelled) or LineCollection (correctly spelled)? Your XML shows LineColletion but your code used LineCollection.
public class LineCollection
{
public String LineCount{ get; set; }
[XmlElement("LineDetails", typeof(LineDetails))] // Fixed -- specify type(s) of items in the ArrayList.
public ArrayList LineDetails{ get; set; }
}
public class LineDetails // Fixed: removed inheritance from ArrayList.
{
public String LineNum{ get; set; }
public String ItemId{ get; set; }
public String ItemName{ get; set; }
//... only strings
}
Notes:
Your model makes LineDetails inherit from ArrayList. XmlSerializer will never serialize collection properties, it will only serialize collection items. In order to serialize it correctly, I removed the inheritance since you don't seem to be using it anyway.
If you really need LineDetails to inherit from ArrayList, you will need to implement IXmlSerializable or replace it collection with a DTO.
Implementing IXmlSerializable is tedious and error-prone. I don't recommend it.
Your LineDetails collection is serialized without an outer wrapper element. To make the serializer do this, apply XmlElementAttribute to the property.
ArrayList is an untyped collection, so you must inform XmlSerializer of the possible types it might contain. You have two options:
Assigning a specific type to a specific element name by setting XmlElementAttribute.Type (or XmlArrayItemAttribute.Type), OR
Adding xsi:type attributes by informing the serializer of additional included types. You are doing this by passing them into the constructor, which is why you are seeing the p5:type="LineDetails" attribute.
Since you don't want the attributes, you need to set the element name by setting the type like so:
[XmlElement("LineDetails", typeof(LineDetails))]
The XML element corresponding to your LineCollection is named <LineColletion>. Note that the spelling is inconsistent. You will need to set [XmlType(TypeName = "LineColletion")] to the name you actually want.
Demo fiddle here.
I have an entity as below
public class Vehicle{
public int VehicleId {get;set;};
public string Make {get;set;};
public string Model{get;set;}
}
I wanted to serialize as below
<Vehicle>
<VehicleId AppliesTo="C1">1244</VehicleId>
<Make AppliesTo="Common" >HXV</Make>
<Model AppliesTo="C2">34-34</Model>
</Vehicle>
I have around 100 properties like this in Vehicle class, for each vehicle property I wanted to attach a metadata ApplieTo which will be helpful to downstream systems. AppliesTo attribute is static and its value is defined at the design time. Now How can I attach AppliesTo metadata to each property and inturn get serialized to XML?
You can use XElement from System.Xml.Linq to achieve this. As your data is static you can assign them easily. Sample code below -
XElement data= new XElement("Vehicle",
new XElement("VehicleId", new XAttribute("AppliesTo", "C1"),"1244"),
new XElement("Make", new XAttribute("AppliesTo", "Common"), "HXV"),
new XElement("Model", new XAttribute("AppliesTo", "C2"), "34 - 34")
);
//OUTPUT
<Vehicle>
<VehicleId AppliesTo="C1">1244</VehicleId>
<Make AppliesTo="Common">HXV</Make>
<Model AppliesTo="C2">34 - 34</Model>
</Vehicle>
If you are not interested in System.Xml.Linq then you have another option of XmlSerializer class. For that you need yo define separate classes for each property of vehicle. Below is the sample code and you can extend the same for Make and Model -
[XmlRoot(ElementName = "VehicleId")]
public class VehicleId
{
[XmlAttribute(AttributeName = "AppliesTo")]
public string AppliesTo { get; set; }
[XmlText]
public string Text { get; set; }
}
[XmlRoot(ElementName = "Vehicle")]
public class Vehicle
{
[XmlElement(ElementName = "VehicleId")]
public VehicleId VehicleId { get; set; }
//Add other properties here
}
Then create test data and use XmlSerializer class to construct XML -
Vehicle vehicle = new Vehicle
{
VehicleId = new VehicleId
{
Text = "1244",
AppliesTo = "C1",
}
};
XmlSerializer testData = new XmlSerializer(typeof(Vehicle));
var xml = "";
using (var sww = new StringWriter())
{
using (XmlWriter writer = XmlWriter.Create(sww))
{
testData.Serialize(writer, vehicle);
xml = sww.ToString(); // XML
}
}
It is not easy or ideal to use the default .NET XML serializer (System.Xml.Serialization.XmlSerializer) in the way you want, but it's possible. This answer shows how to create a class structure to hold both your main data and the metadata, then use XmlAttributeAttribute to mark a property so it gets serialized as an XML attribute.
Assumptions:
There are a number of unknowns about your intended implementation, such as:
The XML serializer you want to use (default for .NET?)
The mechanism to inject 'AppliesTo' (attribute?)
Do you care about deserialization?
This answer assumes the default .NET serializer, that deserialization matters, and that you don't care about the exact method of injecting your metadata.
Key concepts:
A generic class to hold both our main property value and the metadata (see PropertyWithAppliesTo<T>)
Using XmlAttributeAttribute on the generic class' metadata, so it is written as an XML attribute on the parent property
Using XmlTextAttribute on the generic class' main data, so it is written as the Xml text of the parent property (and not as a sub-property)
Including two properties on the main type being serialized (in this case Vehicle) for every value you want serialized: one of the new generic type that gets serialized with metadata, and one of the original type marked with XmlIgnoreAttribute that provides 'expected' access to the property's value
Using the XmlElementAttribute to change the name of the serialized property (so it matches the expected name)
Code:
using System;
using System.IO;
using System.Xml.Serialization;
namespace SomeNamespace
{
public class Program
{
static void Main()
{
var serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(Vehicle));
string s;
var vehicle = new Vehicle { VehicleId = 1244 };
//serialize
using (var writer = new StringWriter())
{
serializer.Serialize(writer, vehicle);
s = writer.ToString();
Console.WriteLine(s);
}
// edit the serialized string to test deserialization
s = s.Replace("Common", "C1");
//deserialize
using (var reader = new StringReader(s))
{
vehicle = (Vehicle)serializer.Deserialize(reader);
Console.WriteLine($"AppliesTo attribute for VehicleId: {vehicle.VehicleIdMeta.AppliesTo}");
}
}
}
public class Vehicle
{
[XmlElement(ElementName = "VehicleId")] // renames to remove the 'Meta' string
public PropertyWithAppliesTo<int> VehicleIdMeta { get; set; } = new PropertyWithAppliesTo<int>("Common");
[XmlIgnore] // this value isn't serialized, but the property here for easy syntax
public int VehicleId
{
get { return VehicleIdMeta.Value; }
set { VehicleIdMeta.Value = value; }
}
}
public class PropertyWithAppliesTo<T>
{
[XmlAttribute] // tells serializer this should be an attribute on this element, not a property
public string AppliesTo { get; set; } = string.Empty;
[XmlText] // tells serializer to not write this as a property, but as the main XML text
public T Value { get; set; } = default;
public PropertyWithAppliesTo() : this(string.Empty) { }
public PropertyWithAppliesTo(string appliesTo) : this(appliesTo, default) { }
public PropertyWithAppliesTo(string appliesTo, T initialValue)
{
AppliesTo = appliesTo;
Value = initialValue;
}
}
}
When run, the string s will look like:
<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"utf-16\"?>
<Vehicle xmlns:xsi=\"http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance\" xmlns:xsd=\"http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema\">
<VehicleId AppliesTo="Common">1244</VehicleId>
</Vehicle>
Other Notes:
You can see how to add more properties to Vehicle: add a property of type PropertyWithAppliesTo<T> marked with XmlElement to give it the name you want, and then a property of type T marked with XmlIgnore that wraps around the Value you want.
You can control the value of AppliesTo by changing the input to the constructor of PropertyWithAppliesTo<T> and giving it a different metadata string.
If you don't want consumers of your library to see the 'meta' properties in IntelliSense, you can use the EditorBrowsableAttribute. It won't hide things from you when using the source and a project reference; it's only hidden when referencing the compiled dll.
This is admittedly an annoying way to add properties to a class. But if you want to use the default .NET XML serializer, this is a way to achieve the XML you want.
I want to serialize a list to xml (from a web-api method).
public class Result
{
public List<string> Users { get; set; }
}
So I get for example:
<result>
<user>Paul</user>
<user>David</user>
<user>Joan</user>
</result>
So far, I get:
<result>
<users>
<user>Paul</user>
<user>David</user>
<user>Joan</user>
</users>
</result>
How do I tell the serialization not to wrap the user list in a "users" tag?
Thanks.
You could either derive from XmlObjectSerializer and implement your own XML Serializer (see here FMI) or else manipulate your type so it works with the default formatter. Which isn't a great solution, but may work for a simple example, like so:
public class Result : List<User>
{
//Any user added to Result will be nested directly within Result in the XML
}
Further reading:
MSDN: XmlObjectSerializer Class:
"Extend the XmlObjectSerializer to create your own serializer to serialize and deserialize objects."
Insights on WCF: CustomXmlObjectSerializer: Real-world example with source code.
You need to replace default DataContractSerializer with XmlSerializer in Application_Start method.
For whole project:
var xml = GlobalConfiguration.Configuration.Formatters.XmlFormatter;
xml.UseXmlSerializer = true;
For specific type:
var xml = GlobalConfiguration.Configuration.Formatters.XmlFormatter;
xml.SetSerializer<Result>(new XmlSerializer(typeof(Result)));
After this you can use attributes to format your xml output:
public class Result
{
[XmlElement("user")]
public List<string> Users { get; set; }
}
I am trying to Deserialize the following XML:
<Test><string name="Name">Test name</string><string name="Description">Some fake description.</string></Test>
Into the following class.
[XmlRoot("Test")]
public class Test
{
[XmlElement("string")]
public string Name;
[XmlElement("string")]
public string Description;
}
Using the code I am doing it with.
var xml = #"<Test><string name=""Name"">Test name</string><string name=""Description"">Some fake description.</string></Test>";
XmlReader reader = new XmlTextReader(new StringReader(xml));
XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(Test));
serializer.Deserialize(reader);
When I run this I get an InvalidOperationException with the message
There was an error reflecting type 'Test'.
If I comment out the Description property, it works. I can get the attribute value or the text, but I can't get just the XmlText with the element is string and the "name" Attribute has a specific value.
Is this even possible without using LINQ?
As per my comment:
Certainly won't be able to do it without changing something. You're
telling .NET that Description is an element when it's an attribute of
the 'string' element. Use LINQ
Here is an example of the LINQ, it's quite straightforward to extend and decouples your XML from your class (which is often a good thing!).
var xml = #"<Test><string name=""Name"">Test name</string><string name=""Description"">Some fake description.</string></Test>";
var xdoc = XDocument.Parse(xml);
var output = from test in xdoc.Elements("Test")
let strings = test.Elements("string").ToDictionary(e => e.Attribute("name").Value, e => e.Value)
select new Test () { Name = strings["Name"],
Description = strings["Description"] };
The reason is that you are not using XmlElement as intended, the element name "string" must be unique the class. The "name" attribute is not taken into account.
So, in summary, it is not possible to deserialize that xml document automatically, you would need to implement the deserialization method by yourself.
For that you would need:
public class Foo {
[XmlAttribute("name")]
public string Name {get;set;}
[XmlText]
public string Value {get;set;}
}
Then, in the parent type:
[XmlRoot("Test")]
public class Test
{
[XmlElement("string")]
public List<Foo> Items {get;set;}
}
This it the only way you can process that shape XML unless you use IXmlSerializable (very hard).
I'm trying to deserialize some xml without having the original class that was used to create the object in xml. The class is called ComOpcClientConfiguration.
It's succesfully setting the ServerUrl and ServerUrlHda values, but not rest of them...
So what I'm asking is: How can I make the rest of these values get set properly, and why aren't they working with my current code.
Here is my deserialization code:
conf is an XElement which represents the ComClientConfiguration xml
DataContractSerializer ser = new DataContractSerializer(typeof(ComClientConfiguration), new Type[] {typeof(ComClientConfiguration), typeof(ComOpcClientConfiguration) });
ComOpcClientConfiguration config = (ComOpcClientConfiguration)ser.ReadObject(conf.CreateReader());
I don't know why I have to have ComClientConfiguration and ComOpcClientConfiguration, there's probably a better way to do the known types hack I have. But for now it's what I have.
Here is the xml as it looks in the file.
<ComClientConfiguration xsi:type="ComOpcClientConfiguration" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
<ServerUrl>The url</ServerUrl>
<ServerName>a server name </ServerName>
<ServerNamespaceUrl>a namespace url</ServerNamespaceUrl>
<MaxReconnectWait>5000</MaxReconnectWait>
<MaxReconnectAttempts>0</MaxReconnectAttempts>
<FastBrowsing>true</FastBrowsing>
<ItemIdEqualToName>true</ItemIdEqualToName>
<ServerUrlHda>hda url</ServerUrlHda>
</ComClientConfiguration>
Here is the class I built to deserialize into:
[DataContract(Name = "ComClientConfiguration", Namespace = "http://opcfoundation.org/UA/SDK/COMInterop")]
public class ComClientConfiguration
{
public ComClientConfiguration() { }
//Prog-ID for DA-connection
[DataMember(Name = "ServerUrl"), OptionalField]
public string ServerUrl;//url
[DataMember(Name = "ServerName")]
public string ServerName;
[DataMember(Name = "ServerNamespaceUrl")]
public string ServerNamespaceUrl;//url
[DataMember(Name = "MaxReconnectWait")]
public int MaxReconnectWait;
[DataMember(Name = "MaxReconnectAttempts")]
public int MaxReconnectAttempts;
[DataMember(Name = "FastBrowsing")]
public bool FastBrowsing;
[DataMember(Name = "ItemIdEqualToName")]
public bool ItemIdEqualToName;
//ProgID for DA-connection
[DataMember, OptionalField]
public string ServerUrlHda;//url
}
I additionally had to make this class, it's the same but with a different name. Used for known types in the Serializer because I don't know exactly how the whole type naming stuff works.
[DataContract(Name = "ComOpcClientConfiguration", Namespace = "http://opcfoundation.org/UA/SDK/COMInterop")]
public class ComOpcClientConfiguration
{
public ComOpcClientConfiguration() { }
... Same innards as ComClientConfiguration
}
Data-contract-serializer is... Fussy. In particular, I wonder if simply element order is the problem here. However, it is also not necessarily the best tool for working with XML. XmlSerializer is probably a more robust here - it can handle a much better range of XML. DCS simply isn't intended with that as it's primary goal.
With simple XML you often don't even need any attributes etc. You can even use xsd.exe on your existing XML to generate the matching c# classes (in two steps; XML-to-xsd; xsd-to-c#).
To get all values, try hardcoding the order (otherwise maybe it tries the alphabetical order):
[DataMember(Name = "ServerUrl", Order = 0)]
..
[DataMember(Name = "ServerName", Order = 1)]
..
[DataMember(Name = "ServerNamespaceUrl", Order = 2)]
..
[DataMember(Name = "MaxReconnectWait", Order = 3)]
..