Develop Reference

Serialization xml with double xml tags where order is important in c#

I want to serialize xml which works but I have a problem. Sometimes I have the same tag multiple times but on different places. So the order is important so I cant just stick it in an list.
For example I have the following xml:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?>
<commands>
<execute>some statement</execute>
<wait>5</wait>
<execute>some statement</execute>
<wait>5</wait>
<execute>some statement</execute>
<execute>some statement</execute>
</commands>
Then my object would look something like this:
[XmlRoot(ElementName="commands")]
public class Commands {
[XmlElement(ElementName="execute")]
public List<string> Execute { get; set; }
[XmlElement(ElementName="wait")]
public List<int> Wait { get; set; }
}
If I then serialize it with the following function:
var xmlSerializer = new XmlSerializer(obj.GetType());
using (var writer = new Utf8StringWriter())
{
xmlSerializer.Serialize(writer, obj);
return writer.ToString();
}
The order will not be the same.... It would first serialize the execute tags and then the wait statements. While the order is important.
Does someone have a clue on how to tackle this problem?
Ps. changing the xml is not a solution as I'm tied to that....
Thanks in advance!

After searching for a while I tackle the problem as the following. The wait and execute are basically commands to I serialize now a list of commands. Of course the seriliazer will complain that it can't serlize this because it is a list of interfaces (ICommand) so I implemented the IXmlSerliazer so that I tell how to serliaze this.
This worked actually quite good

Error while DeSerializing XML with namespaces to C# Object

I have an XML file which starts something like this:-
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Deal xmlns="http://schemas.datacontract.org/2004/07/DealioCapLinkLib.Dealio.Models" xmlns:i="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
<AccountingDate>2019-09-30</AccountingDate>
When I try to convert this object to XML like below, I get an error:-
private static void Prod_Error_Test()
{
string prodRequestXml = File.ReadAllText("ProdXml.xml");
var serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(Service.Deal));
Service.Deal request ;
var reader = new StringReader(prodRequestXml);
request = (Service.Deal)serializer.Deserialize(reader);
}
The Error Message is "There is an error in XML document (2, 2).". The Inner Exception Message is "<Deal xmlns='http://schemas.datacontract.org/2004/07/DealioCapLinkLib.Dealio.Models'> was not expected."
Service.Deal is a WCF Proxy.So I may not be able to add any attributes. Can anyone suggest what to do here ?

Being a WCF proxy doesn't preclude adding attributes; in particular, it is usually a partial class, which means you can have your own separate file, with:
namespace Service
{
[XmlRoot("Deal", Namespace = "http://schemas.datacontract.org/2004/07/DealioCapLinkLib.Dealio.Models")]
partial class Deal {}
}
But ultimately: if the type doesn't conveniently fit the XML: stop fighting it - create a new separate type that fits the XML and works well with XmlSerializer, and then map between the two types in your own code.

Creating a dictionary with Unity Application Block IoC

I would like to create a dictionary and populate it in the configuration file for Unity like shown here. However, that example seems to be from an older version of Unity IoC but I would like to know how to do this with Unity 4.
<type ... to="MyTypeServer">
<typeConfig>
<property Name="Converters" KeyType"string" ValueType="IConverter">
<entry>
<key>csv</key>
<value><dependency name="csvConverter"/></value>
</entry>
<entry>
<key>xml</key>
<value><dependency name="xmlConverter"/></value>
</entry>
</property>
</typeConfig>
</type>
<type name="csvConverter" from="IConverter" to="MyCsvConverter">
</type>
<type name="xmlConverter" from="IConverter" to="MyXmlConverter">
</type>
And here is the class:
public class MyTypeServer
{
public IDictionary<string, IConverter> Converters
{
set;
private get;
}
public void DoConversion(string fileName)
{
string fileType = Path.GetFileExtension(fileName);
IConverter converter = Converters[fileType];
if (converter != null)
converter.DoConversion(fileName);
..
...
}
}
I have been trying for hours and researching but no luck.

From the codeplex link you posted:
This is a quick pseudo code of the type of stuff we can have with dictionary.
To me, this reads "we could do something like this if we implemented the feature". Aligns with my experience with unity, I've never come across something like this.
What you can do however: register all the converters, have them all injected as array and then build the dictionary yourself.
// register in code or in xml...
container.RegisterType<IConverter, XmlConverter>( "xml-Converter" );
container.RegisterType<IConverter, JsonConverter>( "json-Converter" );
internal class ConverterConsumer
{
public ConverterConsumer( IConverter[] converters )
{
_converters = converters.ToDictionary( x => x.FileType, x => x );
}
#region private
private Dictionary<string, IConverter> _converters;
#endregion
}
public interface IConverter
{
string FileType { get; }
void DoConversion( string fileName );
}

Posting as an answer because I do not have sufficient points to comment. This is what I did to solve my problem. Not exactly a Dictionary approach but it might help.
My requirements - Store app settings in the Unity XML file as opposed to app.config
I had various objects which were registered in the Unity XML and they had properties like connection strings, Azure queue names , Azure blob container names, etc. I found myself duplicating these values in the XML very often. I could make my objects read values from *appSettings** element of app.config or some other configuration section. However, I chose not to use the app.config for the sake of keeping my objects more testable.
My solution - Use the <instance> element to register reusable string values
I registered all reusable connection strings in a single location as shown below and without any duplications:
<instance name="cnstring1" value="blah connection string 1"></instance>
<instance name="cnstring2" value="blah connection string 2"></instance>
<instance name="azurequeue1" value="name of receiver queue "></instance>
<instance name="azurequeue2" value="name of sender queue "></instance>
<instance name="azurestoragecnstring" value="your azure storage account connection string 0001"></instance>
Reference the name-value pairs using the dependency element whereever required.
Example XML:
<register name="i2" mapTo="someimplementation" type="someinterface">
<property name="Database">
<dependency name="cnstring1" />
</property>
</register>
Example C# code snippet:
public string Database { get; set; }
At run time the property Database of the object with the registration i2 will be set to the value of blah connection string 1
Caveats
Storing connection strings in plain text XML might not be safe especially if the connection string has username and password values.

Preserving proto comments when generating C# with protobuf-net

We are using protobuf-net to handle our Protocol Buffer needs in a C# application. Since we share our .proto files with other, non-managed applications, we are generating our code from the .proto files (not using the code-first protobuf-net approach). In order to stay as DRY as possible, we keep a lot of interface documentation inside the .proto files themselves. We generate the C# code by means of protogen.exe, called by a project build target.
Now, is there any way to (automatically) transfer these comments into the compiled C# code?
Basically, given a .proto like this:
// This message is used to request a resource from the server
message GetResource
{
// The identifier of the requested resource
required string resourceId = 1;
}
...I would like something like this (IExtensible methods omitted for readability):
/// <summary>
/// This message is used to request a resource from the server
/// </summary>
[global::System.Serializable,global::ProtoBuf.ProtoContract(Name=#"GetResource")]
public partial class GetResource : global::ProtoBuf.IExtensible
{
public GetResource() {}
private string _resourceId;
/// <summary>
/// The identifier of the requested resource
/// [Required] <-- Would be nice...
/// </summary>
[global::ProtoBuf.ProtoMember(1, IsRequired = true, Name=#"resourceId",
DataFormat = global::ProtoBuf.DataFormat.Default)]
public string ResourceId
{
get { return _resourceId; }
set { _resourceId = value; }
}
}

Actually current version does support comments. It may be enabled with --include_source_info.
Comments are available in descriptor.Location[n].leading_comments and trailing_comments :
https://code.google.com/p/protobuf/source/browse/trunk/src/google/protobuf/descriptor.proto
I've added the corresponding properties to protobuf-net Location class:
private string _leading_comments = "";
[global::ProtoBuf.ProtoMember(3, IsRequired = false, Name = #"leading_comments", DataFormat = global::ProtoBuf.DataFormat.Default)]
[global::System.ComponentModel.DefaultValue("")]
public string leading_comments
{
get { return _leading_comments; }
set { _leading_comments = value; }
}
private string _trailing_comments = "";
[global::ProtoBuf.ProtoMember(4, IsRequired = false, Name = #"trailing_comments", DataFormat = global::ProtoBuf.DataFormat.Default)]
[global::System.ComponentModel.DefaultValue("")]
public string trailing_comments
{
get { return _trailing_comments; }
set { _trailing_comments = value; }
}
And added --include_source_info to protoc call (ProtoBuf.CodeGenerator.InputFileLoader)
And locations with comments were added to xml generated:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?>
<FileDescriptorSet xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
<file>
<FileDescriptorProto>
<name>Test.proto</name>
<dependency />
<message_type>
<DescriptorProto>
<name>Test2</name>
<field>
<FieldDescriptorProto>
<name>IntValue</name>
<number>1</number>
<type>TYPE_INT32</type>
</FieldDescriptorProto>
</field>
<extension />
<nested_type />
<enum_type />
<extension_range />
</DescriptorProto>
</message_type>
<enum_type />
<service />
<extension />
<source_code_info>
<location>
...
<Location>
<path>
<int>4</int>
<int>0</int>
<int>2</int>
<int>0</int>
</path>
<span>
<int>1</int>
<int>0</int>
<int>28</int>
</span>
<trailing_comments> some comment
</trailing_comments>
</Location>
...
</location>
</source_code_info>
</FileDescriptorProto>
</file>
</FileDescriptorSet>
source .proto:
message Test2{
optional int32 IntValue = 1;// some comment
}
But I'm not strong in xslt to update ProtoGen/csharp.xslt to include comments into CS file generated

At the current time, I believe the answer is "no". To the best of my knowledge, "protoc" (Google's tool for parsing .proto files, which is used under the hood) silently discards the comments - so there is nothing available to read from. If a custom parser was written, then yes it would be possible, but there is also a language ambiguity about which comments apply to which lines, for example:
// this probably relates to resourceId
required string resourceId = 1;
required int foo = 2; // but... is this foo? or bar?
// and what about this?
// what does this relate to? and why?
// and this? what are the rules?
required int bar = 3;
So for 2 different reasons: at the moment, no. All suggestions considered, though... especially if they come with a custom parser included :)
Note that AFAIK this information is missing from most (all?) implementations for this reason. I'm happy to be corrected, though.

How to read nested configuration element from the web.config?

I need to read configuration elements from the web.config.
Let this be my web.config.
<family>
<parents>
<child name="Hello"/>
<child name="World"/>
</parents>
<parents>
<child name="Hello1"/>
<child name="World2"/>
</parents>
</family>
So I have something like this, I need to read this into a collection.
How can i do this????

In general, you can store simple application settings and connection string in web.config (or app.config), but anything more complex, like an object graph or XML (as in your case) and you should consider a different method.
These may be helpful:
How do I store an XML value in my .NET App.Config file
(it suggests encoding the XML in an app setting)
However it would be better to have a separate XML data file and convert it to an object graph using Linq-To-XML (see reference) or XPath and the XmlDocument and related classes.
Edit: see the other answer, which does allow XML in the config file. That's a more direct answer to your exact questions but I will leave this here for reference. On the whole it looks like your data is not configuration data (more like runtime / user data) and does not belong in a .config file: so I would recommend storing it in a separate XML file, and having a config file entry pointing to the filename of the separate XML file.
Hope that helps!

You need to define your own custom configuration section, which will allow you to read the nested configuration element properly. BTW, this is the same method that all the others use, for instance the Enterprise Library components, NHibernate, etc.
The steps you need to take are very straightforward, and a tutorial is provided here:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/2tw134k3.aspx

You need to use the ConfigurationElementCollection Class.
See this sample on the MSDN

public struct Child
{
public string name;
public Child(string name)
{
this.name = name;
}
}
public class Parent
{
public List<Child> childs = new List<Child>();
public static List<Parent> ReadParentsFromXml(string fileName)
{
List<Parent> parents = new List<Parent>();
System.Xml.XmlTextReader doc = new System.Xml.XmlTextReader(fileName);
Parent element = new Parent();
while (doc.Read())
{
switch (doc.Name)
{
case "parents":
if (doc.NodeType == System.Xml.XmlNodeType.EndElement)
{
parents.Add(element);
element = new Parent();
}
break;
case "child":
if(doc.NodeType != System.Xml.XmlNodeType.EndElement)
element.childs.Add(new Child(doc.GetAttribute(0)));
break;
}
}
return parents;
}
}