Develop Reference

Serialize an Object into XML Array

I have a scenario where I may need to serialize an object as a root element into an XML file or if a file is provided that already has an array of objects I need to serialize the object into the array.
Because the object may be a root I have decorated it with the System.Xml.Serialization.XmlRootAttribute.
When I serialize the object to an XElement I get the root version of the object. When I add the XElement to the array it retains the namespace attributes and can not be deserialized properly.
Here is a portion of the class:
[System.CodeDom.Compiler.GeneratedCodeAttribute("xsd", "4.8.3928.0")]
[System.SerializableAttribute()]
[System.Diagnostics.DebuggerStepThroughAttribute()]
[System.ComponentModel.DesignerCategoryAttribute("code")]
[System.Xml.Serialization.XmlTypeAttribute(Namespace="urn:www.agxml.org:schemas:all:4:0", TypeName = "CommodityMovement")]
[System.Xml.Serialization.XmlRootAttribute(ElementName ="CommodityMovement", Namespace="urn:www.agxml.org:schemas:all:4:0", IsNullable=false)]
public partial class CommodityMovementType {
...
}
When I create a file with a list it works just fine.
private static String CreateMessageFile<T>(String filePath, T message)
{
var xmlDoc = new XDocument();
// serialize XML to string to the xmlEntity document
using (var writer = new StringWriter())
{
var entitySerializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(List<T>));
var list = new List<T>();
list.Add(message);
entitySerializer.Serialize(writer, list);
xmlDoc.Add(XElement.Parse(writer.ToString()));
}
xmlDoc.Save(filePath);
}
This will serialize an array with one message:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<ArrayOfCommodityMovement xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
<CommodityMovement>
...
</CommodityMovement>
</ArrayOfCommodityMovement>
However, I may read that file and add a message to that array.
private static String CreateMessageFile<T>(String filePath, T message)
{
var xmlDoc = new XDocument();
using var sourceStream = File.Open(filePath,FileMode.Open);
xmlDoc.Add(XElement.Load(sourceStream));
using (var writer = new StringWriter())
{
var entitySerializer = new XmlSerializer(entity.DotNetType);
// entitySerializer.Serialize(writer, list);
entitySerializer.Serialize(writer, message);
xmlDoc.Root.Add(XElement.Parse(writer.ToString()));
}
xmlDoc.Save(filePath);
}
This produces the the following XML:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<ArrayOfCommodityMovement xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
<CommodityMovement>
...
</CommodityMovement>
<CommodityMovement xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns="urn:www.agxml.org:schemas:all:4:0">
...
</CommodityMovement>
</ArrayOfCommodityMovement>
When I attempt to deserialize the ArrayOfCommodityMovement it only deserializes the first CommodityMovement message.
If I open the generated XML file and remove the namespace attributes from the second CommodityMovement element then it will deserialize correctly. Here is the test I am using to define "correctly".
XDocument xDocument = XDocument.Load(filePath);
var descendants = xDocument.Descendants("CommodityMovement");
Assert.Equal(2, descendants.Count());
var entitySerializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(List<CommodityMovementType>));
var commodityMovementList = entitySerializer.Deserialize(xDocument.CreateReader()) as List<CommodityMovementType>;
Assert.NotEmpty(commodityMovementList);
Assert.Equal(2, commodityMovementList.Count);
So how can I deserialize the object and insert the resulting element into an existing array and make sure the attributes aren't added?
BTW, I need to keep the System.Xml.Serialization.XmlRootAttribute because depending on configuration I need to be able to generate one message per file and the CommodityMovement then becomes a root element.
Note:
This isn't my exact code. It is a simplified example.
Thanks in advance for any help.

I found the solution is to remove the attributes and namespace if this is not the first element in the array. To see if it is the first I check to see if the document root is null:
if (xmlDoc.Root is null)
If it is not null, I serialize the element, remove it's attributes and namespace and add the element to the root element:
else
{
var element = SerializeEntityAsElement(entity, masterData);
// remove attributes and namespace so element can be added to existing array
element.RemoveAttributes();
element.Name = element.Name.LocalName;
xmlDoc.Root.Add(element);
}
Now my test will pass:
XDocument xDocument = XDocument.Load(filePath);
var descendants = xDocument.Descendants("CommodityMovement");
Assert.Equal(2, descendants.Count());
var entitySerializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(List<CommodityMovementType>));
var commodityMovementList = entitySerializer.Deserialize(xDocument.CreateReader()) as List<CommodityMovementType>;
Assert.NotEmpty(commodityMovementList);
Assert.Equal(2, commodityMovementList.Count);

XmlSerializer - Present an array of items

I have an XML File that looks like this :
<ROOT><DOC> ... </DOC><DOC> ... </DOC><DOC> ... </DOC></ROOT>
I want to put all the DOC in an array.
How do I do that in C# (XmlSerializer) ?

In essence, you need a string that contains your XML, a StringReader to read the string, an XMLReader to read the feed from the StringReader and an XDocument to store the feed from the XMLReader. This can be done in a single line of code, like this:
XDocument xDoc = XDocument.Load (XmlReader.Create (new StringReader (xmlString)));
The xmlString is the path (and name) of the file you're reading. You should use a List to store the data you'll get (unless it's a set number, then you can just use a string[]).
List<string> docList = new List<string>();
Then it's a matter of using a foreach loop to go through the XML elements and adding them to your list:
foreach (var element in xDoc.Descendants("ROOT"))
{
string doc = element.Element ("DOC").Value;
docList.Add (doc);
}
to make it an array, use:
docList.ToArray();
I hope this helps! Good luck.

Maybe it depends on the framework version. I have .net v4 and would use the following class with XmlSerializer.
Thanks to #Reniuz for the hint of the error. Here is a full working example:
public class Document
{
[XmlAttribute]
public string Value { get; set; }
}
[XmlRoot("ROOT")]
public class Root
{
[XmlElement("DOC")]
public List<Document> Documents { get; set; }
}
Using this code to load:
string data = "<ROOT><DOC Value=\"adhfjasdhf\"></DOC><DOC Value=\"asldfhalsdh\"></DOC></ROOT>";
XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(Root));
using (StringReader sr = new StringReader(data))
{
Root root = serializer.Deserialize(sr) as Root;
}
Keep attantion that the tags are case sensitive.

This is the right answer, based on Magicbjorn answer :
First of all, i'm getting my string from a StreamReader.
using(StreamReader read = new StreamReader("FilePath.xml"))
{
XDocument xDoc = XDocument.Load(XmlReader.Create(read));
List<string> docList = new List<string>();
var root = xDoc.Element("ROOT");
foreach (var element in root.Elements("DOC"))
{
string s = element.Value;
docList.Add(s);
}
}

Using an XmlTextAttribute on an array of mixed types removes whitespace strings

I am writing a set of objects that must serialize to and from Xml, following a strict specification that I cannot change. One element in this specification can contain a mix of strings and elements in-line.
A simple example of this Xml output would be this:
<root>Leading text <tag>tag1</tag> <tag>tag2</tag></root>
Note the whitespace characters between the closing of the first tag, and the start of the second tag. Here are the objects that represents this structure:
[XmlRoot("root")]
public class Root
{
[XmlText(typeof(string))]
[XmlElement("tag", typeof(Tag))]
public List<object> Elements { get; set; }
//this is simply for the sake of example.
//gives us four objects in the elements array
public static Root Create()
{
Root root = new Root();
root.Elements.Add("Leading text ");
root.Elements.Add(new Tag() { Text = "tag1" });
root.Elements.Add(" ");
root.Elements.Add(new Tag() { Text = "tag2" });
return root;
}
public Root()
{
Elements = new List<object>();
}
}
public class Tag
{
[XmlText]
public string Text {get;set;}
}
Calling Root.Create(), and saving to a file using this method looks perfect:
public XDocument SerializeToXml(Root obj)
{
XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(Root));
XDocument doc = new XDocument();
using (var writer = doc.CreateWriter())
{
serializer.Serialize(writer, obj);
}
return doc;
}
Serialization looks exactly like the xml structure at the beginning of this post.
Now when I want to serialize an xml file back into a Root object, I call this:
public static Root FromFile(string file)
{
XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(Root));
XmlReaderSettings settings = new XmlReaderSettings();
XmlReader reader = XmlTextReader.Create(file, settings);
//whitespace gone here
Root root = serializer.Deserialize(reader) as Root;
return root;
}
The problem is here. The whitespace string is eliminated. When I call Root.Create(), there are four objects in the Elements array. One of them is a space. This serializes just fine, but when deserializing, there are only 3 objects in Elements. The whitespace string gets eliminated.
Any ideas on what I'm doing wrong? I've tried using xml:space="preserve", as well as a host of XmlReader, XmlTextReader, etc. variations. Note that when I use a StringBuilder to read the XmlTextReader, the xml contains the spaces as I'd expect. Only when calling Deserialize(stream) do I lose the spaces.
Here's a link to an entire working example. It's LinqPad friendly, just copy/paste: http://pastebin.com/8MkUQviB The example opens two files, one a perfect serialized xml file, the second being a deserialized then reserialized version of the first file. Note you'll have to reference System.Xml.Serialization.
Thanks for reading this novel. I hope someone has some ideas. Thank you!

It looks like a bug. Workaround seems to be replace all whitespaces and crlf in XML text nodes by
entities. Semantic equal entities (
) does not work.
<root>Leading text <tag>tag1</tag> <tag>tag2</tag></root>
is working for me.

passing xml data into a string to be used as a parameter

Having trouble dealing with xml and to properly use it for my purpose. So i am creating a test method and one of the parameters is xml data and i am not sure how to pass it in.
Service
public IEnumerable<Submissions> CheckingOutForUserReview(string data)
{
var _submissions = DataContextManager.StoredProcs.CheckingOutForUserReview<SSubmissions>(data, s => new Submissions
{
QRCodeGUID = SubmissionsColumnMap.QRCodeGUID(s),
StoragePath = SubmissionsColumnMap.StoragePath(s),
UploadedByUsersID = SubmissionsColumnMap.UploadedByUsersID(s)
});
return _submissions;
}
Stored Proc:
public virtual IEnumerable<T> CheckingOutForUserReview<T>(string data, Func<IDataRecord, T> modelBinder)
{
SqlCommand _command = new SqlCommand("dbo.CheckingOutForUserReview");
_command.CommandType = CommandType.StoredProcedure;
_command.Parameters.Add(new SqlParameter { ParameterName = "Data", SqlDbType = SqlDbType.Xml, Value = data });
return DbInstance.ExecuteAs<T>(_command, modelBinder);
}
This is my TestMethod:
public void CheckingOutForUserReview()
{
string _data = #"<CheckingOutForUserReview xmlns:i=""www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"" xmlns=""schemas.name.com/2013/03/Malt.Models"">
<Record>
<QRCodeID>2FAC636E-F96C-4465-9272-760BAF73C0DF</QRCodeID>
<SubmissionID>10B5236C-47FD-468D-B88D-D789CA0C663A</SubmissionID>
<UserID>1</UserID>
<Page>1</Page>
</Record>
</CheckingOutForUserReview>";
XmlDocument doc = new XmlDocument();
doc.LoadXml(_data);
var _Svc = new SubmissionsService();
var _checkins = _Svc.CheckingOutForUserReview(doc.InnerXml);
}
UPDATE:
my CheckingOutForUserReview() method accepts a XmlDocument as i changed it to that in my stored procedure and with what i currently have it is giving an error that i have invalid arguments(System.Xml.XmlDocument) not sure if i messed up somewhere.
If this is a different way i am also open in trying new ways. Thanks for the help.

As I see there are two ways:
You should save your xml into an xml file by adding xml file in your
project then use it with XmlDocument using Load method like:
XmlDocument doc = new XmlDocument.Load(FileName);
...
...
var _checkins = _Svc.CheckingOutForUserReview(doc.innerXml);
Save your xml as a string literal and use it with XmlDocument using
LoadXml method like:
XmlDocument doc = new XmlDocument.LoadXml(stringThatContainsXml);
...
...
var _checkins = _Svc.CheckingOutForUserReview(doc.innerXml);
You can use XDocument and XElement classes as well but my focus on XmlDocument is that it will work for framework less than 3.5 too since XDocument and XElement is introduced in framework 3.5.
Also loading xml into a parser will help to filter out the invalid xml. (if mistakenly tried to use)
Another thing i have noticed in your snippet:
Assert.IsNotNull(_data);
It should come before the initialization of _Svc, because if there is no data in _data initialization doesn't make sense.
So your code looks like:
public void CheckingOutForUserReview()
{
string _data = "I want to pass in xml here";
Assert.IsNotNull(_data); <--------------- See the re-ordering
var _Svc = new SubmissionsService();
var _checkins = _Svc.CheckingOutForUserReview(_data);
}

Like I said in a comment, I think the best way to do this is to save the XML into a separate file.
If you don't want to do that, you can use verbatim string literal (note the double quotes):
string data = #"<CheckingOutForUserReview xmlns:i=""www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"" xmlns=""schemas.name.com/2013/03/Malt.Models"">
<Record>
<QRCodeID>2FAC636E-F96C-4465-9272-760BAF73C0DF</QRCodeID>
<SubmissionID>10B5236C-47FD-468D-B88D-D789CA0C663A</SubmissionID>
<UserID>1</UserID>
<Page>1</Page>
</Record>
</CheckingOutForUserReview>";

I don't see what is the problem in passing any kind of strings as a parameter into a method
If your XML is generated from your code, you better have used a StringBuilder to build it to reduce creating new references while concatenating your string.
If your XML is originally from a file, pass the file path into your method, and open the document there. there are a lot of different ways to open and read XML documents, or loading a string to an XML document and deal with it as XML rather than a string.
Examples:
http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/24375/Working-with-XML
http://forum.codecall.net/topic/58239-c-tutorial-reading-and-writing-xml-files/
and finally from MSDN:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa288481%28v=vs.71%29.aspx
enjoy

How do I retrieve all data from an XML file?

I used this code for retrieving specific value from the XML file.Now i want to retrieve all the data which are present in the XML file .Can anybody help me to find out the solution?
StorageFile xmlFile = await Windows.ApplicationModel.Package.Current.InstalledLocation.GetFileAsync("Content1.xml");
XmlDocument xmlDoc;
xmlDoc = await XmlDocument.LoadFromFileAsync(xmlFile);
System.Xml.Linq.XDocument duc = System.Xml.Linq.XDocument.Parse(xmlDoc.GetXml());
var query=
from Date in duc.Root.Elements("Serial")
where Date.Attribute("No").Value=="1"
from Current in Date.Elements("Current")
select new {
NarratedBy=Current.Attribute("NarratedBy").Value,
value=Current.Attribute("Date").Value
};
foreach(var Date in query) {
System.Diagnostics.Debug.WriteLine("{0}\t{1}", Date.NarratedBy, Date.value);
}

You already have whole XML document loaded into duc variable.
That line is responsible for that:
System.Xml.Linq.XDocument duc = System.Xml.Linq.XDocument.Parse(xmlDoc.GetXml());

then you can just retrieve your XDocument details for example into a string variable with an XDocument extension ToString()

You have all data already:
xmlDoc = await XmlDocument.LoadFromFileAsync(xmlFile); // data loadded
System.Xml.Linq.XDocument duc = System.Xml.Linq.XDocument.Parse(xmlDoc.GetXml()); // data parsed
===================
Here is a sample code how you may do it. It is fully functional (using local string xml instead of your file) so you may run it. I added only three attributes but you may add as many as you want.
class Program {
static void Main(string[] args) {
// this is a sample string. Use your file instead
string s = "<catalog>" +
"<book id=\"bk101\" author=\"Gambardella, Matthew\" title=\"XML Developer's Guide\" genre=\"Computer\"/>" +
"<book id=\"bk102\" author=\"Ralls, Kim\" title=\"Midnight Rain\" genre=\"Fantasy\"/>" +
"</catalog>";
XmlDocument xdoc = new XmlDocument();
xdoc.LoadXml(s); // here we load data
// here we get attributes. I have three, you will add three more. Also you may want to use string array instead of variables
foreach (XmlNode task in xdoc.DocumentElement.ChildNodes)
{
string author = task.Attributes["author"].InnerText;
string title = task.Attributes["title"].InnerText;
string genre = task.Attributes["genre"].InnerText;
}
}
}