Error in xml file using the XmlSerializer - c#

I have an website with a administrator page. On this page a user is able to create, update or delete employees. I want to save these employees in a xml file using the XmlSerializer of C#.
The employee class looks like this:
public class Employee
{
public int id { get; set; }
public String lastname { get; set; }
public String firstname { get; set; }
public String enterdate { get; set; }
public int salarylevel { get; set; }
}
However, I get an error while reading the xml file and do not know what to do:
In System.InvalidOperationException is an exception of type
"System.Xml.dll" occurred, but this was not in the user code
processed.
Additional information: error in XML document (0,0).
Translated from german.
I created the project as an empty WebAPI and I have an EmployeeController that looks like this:
public class EmployeeController : ApiController
{
List<Employee> employeelist = new List<Employee>();
[HttpGet]
public IEnumerable<Employee> getEmployees()
{
XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(List<Employee>));
FileStream stream = new FileStream(System.Web.Hosting.HostingEnvironment.ApplicationPhysicalPath + "employees.xml", FileMode.Open);
employeelist = (List<Employee>)serializer.Deserialize(stream);
return employeelist;
}
}
The error occurs at: employeelist = (List<Employee>)serializer.Deserialize(stream);
The controller gets called with JQuery and the getJSON method using the url http://localhost:5267/api/employee/. All employees should be saved in a xml file that is called employees.xml which contains only one line at the moment:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
What I expected to happen was, that I get an empty list because there are no related xml elements in the file and therefore the page shows no employees.
I guess that I messed it up because I created the xml file manually and without the serializer or that the serializer cannot handle the one line xml. Does someone know how I should solve this problem?

Creating the xml using Serialize is not required for successful serialization, but is useful to determine if your xml looks like it should. A serialized empty collection should look more like:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<ArrayOfEmployee xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" />

Related

C# XmlSerializer conditionally serialialize List<T> items

i need to serialize and deserialize XML with C# XmlSerializer (or is there something better?).
[XmlElement]
public virtual List<Map> Maps { get; set; }
public class Map
{
[XmlAttribute("item")]
public string Item { get; set; }
[XmlAttribute("uri")]
public string Uri { get; set; }
}
Maps = new List<Map>{
new Map { Item="", Uri="" },
new Map { Item="something", Uri="foo" },
new Map { Item="", Uri="foo" },
}
The serializer should throw out every item with string.IsNullOrEmpty(map.Item) so that the resulting Xml only holds the map with "something".
How can I achieve this without a big hassle?:
<Maps>
<Map item="something" uri="foo" />
</Maps>
As far as I've understood, you want to filter your XML before you serialize it.
I suggest you use LINQ for this:
var filteredMaps = Maps.Where(map => !string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(map.Item)).ToList();
Notice the .ToList() call at the end of the line. This is important, as your XmlSerializer is of type List<Map> I suppose. Put this line before you serialize your object and the result should look like this:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<ArrayOfMap xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
<Map item="something" uri="foo" />
</ArrayOfMap>
Don't forget the using System.Linq;
Well you can try creating an XmlWriter that filters out all elements with an xsi:nil attribute or containing an empty string, and passes all other calls to the underlying standard XmlWriter to "clean up" serialized XML.

C# - Clean way for reading data from DataSet created from XML

I've got an app with config.xml file added for user settings.
I am reading it simply by:
DataSet config = new DataSet();
config.ReadXml(configPath);
Parameters in config.xml are in columns grouped under some tables:
<?xml version="1.0" standalone="yes"?>
<UserSetup>
<TableA>
<revBegin>value1</revBegin>
<revEnd>value2</revEnd>
...
</TableA>
...
</UserSetup>
What I'm looking for is a clean way to read from DataSet config, without memorizing table or column names.
In my current implementation I achieved that by following class:
public static class MyTables
{
public static class TableA
{
public const String name = "TableA";
public const String revBegin = "revBegin";
public const String revEnd = "revEnd";
...
}
...
}
And I read values like this:
String revEnd = config.Tables[MyTables.TableA.name].Rows[0][MyTables.TableA.revEnd].ToString();
But I somehow fill that it is quite easy problem solved in quite complicated - not to say nasty - way.
Do you have any idea how can I make things simpler or cleaner?
P.S. At some point I tried reducing config.Tables[MyTables.TableA.name] part to config.Tables[MyTables.TableA] but - how I see it - it would require adding Index[object] to sealed class DataTableCollection and overriding ToString() method in my static class - both impossible. Am I right?
Unless you absolutely have to use a DataSet to read the XML, you can achieve the same results using XML serialization. Annotate your classes with the below.
[XmlRoot]
[Serializable]
public class UserSetUp
{
[XmlElement]
public TableA TableA { get; set; }
}
[Serializable]
public class TableA
{
[XmlElement]
public string revBegin { get; set; }
[XmlElement]
public string revEnd { get; set; }
}
Assuming your config in on C:\ for this example.
var configStream = File.OpenRead(#"C:\Config.xml");
var reader = new StreamReader(configStream);
var xmlString = reader.ReadToEnd();
var serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(UserSetUp));
var stringReader = new StringReader(xmlString);
var userSetup = (UserSetUp)serializer.Deserialize(stringReader);
I've tested it with the below XML and it works ok.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16" ?>
<UserSetUp>
<TableA>
<revBegin>1</revBegin>
<revEnd>2</revEnd>
</TableA>
</UserSetUp>
Hope that helps you on your way.

Deserialization of serialized data fails

I am trying to deserialize an XML document that I am also serializing at another time. I am using it to store a configuration file.
This is my Code:
namespace OrderTracker
{
[Serializable]
public class AutofillValues
{
private string fileName = Directory.GetCurrentDirectory() + "\\bin\\settings.db";
public ComboBox.ObjectCollection Vendors { get; set; }
public ComboBox.ObjectCollection Products { get; set; }
public ComboBox.ObjectCollection Companies { get; set; }
public void save(AutofillValues afv)
{
if (!File.Exists(fileName))
{
FileStream fs = File.Create(fileName);
fs.Close();
}
XmlSerializer x = new XmlSerializer(typeof(AutofillValues));
TextWriter writer = new StreamWriter(fileName);
x.Serialize(writer, afv);
writer.Close();
}
public AutofillValues load()
{
XmlSerializer x = new XmlSerializer(typeof(AutofillValues));
TextReader file = new StreamReader(fileName);
AutofillValues av = (AutofillValues)x.Deserialize(file);
file.Close();
return av;
}
}
}
The error message that I am getting when trying to deserialize the file is this;
An unhandled exception of type 'System.InvalidOperationException' occurred in System.Xml.dll
Additional information: There is an error in XML document (2, 2).*
This is the XML document:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<AutofillValues xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
<Vendors>
<anyType xsi:type="xsd:string">Test Vendor</anyType>
</Vendors>
<Products>
<anyType xsi:type="xsd:string">Test Product</anyType>
</Products>
<Companies>
<anyType xsi:type="xsd:string">Test Company</anyType>
</Companies>
</AutofillValues>
How can I deserialize the XML file and get back the serialized data?
I just changed this part and it worked for me.
You can not deserialize the XML back, because the class ComboBox.ObjectCollection does not have a standard (parameterless) constructor. This is a limitation of the XmlSerializer class, as stated in this SO post.
There is however another problem with your current code - even if the deserialization somehow works, than you still need to assign the collection to a ComboBox control, which the deserializer still can't do.
Instead of using the ComboBox.ObjectCollection class to store the items, I would suggest using either an array or a list of objects (as #kenlacoste suggested). Such collections can be easily inserted into the ComboBox using
the comboBox.Items.AddRange(arrayOfObjects) method.
Another refactoring would be to extract the serialization logic of the data class. Currently it is confusing to save and load the data, because I presume you want to save/fill the caller object:
save: object.save(object); - you can use the this keyword in the save method
load: object = object.load(); - same here, there is no need to return the value, use the this keyword to fill the existing properties
The changed code:
public class AutofillValues
{
private string fileName = #"d:\settings.db";
public object[] Vendors { get; set; }
public object[] Products { get; set; }
public object[] Companies { get; set; }
public void save()
{
XmlSerializer x = new XmlSerializer(typeof(AutofillValues));
// with using there is no need to close the writer explicitely
// second parameter - file is created if it does not exist
using (var writer = new StreamWriter(fileName, false))
{
x.Serialize(writer, this);
}
}
public void load()
{
XmlSerializer x = new XmlSerializer(typeof(AutofillValues));
AutofillValues av = (AutofillValues)x.Deserialize(new StreamReader(fileName));
this.Companies = av.Companies;
this.Vendors = av.Vendors;
this.Products = av.Products;
}
}
IMO the modified code is easier to read and understand:
var afv = new AutofillValues();
afv.load();
//use avf.Products
// or afv.save();
I would also suggest to extract the data that needs to be saved in an extra class, for example:
[Serializable]
public class AutofillValuesData
{
public Object[] Vendors { get; set; }
public Object[] Products { get; set; }
public Object[] Companies { get; set; }
}
In the class AutofillValues remove the three properties and leave just one:
public AutofillValuesData Data { get; set; }
Then the logic can be modified to fill the ComboBox controls from the filled data object. This way your data will not be hardwired to the UI and this would make the code more maintainable. You can use a helper like AutoMapper to remove the repetitive code (like mappig objA.Vendors to objB.Vendors).

There is an error in XML document (2, 2).What does this mean?

I am trying to read XML document.
My XML:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<SplashScreen xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
<Path>SplashScreen/Image-King</Path>
</SplashScreen>
My code which is reading XML:
XmlGameScreen = new XmlManager<GameScreen>();
XmlGameScreen.Type = currentscreen.Type;
currentscreen = XmlGameScreen.Load("LoadXML/SplashScreen.xml");
And
public Type Type;
public T Load(string path)
{
T instance;
using (TextReader textreader = new StreamReader(path))
{
XmlSerializer xml = new XmlSerializer(Type);
instance = (T)xml.Deserialize(textreader);
}
return instance;
}
I am getting error on instance = (T)xml.Deserialize(textreader); Is my XML document wrong? I am trying to read <Path>.
Update :
My Internal Exception:
Cannot serialize member 'MyRPGgame.SplashScreen._image' of type 'Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Graphics.Texture2D'
In my case it appears one of the Visual Studio 2017 version 15.5 updates caused this error when trying to open SSRS projects. The solution is to delete the *.rptproj.rsuser file from the project folder and try again.
My experience from it would be that in the 2nd line in the 2nd chararacter, there is an error.
have a look if your class names are different from the XML tags. are you maybe changing the "XML Root name" to a different one.
Have a look at the XML structure and which class are you serializing to which node.
Also, read the
MSDN Documentation about the XmlRootAttribute Class.
That usually means you have whitespace at the start of the file; check for a line-break before the <?xml.... Even better: please show the first few bytes (preferably as far as <SplashScreen) of the file as viewed in a binary editor.
It could also mean you have an invisible unicode or control character somewhere before the <SplashScreen
Just wanted to share what worked for me. I had a similar error
System.InvalidOperationException: There is an error in XML document (1, 40).
---> System.InvalidOperationException: <tsResponse xmlns='http://xxxyyyzzzz.com/api'> was not expected.
I was trying to deserialize a string to an object of type tsResponse.
After adding the following attribute [Serializable, XmlRoot(ElementName = "tsResponse", Namespace = "http://xxxyyyzzzz.com/api")] to the class tsResponse i was able to resolve my issue.
[Serializable, XmlRoot(ElementName = "tsResponse", Namespace = "http://xxxyyyzzzz.com/api")]
public class tsResponse
{
[XmlElement]
public CredentialsXml credentials { get; set; }
}
I.e had to add Namespace attribute (System.Xml.Serialization).
Try this: When you are deserializing XML to List just add an extra
line to the start i.e ArrayOfAddressDirectory as follows and don't put any space at start and end of file.
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<ArrayOfAddressDirectory xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
<AddressDirectory>
<Owner>MS. Dhoni</Owner>
<Age>48</Age>
<Company>India</Company>
</AddressDirectory>
</ArrayOfAddressDirectory>
Here is the C# code:
namespace XmlReadProgram
{
public class AddressDirectory
{
public string Owner { get; set; }
public string Age { get; set; }
public string Company { get; set; }
}
public class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
List<AddressDirectory> adlist = new List<AddressDirectory>();
using (FileStream fileStream = File.OpenRead(#"E:\inputDirectory\address.xml"))
{
XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(List<AddressDirectory>));
adlist = (List<AddressDirectory>)serializer.Deserialize(fileStream);
}
//You can use foreach to print all data
Console.WriteLine(adlist[0].Owner);
Console.WriteLine(adlist[0].Age);
Console.WriteLine(adlist[0].Company);
}
}
}
In my case, a property with [XmlArrayAttribute] had the getter accessing a field with [XmlIgnoreAttribute] that was left uninitialized.
The problem in your case it's definitely the confusion between Type and template T. You are trying to construct Serializer with Type --> new XmlSerializer(Type) and then deserialize with template T ----> (T)xml.Deserialize. So the solution is to replace Type in constructing with typeof(T), and this should eliminate the initial XML document problem of (2, 2).

Problem with C# XmlSerialization

I have xml file:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LabelTypesCollection xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance="xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
<LabelTypes>
<LabelType>
<Name>LabelTypeProduct</Name>
</LabelType>
<LabelType>
<Name>LabelTypeClient</Name>
</LabelType>
</LabelTypes>
</LabelTypesCollection>
And 2 c# classes:
[Serializable]
[XmlRoot("LabelTypesCollection")]
public class LabelTypesCollection
{
private static string _labelTypesCollectionPath = Path.Combine(Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.ApplicationData), Path.Combine(Program.ProgramName, "LabelTypesCollection.xml"));
[XmlArray("LabelTypes", ElementName="LabelType")]
public List<LabelType> LabelTypes { get; set; }
public static LabelTypesCollection LoadAllLabelTypes()
{
FileInfo fi = new FileInfo(_labelTypesCollectionPath);
if (!fi.Exists)
{
Logger.WriteLog("Could not find size_types_collection.xml file.", new Exception("Could not find size_types_collection.xml file."));
return new LabelTypesCollection();
}
try
{
using (FileStream fs = fi.OpenRead())
{
XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(LabelTypesCollection));
LabelTypesCollection labelTypesCollection = (LabelTypesCollection)serializer.Deserialize(fs);
return labelTypesCollection;
}
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
Logger.WriteLog("Error during loading LabelTypesCollection", ex);
return null;
}
}
}
[Serializable]
public class LabelType
{
[XmlElement("Name")]
public string Name { get; set; }
[XmlIgnore]
public string TranslatedName
{
get
{
string translated = Common.Resources.GetValue(Name);
return (translated == null) ? Name : translated;
}
}
}
And when I call:
LabelTypesCollection.LoadAllLabelTypes();
I get LabelTypeCollection object with empty LabelTypes list. There is no error or anything. Could anyone point me to the problem?
Change this
[XmlArray("LabelTypes", ElementName="LabelType")]
to this
[XmlArray]
The ElementName of an XmlArrayAttribute specifies the element name of the container, and is actually what you specify in the first parameter to the ctor! So the ctor you have says "this class serializes as a container named LabelTypes; no wait actually I want the container to be named LabelType". The named parameter is overwriting what the first unnamed parameter says.
And in fact, since you want the container element to be named LabelTypes, which is what the member is actually called, you don't need to specify it at all.
You may have been thinking of XmlArrayItemAttribute, which controls what the individual members of a serialized collection are named - but you don't need that here either.
My usual approach for working out xml serializer stuff is to build objects manually then look at the xml they serialize to. In this case, using the code you currently have produces xml like this:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?>
<LabelTypesCollection xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
<LabelType>
<LabelType>
<Name>one</Name>
</LabelType>
<LabelType>
<Name>two</Name>
</LabelType>
</LabelType>
</LabelTypesCollection>
which is what tipped me off to the incorrect LabelType specifier.
Note that you also don't need the XmlRoot on LabelTypesCollection, or the XmlElement on Name, since you are just specifying what the xml serializer will come up with anyway.
Here's a suggestion.
Write a small test program that creates an instance of LabelTypesCollection, and adds some LabelType objects into it.
Then use an XmlSerializer to write the object to a file, and look at the Xml you get, to ensure that your input Xml is in the correct schema.
Maybe there's something wrong with one of your Xml elements.
I really think you get an empty list because your code can't find the xml file. Also try instantiating your list. If you have the xml path correctly.
public List<LabelType> LabelTypes = new List<LabelType>();

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