Develop Reference

My nested Class collection XMLRoot name is not being used when serializing to xml

I have a Model populated and I wish to serlise to an xml document.
Due to naming conventions I have to over ride the class names for my XML document,
This is my Model(s):
[Serializable]
[XmlRoot("preferences")]
public class PreferencesModel
{
[XmlIgnore]
public string MessageToUser { get; set; }
[XmlElement(ElementName = "sectiondivider")]
public List<SectionDivider> SectionDivider { get; set; }
}
[Serializable]
[XmlRoot(ElementName = "sectiondivider")]
public class SectionDivider
{
[XmlAttribute("name")]
public string Name { get; set; }
[XmlElement("preference")]
public List<PreferenceModel> PreferenceModel { get; set; }
}
[Serializable]
[XmlRoot("preference")]
public class PreferenceModel
{
[XmlAttribute("type")]
public string Type { get; set; }
public string Name { get; set; }
[XmlAttribute("value")]
public string Value { get; set; }
[XmlElement("options")]
public List<Option> Options { get; set; }
}
this is how I serialize:
XmlDocument xDoc = new XmlDocument();
xDoc.LoadXml(ObjectToXmlString(obj, includeNameSpace, includeStartDocument, rootAttribute));
return xDoc;
public static string ObjectToXmlString(Object obj, bool includeNameSpace, bool includeStartDocument, XmlRootAttribute rootAttribute)
{
SpecialXmlWriter stWriter = null;
XmlSerializer xmlSerializer = default(XmlSerializer);
string buffer = null;
try
{
if (rootAttribute == null)
{
xmlSerializer = new XmlSerializer(obj.GetType());
}
else
{
xmlSerializer = new XmlSerializer(obj.GetType(), rootAttribute);
}
MemoryStream memStream = new MemoryStream();
StringWriter writer = new StringWriter();
stWriter = new SpecialXmlWriter(memStream, new UTF8Encoding(false), includeStartDocument);
if (!includeNameSpace)
{
System.Xml.Serialization.XmlSerializerNamespaces xs = new XmlSerializerNamespaces();
//To remove namespace and any other inline
//information tag
xs.Add("", "");
xmlSerializer.Serialize(stWriter, obj, xs);
}
else
{
xmlSerializer.Serialize(stWriter, obj);
}
buffer = Encoding.UTF8.GetString(memStream.ToArray());
}
catch (Exception e)
{
string msg = e.Message;
throw;
}
finally
{
if (stWriter != null)
stWriter.Close();
}
return buffer;
}
I call it like this:
XmlDocument preferencesxml = Codec.ObjectToXml(m.SectionDivider,false,
false, new XmlRootAttribute("preferences"));
My m value is:
and my resulting XML is this:

XmlRootAttribute, as the name suggests, only applies to the root element of the XML being serialised.
You need to use XmlTypeAttribute in this context:
[XmlType("sectiondivider")]`
public class SectionDivider
{
//...
}
As an aside, the [Serializable] attribute is not relevant to XmlSerializer - it can be removed unless you need it for some other purpose.

How to get value inside XML tag?

I have the follow XML structure:
<Document>
<Sectors>
<Sector>
SectorName1
<Subsectors>
<Subsector>Subsector1</Subsector>
<Subsector>Subsector2</Subsector>
</Subsectors>
</Sector>
<Sector>
SectorName2
<Subsectors>
<Subsector>Subsector1</Subsector>
<Subsector>Subsector2</Subsector>
</Subsectors>
</Sector>
</Sectors>
</Document>
Also I have classes for deserialize:
public class MetaDataXML
{
public class SectorXML
{
[XmlArrayItem(ElementName = "Sector")]
string SectorName { get; set; }
[XmlArray]
[XmlArrayItem(ElementName = "Subsector")]
public List<string> Subsectors { get; set; }
}
public List<SectorXML> Sectors { get; set; }
}
And part of code which do deserialize:
var xRoot = new XmlRootAttribute { ElementName = "Document", IsNullable = true };
var reader = new XmlSerializer(typeof(MetaDataXML), xRoot);
var data = (MetaDataXML)reader.Deserialize(streamXML);
After deserialization I successfully get subsectors velues, but I didn't get values for SectorName. How I need to organize my structure of class that I'll get values "SectorName1" and "SectorName2" for my string SectorName property?
I found that that this case it's a "Mixed Content". How we can parse this text values?

Whilst I am not entirely sure what it is you're trying to achieve here, I've made a few modifications to your XML class and provided some sample code below that is able to retrieve all of the information about a sector, including its name and the name of all the subsectors inside it.
XML Class:
namespace DocumentXml
{
[XmlRoot("Document")]
public class Document
{
[XmlArray("Sectors")]
[XmlArrayItem("Sector")]
public Sector[] Sectors { get; set; }
}
[XmlRoot("Sector")]
public class Sector
{
[XmlAttribute("SectorName")]
public string SectorName { get; set; }
[XmlArray("Subsectors")]
[XmlArrayItem("Subsector")]
public string[] Subsectors { get; set; }
}
}
Main Program Class:
namespace DocumentXml
{
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
var path = #"D:\sandbox\DocumentXml\DocumentXml\Sample.xml";
var serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(Document));
var document = serializer.Deserialize(File.OpenRead(path)) as Document;
var sectors = document.Sectors;
foreach (var s in sectors)
{
Console.WriteLine($"Sector Name: {s.SectorName}");
foreach (var ss in s.Subsectors)
{
Console.WriteLine($"Subsector Name: {ss}");
}
Console.WriteLine();
}
Console.ReadKey();
}
}
}
Sample XML:
<Document>
<Sectors>
<Sector SectorName="SectorName1">
<Subsectors>
<Subsector>Subsector1</Subsector>
<Subsector>Subsector2</Subsector>
</Subsectors>
</Sector>
<Sector SectorName="SectorName2">
<Subsectors>
<Subsector>Subsector1</Subsector>
<Subsector>Subsector2</Subsector>
</Subsectors>
</Sector>
</Sectors>
</Document>
Output:
EDIT
Since the XML structure cannot be changed, this new class will preserve the structure and also allow you to get the value in question. XmlText returns everything inside the value so a custom set had to be used to ensure that the whitespace was correctly trimmed from it.
[XmlRoot("Document")]
public class MetaDataXml
{
[XmlArray("Sectors")]
[XmlArrayItem("Sector")]
public Sector[] Sectors { get; set; }
}
[XmlRoot("Sector")]
public class Sector
{
[XmlIgnore]
private string _sectorName;
[XmlText]
public string SectorName
{
get
{
return _sectorName;
}
set
{
_sectorName = value.Trim();
}
}
[XmlArray]
[XmlArrayItem(ElementName = "Subsector")]
public List<string> Subsectors { get; set; }
}
Sample Program:
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
var path = #"D:\sandbox\DocumentXml\DocumentXml\Sample.xml";
using (var stream = File.OpenRead(path))
{
var deserializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(MetaDataXml));
var data = (MetaDataXml)deserializer.Deserialize(stream);
foreach (var s in data.Sectors)
{
Console.WriteLine($"Sector Name: {s.SectorName}");
foreach (var ss in s.Subsectors)
{
Console.WriteLine($"Subsector Name: {ss}");
}
Console.WriteLine();
}
}
Console.ReadKey();
}
}

Deserialize rooted XML elements into an array

I need to save multiple fields from an XML into different arrays.
This is what my XML looks like:
<Content>
<Colours>
<Colour name="Strong Red">
<R>255</R>
<G>0</G>
<B>0</B>
<A>255</A>
</Colour>
</Colours>
<Textures>
<Texture name="Character01">
<Path>Path/Folder</Path>
</Texture>
</Textures>
</Content>
Now everything was working fine when <Colours> was my root and i only added colours into one Array.
Now i want to add Textures and later more through the same XML file, thus moving the root one up to <Content>.
This is what my ColourLoader Class looked like with only Colours and <Colour> being the root of my XML:
[Serializable()]
[XmlRoot("Colours")]
public class ColourLoader
{
[XmlElement("Colour")]
public CustomColour[] Colours;
public static ColourLoader Load(string path)
{
var serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(ColourLoader));
using (var stream = new FileStream(path, FileMode.Open))
{
return serializer.Deserialize(stream) as ColourLoader;
}
}
}
My CustomColour class works fine, it uses [XmlElement("R")] etc. to read the values from the XML. It's just that i don't know how to read elements from a nested XML.
I somehow have to skip <Content> and add Colours from <Colours> as root and do the same for <Textures> etc.
I don't want to create multiple XML files as i would like to keep all content managing into one spot and only load an XML file once.

I think this is what you're after. I've also included a method that serializes the object. I find this very helpful in diagnosing idiosyncratic issues with XML Serialization...
Please vote as answer if this solved your issue.
[Serializable()]
[XmlRoot("Content")]
public class Content
{
[XmlArray("Colours")]
[XmlArrayItem("Colour")]
public CustomColour[] Colours { get; set; }
[XmlArray("Textures")]
[XmlArrayItem("Texture")]
public CustomTexture[] Textures { get; set; }
}
[Serializable()]
[XmlRoot("Colour")]
public class CustomColour
{
[XmlAttribute("name")]
public string Name { get; set; }
[XmlElement("R")]
public int R { get; set; }
[XmlElement("G")]
public int G { get; set; }
[XmlElement("B")]
public int B { get; set; }
[XmlElement("A")]
public int A { get; set; }
}
[Serializable()]
[XmlRoot("Texture")]
public class CustomTexture
{
[XmlAttribute("name")]
public string Name { get; set; }
[XmlElement("Path")]
public string Path { get; set; }
}
public static class ContentLoader
{
public static Content Load(TextReader textReader)
{
var serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(Content));
var ret = serializer.Deserialize(textReader) as Content;
return ret;
}
public static void Save(TextWriter textWriter, Content content)
{
var serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(Content));
serializer.Serialize(textWriter, content);
}
}
public static void XmlSerializing()
{
var xml = #"<?xml version=""1.0"" encoding=""utf-16""?>
<Content xmlns:xsi=""http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"" xmlns:xsd=""http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"">
<Colours>
<Colour name=""Strong Red"">
<R>255</R>
<G>0</G>
<B>0</B>
<A>255</A>
</Colour>
</Colours>
<Textures>
<Texture name=""Character01"">
<Path>Path/Folder</Path>
</Texture>
</Textures>
</Content>";
var reader = new StringReader(xml);
var content = ContentLoader.Load(reader);
Console.WriteLine("Deserialized version:");
Console.WriteLine(" Colours");
foreach (var colour in content.Colours)
{
Console.WriteLine(" R: {0}, G: {1}, B: {2}, A: {3}", colour.R, colour.G, colour.B, colour.A);
}
Console.WriteLine(" Textures");
foreach (var texture in content.Textures)
{
Console.WriteLine(" Path: {0}", texture.Path);
}
var contentObj = new Content()
{
Colours = new[] { new CustomColour() { Name = "StrongRed", R = 255, G = 0, B = 0, A = 255 } },
Textures = new[] { new CustomTexture() { Name = "Character01", Path = "Path/Folder" } }
};
Console.WriteLine(string.Empty);
Console.WriteLine("Serialized version:");
var writer = new StringWriter();
ContentLoader.Save(writer, contentObj);
Console.WriteLine(writer);
}

XML Deserialization Rules

I need to deserialize xml file and its structured this way:
<NPCs>
<LabAssistant1>
<Questions>
<Question>
<Type>CheckBox</Type>
<Points>10</Points>
<Text>Q1</Text>
<Answers>
<Answer>
<Correct>False</Correct>
<Text>A1</Text>
</Answer>
<Answer>
<Correct>True</Correct>
<Text>A2</Text>
</Answer>
<Answer>
<Correct>False</Correct>
<Text>A3</Text>
</Answer>
</Answers>
</Question>
</Questions>
</LabAssistant1>
<LabAssistant2>
<Questions>
...
</Questions>
</LabAssistant2>
</NPCs>
So as you can see am having root node NPCs and my goal is to read questions separately by LabAssistant1 name or any tag name in NPCs.
String questionsPath = path+"/questions.xml";
XmlReader reader=XmlReader.Create(new StreamReader(questionsPath));
XmlRootAttribute xmlRoot = new XmlRootAttribute();
xmlRoot.ElementName = npc;
reader.ReadToDescendant(npc);
XmlSerializer se = new XmlSerializer(typeof(Question[]),xmlRoot);
Question[] qs=se.Deserialize(reader) as Question[];
Console.WriteLine(qs.Length.ToString()); // Always 0
Above code should output 2 objects of Question as array, but it doesn't
Here are the classes Question and Answer, anything is wrong with my attached attributes?
public class Question
{
[XmlElement(ElementName="Text")]
public String Text { get; set; }
[XmlArray(ElementName = "Answers")]
public Answer[] Answers { get; set; }
[XmlElement(ElementName = "Type")]
public QuestionType Type { get; set; }
[XmlElement(ElementName = "Points")]
public int Points { get; set; }
public Question()
{
}
public Question(String text, Answer[] answers, QuestionType type,int points)
{
this.Text = text;
this.Answers = answers;
this.Type = type;
this.Points = points;
}
}
public class Answer
{
[XmlElement(ElementName="Text")]
public String Text { get; set; }
[XmlElement(ElementName = "Correct")]
public bool Correct { get; set; }
public Answer()
{
}
public Answer(String text, bool correct)
{
this.Text = text;
this.Correct = correct;
}
}

You could use the UnknownElement event of XmlSerializer to load all the lab assistants into memory, like so:
public class LabAssistant
{
static XmlSerializer listSerializer;
static LabAssistant()
{
// This must be cached to prevent memory & resource leaks.
// See http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/System.Xml.Serialization.XmlSerializer%28v=vs.110%29.aspx
listSerializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(List<Question>), new XmlRootAttribute("Questions"));
}
public List<Question> Questions { get; set; }
public static bool TryDeserializeFromXml(XmlElement element, out string name, out LabAssistant assistant)
{
name = element.Name;
var child = element.ChildNodes.OfType<XmlElement>().Where(el => el.Name == "Questions").FirstOrDefault();
if (child != null)
{
var list = child.OuterXml.LoadFromXML<List<Question>>(listSerializer);
if (list != null)
{
assistant = new LabAssistant() { Questions = list };
return true;
}
}
assistant = null;
return false;
}
}
public class NPCs
{
public NPCs()
{
this.LabAssistants = new Dictionary<string, LabAssistant>();
}
public static XmlSerializer CreateXmlSerializer()
{
// No need to cache this.
var serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(NPCs));
serializer.UnknownElement += new XmlElementEventHandler(NPCs.XmlSerializer_LoadLabAssistants);
return serializer;
}
[XmlIgnore]
public Dictionary<string, LabAssistant> LabAssistants { get; set; }
public static void XmlSerializer_LoadLabAssistants(object sender, XmlElementEventArgs e)
{
var obj = e.ObjectBeingDeserialized;
var element = e.Element;
if (obj is NPCs)
{
var npcs = (NPCs)obj;
string name;
LabAssistant assistant;
if (LabAssistant.TryDeserializeFromXml(element, out name, out assistant))
npcs.LabAssistants[name] = assistant;
}
}
}
Using the following helper methods:
public static class XmlSerializationHelper
{
public static T LoadFromXML<T>(this string xmlString)
{
return xmlString.LoadFromXML<T>(new XmlSerializer(typeof(T)));
}
public static T LoadFromXML<T>(this string xmlString, XmlSerializer serial)
{
T returnValue = default(T);
using (StringReader reader = new StringReader(xmlString))
{
object result = serial.Deserialize(reader);
if (result is T)
{
returnValue = (T)result;
}
}
return returnValue;
}
}
Having done this, you now have a dictionary of lab assistants by name.
While this code will deserialize your data correctly, it won't reserialize it. Custom code to serialize the dictionary would be required.
One final note - XmlSerializer will choke on the XML you provided because it requires that Boolean values be in lowercase. Thus the following will throw an exception:
<Correct>False</Correct>
If you did not mistype the XML and it really contains Booleans in this format, you will need to manually handle these fields.

I needed to create QuestionCollection class to hold the array of questions (having typeof(Question[]) throws <TagName xmlns="> was not expected, probably because the deserializer is not smart enough).
What i do next is first reading to tag LabAssistant or any tag name, next reading to its child Questions tag and after that i deserialize the questions into QuestionCollection, so with ReadToDescendant I can access any child elements of the NPCs
String questionsPath = Application.dataPath + "/Resources/questions.xml";
XmlReader reader=XmlReader.Create(new StreamReader(questionsPath));
reader.ReadToDescendant("LabAssistant");
reader.ReadToDescendant("Questions");
XmlSerializer se = new XmlSerializer(typeof(QuestionCollection));
QuestionCollection qc=(QuestionCollection)se.Deserialize(reader);
QuestionCollection class:
[XmlType("Questions")]
public class QuestionCollection
{
[XmlElement("Question")]
public Question[] Questions { get; set; }
public QuestionCollection() { }
}
Question class
[XmlType("Question")]
public class Question
{
[XmlElement("Text")]
public String Text { get; set; }
[XmlArray("Answers")]
public Answer[] Answers { get; set; }
[XmlElement("Type")]
public QuestionType Type { get; set; }
[XmlElement("Points")]
public int Points { get; set; }
public Question() { }
}
Answer class:
[XmlType("Answer")]
public class Answer
{
[XmlElement("Text")]
public String Text { get; set; }
[XmlElement("Correct")]
public bool Correct { get; set; }
public Answer() { }
}

C# XML Deserialization of array

I have a problem about deserialize an array. Becouse array elements can be of various types. You can see the example:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><export xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns="http://zakupki.gov.ru/oos/export/1" xmlns:oos="http://zakupki.gov.ru/oos/types/1">
<notificationZK>
... item 1 data
</notificationZK>
<notificationZK>
... item 2 data
</notificationZK>
<notificationFF>
... item 3 data
</notificationFF>
</export>
All elements extends notificationType
[System.Xml.Serialization.XmlIncludeAttribute(typeof(notificationSZType))]
[System.Xml.Serialization.XmlIncludeAttribute(typeof(notificationPOType))]
[System.Xml.Serialization.XmlIncludeAttribute(typeof(notificationZKType))]
[System.Xml.Serialization.XmlIncludeAttribute(typeof(notificationEFType))]
[System.Xml.Serialization.XmlIncludeAttribute(typeof(notificationOKType))]
public partial class notificationType
{
...
So the question is how can I get the collection of notificationType elements from my XML file? I think I cant do something like
[Serializable()]
[System.Xml.Serialization.XmlRoot("export")]
public class NotificationCollection
{
[XmlArray("")] // ???? what I need write here?
[XmlArrayItem("", typeof(notificationType))] // ??? and here?
public notificationType[] notification { get; set; }
}
Regards!
ADDED-------------
So. I make this:
[Serializable()]
[System.Xml.Serialization.XmlRoot("export")]
public class NotificationCollection
{
[XmlElement("notificationSZType", Type = typeof(notificationSZType))]
[XmlElement("notificationPOType", Type = typeof(notificationPOType))]
[XmlElement("notificationZKType", Type = typeof(notificationZKType))]
[XmlElement("notificationEFType", Type = typeof(notificationEFType))]
[XmlElement("notificationOKType", Type = typeof(notificationOKType))]
public notificationType[] notification { get; set; }
}
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
NotificationCollection collection = null;
string path = #"E:\notification.xml";
XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(notificationType));
StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(path);
collection = (NotificationCollection) serializer.Deserialize(reader);
reader.Close();
}
}
but have System.InvalidOperationException was unhandled while serializer.Deserialize(reader);
Message=<export xmlns='http://zakupki.gov.ru/oos/export/1'> not expected.
What im doing wrong?

How about moving the type declarations into the collection?
[XmlRoot("export")]
public class NotificationCollection
{
[XmlElement("notificationZK", typeof(NotificationTypeZK))]
[XmlElement("notificationFF", typeof(NotificationTypeFF))]
public List<NotificationType> Notifications { get; set; }
}
public class NotificationType
{
}
public class NotificationTypeZK : NotificationType { }
public class NotificationTypeFF : NotificationType { }
static void Main(string[] args)
{
var data = #"<export><notificationZK /><notificationZK /><notificationFF /></export>";
var serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(NotificationCollection));
using (var reader = new StringReader(data))
{
var notifications = serializer.Deserialize(reader);
}
}

This should do the job
[Serializable()]
[System.Xml.Serialization.XmlRoot("export")]
public class NotificationCollection
{
[XmlElement("notificationSZType", Type = typeof(notificationSZType))]
[XmlElement("notificationPOType", Type = typeof(notificationPOType))]
[XmlElement("notificationZKType", Type = typeof(notificationZKType))]
[XmlElement("notificationEFType", Type = typeof(notificationEFType))]
[XmlElement("notificationOKType", Type = typeof(notificationOKType))]
public notificationType[] notification { get; set; }
}

This question is interesting for me as well. I wrote the simplified app to achieve what you ask for:
[Serializable]
[XmlInclude(typeof(ItemA))]
[XmlInclude(typeof(ItemB))]
public class BaseItem
{
public bool Value { get; set; }
}
[Serializable]
public class ItemA : BaseItem
{
public string Text { get; set; }
}
[Serializable]
public class ItemB : BaseItem
{
public int Number { get; set; }
}
[Serializable]
public class ItemsArray
{
public BaseItem[] Items { get; set; }
}
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
var array = new ItemsArray
{
Items = new BaseItem[]
{
new ItemA { Value = true, Text = "Test" },
new ItemB { Value = false, Number = 7 }
}
};
ItemsArray output;
using (var stream = new MemoryStream())
{
var serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(ItemsArray));
serializer.Serialize(stream, array);
stream.Position = 0;
output = (ItemsArray)serializer.Deserialize(stream);
}
}
}
After deserialization we get exactly what we serialized. The XML inside stream looks like:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<ItemsArray xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
<Items>
<BaseItem xsi:type="ItemA">
<Value>true</Value>
<Text>Test</Text>
</BaseItem>
<BaseItem xsi:type="ItemB">
<Value>false</Value>
<Number>7</Number>
</BaseItem>
</Items>
</ItemsArray>
As was mentioned in other answer, you can't use different tags inside XML array. However, it's still possible to store different types. Serializer does this by using xsi:type attribute.
In order to solve your problem you probably need to use a bit another scheme of XML.