Change REST Method Response XML Node name in MVC 4 - c#

We are building a REST Service using MVC4 and added method like:
public IEnumerable<Contact> GetAllContacts()
{
return repository.GetAll();
}
The response of this method in XML generated as:
<ArrayOfContact xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
<Contact>
<Id>1</Id>
<Name>Alice</Name>
<Email>alice#example.com</Email>
</Contact>
<Contact>
<Id>2</Id>
<Name>Bob</Name>
<Email>bob#example.com</Email>
</Contact>
<Contact>
<Id>3</Id>
<Name>Charles</Name>
<Email>charles#example.com</Email>
</Contact>
</ArrayOfContact>
I would like to change the tag <ArrayOfContact> to <Contacts>.
I know if it would be a property of a class then we could add attributes to the property to change it.
But is it possible to change the Root Node of Response?

It's easy to fix it with the creation of a classe Contacts.
[DataContract(Namespace = "a namespace",Name="Contacts")]
public class Contacts
{
private List<Contact> contacts= null;
[DataMember]
public List<Contact> Contacts
{
get
{
if (contacts == null)
{
contacts = new List<Contact>();
}
return contacts;
}
set
{
contacts= value;
}
}
}
And then you will get an XML with the wanted header.

Related

Deserialize XML into simple single array

I need to deserialize XML into one simple array of objects, but can't quite figure out how to do it. Here is my simplified XML:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="Windows-1250"?>
<document>
<datasets>
<dataset0>
<rows>
<row>
<fields>
<id>1</id>
<name>Cat1</name>
</fields>
</row>
<row>
<fields>
<id>2</id>
<name>Cat2</name>
</fields>
</row>
</rows>
</dataset0>
</datasets>
</document>
I've created class for the object to deserialize into
public class Category
{
public int Id { get; set; }
public string Name { get; set; }
}
And the deserialization code
XmlSerializer xmlSerializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(Category[]), new XmlRootAttribute("rows"));
using (FileStream myFileStream = categoryFile.OpenRead())
{
var categoryArray = (Category[])xmlSerializer.Deserialize(myFileStream);
}
This obviously doesn't work, I've tried various XmlElement and XmlRoot tags, but I don't quite know what I'm doing so I stripped all that out to avoid public embarrassment. Thanks for any input.
It seems that, the object which you want to deserialize doesn't have exact compatibility with your xml file. So, in this case it could be more flexible to use Linq to xml solution.
var xDocument = XDocument.Parse(xml);
var categoryList = xDocument.Descendants("fields").Select(x => new Category
{
Name = x.Element("name").Value,
Id = int.Parse(x.Element("id").Value)
});

c# XmlSerializer List of typed objects

I have the problem that I got xml from a REST service and have to deserialize it to an object structure and there is a type="proglang" in it.
<listResult>
<listEntry xsi:type="proglang">
<id>0</id>
<name>C#</name>
</listEntry>
<listEntry xsi:type="proglang">
<id>0</id>
<name>C#</name>
</listEntry>
</listResult>
How should the object model with the xml attributes look like in c#?
My Code so far:
[XmlRoot("listResult")]
public class ListResult
{
[XmlElement("listEntry")]
//[XmlArrayItem(Type=typeof(proglang))]
public List<proglang> listEntry;
}
public class proglang
{
[XmlElement("code")]
public int id;
[XmlElement("label")]
public string name;
}
and the resulting XML from serializing:
<listResult xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
<listEntry>
<code>1</code>
<label>C#</label>
</listEntry>
<listEntry>
<code>1</code>
<label>C++</label>
</listEntry>
</listResult>

serializing a List<knowntype> to a specific xml format

I have this list property in a class and I need to decorate it with the correct xml attributes to get it in the form:
<Attachments>
<Documents>
<Document>
the DocumentType nodes...
</Document>
<Document>
the DocumentType nodes...
</Document>
</Documents>
</Attachments>
when I serialize the object. Here is the declaration of the list property within the class:
[XmlArrayItem("Documents", IsNullable = false)]
[XmlArrayItem("Document", IsNullable = false, NestingLevel = 1)]
public List<DocumentType> Attachments
{
get
{
return this._attachments;
}
set
{
this._attachments = value;
}
}
Currently what I get is this:
<Attachments>
<Documents>
the DocumentType nodes...
</Documents>
<Documents>
the DocumentType nodes...
</Documents>
</Attachments>
Its clear to me that the "Documents" node I want should be declared something other than an XmlArrayItemAttribute. The name of the list can not change. Help me Obi Wan Kenobi, you're my only hope.
You did not specify how the 'DocumentType' looks like but can define it as follow:
public class DocumentType
{
[XmlElement("Document")]
public string Name {get; set;}
}
public class Test
{
private List<DocumentType> _attachments = new List<DocumentType>();
[XmlArrayItem("Documents", IsNullable = false)]
public List<DocumentType> Attachments
{
get
{
return this._attachments;
}
set
{
this._attachments = value;
}
}
}
The Xml after serialization:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<Test xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
<Attachments>
<Documents>
<Document>A Node</Document>
<Document>B Node</Document>
</Documents>
</Attachments>
</Test

How can I use a class as a data model in querying XDocument?

I have an Xml document:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Family xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
<Person member="father" id="0">
<Surname>Smith</Surname>
<Forename>Robert</Forename>
<Person member="son" id="1">
<Surname>Smith</Surname>
<Forename>Sam</Forename>
<Person member="son" id="2">
<Surname>Smith</Surname>
<Forename>Jeff</Forename>
</Person>
</Person>
<Person member="daughter" id="3">
<Surname>Smith</Surname>
<Forename>Sarah</Forename>
</Person>
</Person>
</Family>
...and a few supporting classes as follows:
[XmlRoot]
public class Family {
[XmlElement]
public List<Person> Person;
}
public class Person {
[XmlAttribute("member")]
public MemberType Member { get; set; }
[XmlAttribute("id")]
public int Id { get; set; }
[XmlElement]
public string Surname { get; set; }
[XmlElement]
public string Forename { get; set; }
[XmlElement("Person")]
public List<Person> People;
}
public enum MemberType {
Father,
Mother,
Son,
Daughter
}
Now, say Family has a method defined as such:
public IEnumerable<Person> Find (Func<Person, bool> predicate) {
// also, I know that this SelectMany will not work - assume this foreach works
// on a flattened list of people
foreach (var p in family.Person.SelectMany()) {
if(predicate(p)) {
yield return p;
}
}
}
...but I don't want to deserialize the Xml to the Family and Person classes. I would like to simply load the XDocument and query that directly - but working with XElement, XAttribute, and XName is not that friendly when providing an API. I realize that I need the classes - Family & Person - but they are simply models.
Can I have a Find method where I can pass something like:
IEnumerable<Person> people = someBusinessObj.Find(p => p.Forename == "Jeff");
Update
I would prefer a solution that does not involve an open-source project (as #MartinHonnen refers).
Why do you not want to deserialize the XML into objects? This will give you exactly the programmatic interface you require. I would:
Deserialize using the XmlSerializer class.
Allow you users to query via Linq-to-Objects.
All this requires very little effort to implement!

How can I Serialize Properly

If I have a class MovieClass as
[XmlRoot("MovieClass")]
public class Movie
{
[XmlElement("Novie")]
public string Title;
[XmlElement("Rating")]
public int rating;
}
How can I've an attribute "x:uid" in my "Movie" element, so that the output when XmlSerializer XmlSerializer s = new XmlSerializer(typeof(MovieClass)) was used
is like this:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?>
<MovieClass>
<Movie x:uid="123">Armagedon</Movie>
</MovieClass>
and not like this
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?>
<MovieClass xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
<Movie x:uid="123" Title="Armagedon"/>
</MovieClass>
Note: I want the xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" removed, if possible.
I answered this in your original post, but I think this one is worded better so I will post it here as well, if it gets closed as duplicate you can modify your original post to mirror this question.
I don't think this is possible without having Title be a custom type or explicitly implementing serialization methods.
You could do a custom class like so..
class MovieTitle
{
[XmlText]
public string Title { get; set; }
[XmlAttribute(Namespace="http://www.myxmlnamespace.com")]
public string uid { get; set; }
public override ToString() { return Title; }
}
[XmlRoot("MovieClass")]
public class Movie
{
[XmlElement("Movie")]
public MovieTitle Title;
}
which will produce:
<MovieClass xmlns:x="http://www.myxmlnamespace.com">
<Movie x:uid="movie_001">Armagedon</Movie>
</MovieClass>
Although the serializer will compensate for unknown namespaces with a result you probably won't expect.
You can avoid the wierd behavior by declaring your namespaces and providing the object to the serializer..
XmlSerializerNamespaces ns = new XmlSerializerNamespaces();
ns.Add("x", "http://www.myxmlnamespace.com");
It's not valid XML if you don't have x declared as a namespace prefix. Quintin's response tells you how to get valid XML.

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