Serializing a C# object with additional and different element tags

Question

I am creating an API wrapper which gets an API response and converts it to POCO objects. Right now I have a test that follows this sequence of actions:

Create object with XML element names and values.
Serialize this object to XML format.
Convert the XML tree back to an actual object trough my converter.
Assert if the values inside my new object are as expected.

I have the following helper class which represents a show object:

class TestShow {
 public string id { get; set; }
 public string IMDB_ID { get; set; }
 public string Language { get; set; }
}

The serializer:

var serializer = new XmlSerializer(show.GetType());
string xml;

using (var writer = new StringWriter()) {
   serializer.Serialize(writer, show);
   xml = writer.ToString();
}

However, when I serialize this to XML I get this result:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?>
<TestShow xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
  <id>76290</id>
  <IMDB_ID>tt0285331</IMDB_ID>
  <Language>en</Language>
</TestShow>

The desired result is this:

<Data>
 <Series>
  <id>76290</id>
  <IMDB_ID>tt0285331</IMDB_ID>
  <Language>en</Language>
 </Series>
</Data>

This shows two issues:

The name of TestShow should be changed to Series. Is there an easy way to do this, or should I just change my class name?
There is an upper collection called Data. How would I add this?

@SamLeach: I've added the serializer. It's the standard XmlSerializer. — Jeroen Vannevel
– Jeroen Vannevel, Commented Sep 14, 2013 at 12:54

Sam Leach · Accepted Answer · 2013-09-15 18:02:11Z

3

Add Xml attributes to the POCO:

class TestShow 
{
    public string id { get; set; }
    public string IMDB_ID { get; set; }
    public string Language { get; set; }
}

[XmlRoot("Data")]
class Data 
{
    [XmlElement("Series")]
    public TestShow TestShow { get; set; }
}

edited Sep 15, 2013 at 18:02

answered Sep 14, 2013 at 12:57

Sam Leach

13k10 gold badges49 silver badges73 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

2 Comments

Jeroen Vannevel Over a year ago

The XmlElement tag throws an error:

Attribute 'XmlElement' is not valid on this declaration type. It is only valid on 'property, indexer, field, param, return' declarations.

Are you sure it can be placed as a class tag?

Chris Sinclair Over a year ago

@JeroenVannevel: No, it should be moved to adorn the public TestShow TestShow { get; set; } line.

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Serializing a C# object with additional and different element tags

1 Answer 1

2 Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

1 Answer 1

2 Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related