Deserializing nested XML into classes

Question

I have the following XML:

<Root>
   <EventSet>
      <Event>
         <id>12345</id>
         <rant>
            <localTime>
               <dst>true</dst>
               <time>7/2/2012 14:30</time>
            </localtime>
            <randomRant>
               <random>to illustrate point</random>
               <rant>help me!</rant>
            </randomRant>
         </rant>
      </Event>
      <Event>/*another event*/</Event>
      <Event>/*another event*/</Event> //etc
   </EventSet>
</Root>

I want to map this to:

[Serializable] 
public class Events  
{      
     public List<Event> events { get; set; } 
}  

[Serializable] 
public class Event 
{      
    public int id { get; set; }      
    public Rant rant { get; set; } //this is where I get confused
}

QUESTION: How do I serialize the tags within <rant>? Do I continue to make serialized classes of the parent until the child tags have no children? For example, below:

[Serializable] 
public class Rant
{      
    public LocalTime localTime { get; set; }      
    public RandomRant randomRant { get; set; }
}

[Serializable] 
public class LocalTime
{      
    public bool dst { get; set; }
    public DateTime time { get; set; }
}

[Serializable] 
public class RandomRant
{      
    public string random { get; set; }
    public string rant { get; set; }
}

Or is there a better approach?

EDIT: A given event has one and only one id, and one and only one rant. For the sake of my question, assume my types are valid. I am looking to deserialize nested XML into an object.

I am not sure what your question is. Are you trying to store a single DateTime in two formats, local and UTC? Or do the two DateTimes represent different values (not just TimeZone difference)? Erick — Erick T
– Erick T, Commented Jul 2, 2012 at 19:51
I changed my XML. Nothing to do with DateTime formats. I want to know how to deserialize into an object from XML with nested tags. — user5398447
– user5398447, Commented Jul 2, 2012 at 19:55

Tisho · Accepted Answer · 2012-07-02 20:06:51Z

3

The example you gave seems fine to me. As for the time values, the date format in your example is not compatible with xsd:dateTime, so you can't just do

public DateTime time { get; set; }

This will not be serialized. Although you can hack this using a custom XmlSerializer, a more simple approach is to use:

[XmlIgnore]
public DateTime _time {
    get { return DateTime.ParseExact(this.time, "MM/dd/YYYY HH:mm", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);} // or use some specific culture here.
}

[XmlElement]
public string time { get; set; }

UPDATE: public List<Event> events will be de/serialized as:

<events>
    <Event></Event>
    <Event></Event>
    <Event></Event>
</events>

You can make it as:

[XmlElement("Event")]
public List<Event> events {get; set}

and it will be serialized as

    <Event></Event>
    <Event></Event>
    <Event></Event>

without wrapper.

Or, using:

[XmlArray("EventSet")]
[XmlArrayItem("Event")]
public List<Event> events {get; set}

will be serialized as described in the example

<EventSet>
    <Event></Event>
    <Event></Event>
</EventSet>

And of course the root element:

[XmlRoot("Root")]
public class RootElement{
    [XmlArray("EventSet")]
    [XmlArrayItem("Event")]
    public List<Event> events {get; set}
}

edited Jul 2, 2012 at 20:06

answered Jul 2, 2012 at 19:54

Tisho

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2 Comments

user5398447 Over a year ago

I am using a proprietary time format and generalized it for my question. I am looking to deserialize into an object from XML with nested tags. Let's assume everything is valid for the sake of my question.

Tisho Over a year ago

Okay, I've just updated the answer with some examples on how to de/serialize the array elements. Except the arrays - your code seems fine to deserialize this xml.

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