Deserialize XML to C# object with arbitrary nested XML

Question

So I have searched all I can, but cannot find the exact problem I am encountering.

This is my nested XML:

<Message>
    <Foo>
        <Bar>1</Bar>
        <Baz>2</Baz>
        <Qux>3</Qux>
    </Foo>
</Message>

And I have a class in C#:

[Serializable()]
[XmlRoot("Message")]
public class Foo
{
    [XmlElement("Bar")]
    public string Bar { get; set; }
    [XmlElement("Baz")]
    public string Baz { get; set; }
    [XmlElement("Qux")]
    public string Qux { get; set; }
}

Now Message is just arbitrary and gets sent with every XML message. So every XML message sent will have a <Message> tag around it. When I put Foo as the XmlRoot it throws an error, and with Message as XmlRoot it doesn't recognize the child elements. I am looking for a clean and easy solution to this. Thanks!

Bizhan · Accepted Answer · 2018-12-17 16:46:24Z

1

I haven't tested this, but it should work.

[Serializable()]
[XmlRoot("Message")]
public class Message
{
    [XmlElement("Foo")]
    public Foo Foo { get; set; }
}

[Serializable()]
public class Foo
{
    [XmlElement("Bar")]
    public string Bar { get; set; }
    [XmlElement("Baz")]
    public string Baz { get; set; }
    [XmlElement("Qux")]
    public string Qux { get; set; }
}

answered Dec 17, 2018 at 16:46

Bizhan

17.2k11 gold badges67 silver badges108 bronze badges

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

3 Comments

j5juice Over a year ago

I have thought of this, and it would work except I would have to have an extra class for every class I want to Deserialize because message is used for every single XML message (and there are quite a few different ones). Or I would have to add every single class into the Message class as an XML element. Was hoping for a cleaner way, but this might be the only option. I will test it out. Thank you!

Bizhan Over a year ago

@j5juice This is the right (or clean) way to convert xml data into objects. There are no built-in way to avoid extra classes that I've heard of, However you can implement your own parser based on your specific schema.

j5juice Over a year ago

Thank you. I will probably proceed this way. I am working through an issue when I deserialize that my Foo ends up empty, but I will accept this as the correct answer.

user3210023 · Accepted Answer · 2018-12-17 16:48:38Z

Use to get correct model here link

After that you can these methods to serialize and deserialize:

    public static class XMLFactory
{
    public static T XmlDeserializeFromString<T>(this string objectData)
    {
        return (T)XmlDeserializeFromString(objectData, typeof(T));
    }
    public static object XmlDeserializeFromString(this string objectData, Type type)
    {
        try
        {
            var serializer = new XmlSerializer(type);
            object result;

            using (TextReader reader = new StringReader(objectData))
            {
                result = serializer.Deserialize(reader);
            }

            return result;
        }
        catch (Exception ex)
        {
            LoggerHelper.LogError(ex.ToString());
            return null;
        }
    }
    public static string XmlSerializeToString(this object objectInstance)
    {
        var serializer = new XmlSerializer(objectInstance.GetType());
        var sb = new StringBuilder();

        using (TextWriter writer = new StringWriter(sb))
        {
            serializer.Serialize(writer, objectInstance);
        }

        return sb.ToString();
    }
}

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Deserialize XML to C# object with arbitrary nested XML

2 Answers 2

3 Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

2 Answers 2

3 Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related