I'm trying to generate C# that creates a fragment of XML like this.
<device_list type="list">
<item type="MAC">11:22:33:44:55:66:77:88</item>
<item type="MAC">11:22:33:44:55:66:77:89</item>
<item type="MAC">11:22:33:44:55:66:77:8A</item>
</device_list>
I was thinking of using something like this:
[XmlArray( "device_list" ), XmlArrayItem("item")]
public ListItem[] device_list { get; set; }
as the property, with this class declaration:
public class ListItem {
[XmlAttribute]
public string type { get; set; }
[XmlText]
public string Value { get; set; }
}
Which gives me the inner serialization, but I don't know how to apply the type="list"
attribute to the device_list
above.
I'm thinking (but not sure of how to write the syntax) that I need to do a:
public class DeviceList {
[XmlAttribute]
public string type { get; set; }
[XmlArray]
public ListItem[] .... This is where I get lost
}
Updated based on Dave's responses
public class DeviceList : List<ListItem> {
[XmlAttribute]
public string type { get; set; }
}
public class ListItem {
[XmlAttribute]
public string type { get; set; }
[XmlText]
public string Value { get; set; }
}
and the usage is currently:
[XmlArray( "device_list" ), XmlArrayItem("item")]
public DeviceList device_list { get; set; }
And the type, while being declared in the code like thus:
device_list = new DeviceList{type = "list"}
device_list.Add( new ListItem { type = "MAC", Value = "1234566" } );
device_list.Add( new ListItem { type = "MAC", Value = "1234566" } );
Isn't showing the type on serialization. This is the result of the serialization:
<device_list>
<item type="MAC">1234566</item>
<item type="MAC">1234566</item>
</device_list>
So apparently I'm still missing something...
Using part of Dave's answer above, I found that it was best to use the property in the declaring class like this: (note the lack of attributes)
public DeviceList device_list { get; set; }
and then update the DeviceList class like this:
[XmlType("device_list")]
[Serializable]
public class DeviceList {
[XmlAttribute]
public string type { get; set; }
[XmlElement( "item" )]
public ListItem[] items { get; set; }
}
and keep the original ListItem class
public class ListItem {
[XmlAttribute]
public string type { get; set; }
[XmlText]
public string Value { get; set; }
}
and my serialization is as expected:
<device_list type="list">
<item type="MAC">1234567</item>
<item type="MAC">123456890</item>
</device_list>
Instead of using a ListItem[]
, derive a new class from List<T>
called DeviceList:
public class DeviceList : List<ListItem>
{
[XmlElement(ElementName = "type")]
public string ListType {get;set;}
}
Then, in a containing class use that class to serialize the XML. The type value can be included as an element of the parent node, depending on the way you configure the serialization. I don't remember the exact syntax, but I think class properties are added as node elements by default.
Containing class:
public class SerializeMyStuff
{
public SeriazlieMyStuff()
{
ListOfDevices = new DeviceList();
ListOfDevices.ListType = "list";
}
[XmlArray( "device_list" ), XmlArrayItem("item")]
public DeviceList ListOfDevices {get;set;}
}
You could also achieve the desired behaviour by implementing [IXmlSerializable][1]
in your container class:
With the below code I get the following markup:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<DeviceList type="list">
<Item xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" type="MAC">11:22:33:44:55:66:77:88</Item>
<Item xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" type="MAC">11:22:33:44:55:66:77:89</Item>
<Item xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" type="MAC">11:22:33:44:55:66:77:8A</Item>
</DeviceList>
code:
public class Item
{
[XmlAttribute("type")]
public string Type { get; set; }
[XmlText]
public string Value { get; set; }
}
public class DeviceList : IXmlSerializable
{
public string Type { get; set; }
public List<Item> Items { get; set; }
public System.Xml.Schema.XmlSchema GetSchema()
{
return null;
}
public void ReadXml(System.Xml.XmlReader reader)
{
reader.MoveToContent();
}
public void WriteXml(System.Xml.XmlWriter writer)
{
writer.WriteAttributeString("type", Type);
XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(Item));
foreach (var item in Items)
{
serializer.Serialize(writer, item);
}
}
}
I use the following code in my main method:
var dlist = new DeviceList
{
Type = "list",
Items = new List<Item>
{
new Item {Type = "MAC", Value = "11:22:33:44:55:66:77:88"},
new Item {Type = "MAC", Value = "11:22:33:44:55:66:77:89"},
new Item {Type = "MAC", Value = "11:22:33:44:55:66:77:8A"},
}
};
using(FileStream stream = new FileStream(@"D:\jcoletest.xml", FileMode.Create, FileAccess.Write))
{
new XmlSerializer(typeof (DeviceList)).Serialize(stream, dlist);
}
For more information look at this tutorial here