How to Deserialize XML document

Question

How do I Deserialize this XML document:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Cars>
  <Car>
    <StockNumber>1020</StockNumber>
    <Make>Nissan</Make>
    <Model>Sentra</Model>
  </Car>
  <Car>
    <StockNumber>1010</StockNumber>
    <Make>Toyota</Make>
    <Model>Corolla</Model>
  </Car>
  <Car>
    <StockNumber>1111</StockNumber>
    <Make>Honda</Make>
    <Model>Accord</Model>
  </Car>
</Cars>

I have this:

[Serializable()]
public class Car
{
    [System.Xml.Serialization.XmlElementAttribute("StockNumber")]
    public string StockNumber{ get; set; }

    [System.Xml.Serialization.XmlElementAttribute("Make")]
    public string Make{ get; set; }

    [System.Xml.Serialization.XmlElementAttribute("Model")]
    public string Model{ get; set; }
}

.

[System.Xml.Serialization.XmlRootAttribute("Cars", Namespace = "", IsNullable = false)]
public class Cars
{
    [XmlArrayItem(typeof(Car))]
    public Car[] Car { get; set; }

}

.

public class CarSerializer
{
    public Cars Deserialize()
    {
        Cars[] cars = null;
        string path = HttpContext.Current.ApplicationInstance.Server.MapPath("~/App_Data/") + "cars.xml";

        XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(Cars[]));

        StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(path);
        reader.ReadToEnd();
        cars = (Cars[])serializer.Deserialize(reader);
        reader.Close();

        return cars;
    }
}

that don't seem to work :-(

Answer 1

try this block of code if your .xml file has been generated somewhere in disk and if you have used List<T>:

//deserialization

XmlSerializer xmlser = new XmlSerializer(typeof(List<Item>));
StreamReader srdr = new StreamReader(@"C:\serialize.xml");
List<Item> p = (List<Item>)xmlser.Deserialize(srdr);
srdr.Close();`

Note: C:\serialize.xml is my .xml file's path. You can change it for your needs.

Answer 2

The following snippet should do the trick (and you can ignore most of the serialization attributes):

public class Car
{
  public string StockNumber { get; set; }
  public string Make { get; set; }
  public string Model { get; set; }
}

[XmlRootAttribute("Cars")]
public class CarCollection
{
  [XmlElement("Car")]
  public Car[] Cars { get; set; }
}

...

using (TextReader reader = new StreamReader(path))
{
  XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(CarCollection));
  return (CarCollection) serializer.Deserialize(reader);
}

Answer 3

The idea is to have all level being handled for deserialization Please see a sample solution that solved my similar issue

<?xml version="1.0" ?> 
 <TRANSACTION_RESPONSE>
    <TRANSACTION>
        <TRANSACTION_ID>25429</TRANSACTION_ID> 
        <MERCHANT_ACC_NO>02700701354375000964</MERCHANT_ACC_NO> 
        <TXN_STATUS>F</TXN_STATUS> 
        <TXN_SIGNATURE>a16af68d4c3e2280e44bd7c2c23f2af6cb1f0e5a28c266ea741608e72b1a5e4224da5b975909cc43c53b6c0f7f1bbf0820269caa3e350dd1812484edc499b279</TXN_SIGNATURE> 
        <TXN_SIGNATURE2>B1684258EA112C8B5BA51F73CDA9864D1BB98E04F5A78B67A3E539BEF96CCF4D16CFF6B9E04818B50E855E0783BB075309D112CA596BDC49F9738C4BF3AA1FB4</TXN_SIGNATURE2> 
        <TRAN_DATE>29-09-2015 07:36:59</TRAN_DATE> 
        <MERCHANT_TRANID>150929093703RUDZMX4</MERCHANT_TRANID> 
        <RESPONSE_CODE>9967</RESPONSE_CODE> 
        <RESPONSE_DESC>Bank rejected transaction!</RESPONSE_DESC> 
        <CUSTOMER_ID>RUDZMX</CUSTOMER_ID> 
        <AUTH_ID /> 
        <AUTH_DATE /> 
        <CAPTURE_DATE /> 
        <SALES_DATE /> 
        <VOID_REV_DATE /> 
        <REFUND_DATE /> 
        <REFUND_AMOUNT>0.00</REFUND_AMOUNT> 
    </TRANSACTION>
  </TRANSACTION_RESPONSE> 

The above XML is handled in two level

  [XmlType("TRANSACTION_RESPONSE")]
public class TransactionResponse
{
    [XmlElement("TRANSACTION")]
    public BankQueryResponse Response { get; set; }

}

The Inner level

public class BankQueryResponse
{
    [XmlElement("TRANSACTION_ID")]
    public string TransactionId { get; set; }

    [XmlElement("MERCHANT_ACC_NO")]
    public string MerchantAccNo { get; set; }

    [XmlElement("TXN_SIGNATURE")]
    public string TxnSignature { get; set; }

    [XmlElement("TRAN_DATE")]
    public DateTime TranDate { get; set; }

    [XmlElement("TXN_STATUS")]
    public string TxnStatus { get; set; }


    [XmlElement("REFUND_DATE")]
    public DateTime RefundDate { get; set; }

    [XmlElement("RESPONSE_CODE")]
    public string ResponseCode { get; set; }


    [XmlElement("RESPONSE_DESC")]
    public string ResponseDesc { get; set; }

    [XmlAttribute("MERCHANT_TRANID")]
    public string MerchantTranId { get; set; }

}

Same Way you need multiple level with car as array Check this example for multilevel deserialization

Answer 4

You have two possibilities.

Method 1. XSD tool

---

Suppose that you have your XML file in this location C:\path\to\xml\file.xml

1. Open Developer Command Prompt
   You can find it in Start Menu > Programs > Microsoft Visual Studio 2012 > Visual Studio Tools Or if you have Windows 8 can just start typing Developer Command Prompt in Start screen
2. Change location to your XML file directory by typing cd /D "C:\path\to\xml"
3. Create XSD file from your xml file by typing xsd file.xml
4. Create C# classes by typing xsd /c file.xsd

And that's it! You have generated C# classes from xml file in C:\path\to\xml\file.cs

Method 2 - Paste special

---

Required Visual Studio 2012+

1. Copy content of your XML file to clipboard
2. Add to your solution new, empty class file (Shift+Alt+C)
3. Open that file and in menu click Edit > Paste special > Paste XML As Classes
   

And that's it!

Usage

---

Usage is very simple with this helper class:

using System;
using System.IO;
using System.Web.Script.Serialization; // Add reference: System.Web.Extensions
using System.Xml;
using System.Xml.Serialization;

namespace Helpers
{
    internal static class ParseHelpers
    {
        private static JavaScriptSerializer json;
        private static JavaScriptSerializer JSON { get { return json ?? (json = new JavaScriptSerializer()); } }

        public static Stream ToStream(this string @this)
        {
            var stream = new MemoryStream();
            var writer = new StreamWriter(stream);
            writer.Write(@this);
            writer.Flush();
            stream.Position = 0;
            return stream;
        }


        public static T ParseXML<T>(this string @this) where T : class
        {
            var reader = XmlReader.Create(@this.Trim().ToStream(), new XmlReaderSettings() { ConformanceLevel = ConformanceLevel.Document });
            return new XmlSerializer(typeof(T)).Deserialize(reader) as T;
        }

        public static T ParseJSON<T>(this string @this) where T : class
        {
            return JSON.Deserialize<T>(@this.Trim());
        }
    }
}

All you have to do now, is:

    public class JSONRoot
    {
        public catalog catalog { get; set; }
    }
    // ...

    string xml = File.ReadAllText(@"D:\file.xml");
    var catalog1 = xml.ParseXML<catalog>();

    string json = File.ReadAllText(@"D:\file.json");
    var catalog2 = json.ParseJSON<JSONRoot>();

Answer 5

See if this helps:

[Serializable()]
[System.Xml.Serialization.XmlRootAttribute("Cars", Namespace = "", IsNullable = false)]
public class Cars
{
    [XmlArrayItem(typeof(Car))]
    public Car[] Car { get; set; }
}

.

[Serializable()]
public class Car
{
    [System.Xml.Serialization.XmlElement()]
    public string StockNumber{ get; set; }

    [System.Xml.Serialization.XmlElement()]
    public string Make{ get; set; }

    [System.Xml.Serialization.XmlElement()]
    public string Model{ get; set; }
}

And failing that use the xsd.exe program that comes with visual studio to create a schema document based on that xml file, and then use it again to create a class based on the schema document.

Answer 6

I don't think .net is 'picky about deserializing arrays'. The first xml document is not well formed. There is no root element, although it looks like there is. The canonical xml document has a root and at least 1 element (if at all). In your example:

<Root> <-- well, the root
  <Cars> <-- an element (not a root), it being an array
    <Car> <-- an element, it being an array item
    ...
    </Car>
  </Cars>
</Root>