Serialize an object to XML

Question

I have a C# class that I have inherited. I have successfully "built" the object. But I need to serialize the object to XML. Is there an easy way to do it?

It looks like the class has been set up for serialization, but I'm not sure how to get the XML representation. My class definition looks like this:

[System.CodeDom.Compiler.GeneratedCodeAttribute("xsd", "4.0.30319.1")]
[System.SerializableAttribute()]
[System.Diagnostics.DebuggerStepThroughAttribute()]
[System.ComponentModel.DesignerCategoryAttribute("code")]
[System.Xml.Serialization.XmlTypeAttribute(AnonymousType = true, Namespace = "http://www.domain.com/test")]
[System.Xml.Serialization.XmlRootAttribute(Namespace = "http://www.domain.com/test", IsNullable = false)]
public partial class MyObject
{
  ...
}

Here is what I thought I could do, but it doesn't work:

MyObject o = new MyObject();
// Set o properties
string xml = o.ToString();

How do I get the XML representation of this object?

Answer 1

my work code. Returns utf8 xml enable empty namespace.

// override StringWriter
public class Utf8StringWriter : StringWriter
{
    public override Encoding Encoding => Encoding.UTF8;
}

private string GenerateXmlResponse(Object obj)
{    
    Type t = obj.GetType();

    var xml = "";

    using (StringWriter sww = new Utf8StringWriter())
    {
        using (XmlWriter writer = XmlWriter.Create(sww))
        {
            var ns = new XmlSerializerNamespaces();
            // add empty namespace
            ns.Add("", "");
            XmlSerializer xsSubmit = new XmlSerializer(t);
            xsSubmit.Serialize(writer, obj, ns);
            xml = sww.ToString(); // Your XML
        }
    }
    return xml;
}

Example returns response Yandex api payment Aviso url:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?><paymentAvisoResponse xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" performedDatetime="2017-09-01T16:22:08.9747654+07:00" code="0" shopId="54321" invoiceId="12345" orderSumAmount="10643" />

Answer 2

You can use the function like below to get serialized XML from any object.

public static bool Serialize<T>(T value, ref string serializeXml)
{
    if (value == null)
    {
        return false;
    }
    try
    {
        XmlSerializer xmlserializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(T));
        StringWriter stringWriter = new StringWriter();
        XmlWriter writer = XmlWriter.Create(stringWriter);

        xmlserializer.Serialize(writer, value);

        serializeXml = stringWriter.ToString();

        writer.Close();
        return true;
    }
    catch (Exception ex)
    {
        return false;
    }
}

You can call this from the client.

Answer 3

It's a little bit more complicated than calling the ToString method of the class, but not much.

Here's a simple drop-in function you can use to serialize any type of object. It returns a string containing the serialized XML contents:

public string SerializeObject(object obj)
{
    System.Xml.XmlDocument xmlDoc = new System.Xml.XmlDocument();
    System.Xml.Serialization.XmlSerializer serializer = new System.Xml.Serialization.XmlSerializer(obj.GetType());
    using (System.IO.MemoryStream ms = new System.IO.MemoryStream()) {
        serializer.Serialize(ms, obj);
        ms.Position = 0;
        xmlDoc.Load(ms);
        return xmlDoc.InnerXml;
    }
}

Answer 4

To serialize an object, do:

 using (StreamWriter myWriter = new StreamWriter(path, false))
 {
     XmlSerializer mySerializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(your_object_type));
     mySerializer.Serialize(myWriter, objectToSerialize);
 }

Also remember that for XmlSerializer to work, you need a parameterless constructor.

Answer 5

You have to use XmlSerializer for XML serialization. Below is a sample snippet.

 XmlSerializer xsSubmit = new XmlSerializer(typeof(MyObject));
 var subReq = new MyObject();
 var xml = "";

 using(var sww = new StringWriter())
 {
     using(XmlWriter writer = XmlWriter.Create(sww))
     {
         xsSubmit.Serialize(writer, subReq);
         xml = sww.ToString(); // Your XML
     }
 }

Answer 6

Extension class:

using System.IO;
using System.Xml;
using System.Xml.Serialization;

namespace MyProj.Extensions
{
    public static class XmlExtension
    {
        public static string Serialize<T>(this T value)
        {
            if (value == null) return string.Empty;

            var xmlSerializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(T));

            using (var stringWriter = new StringWriter())
            {
                using (var xmlWriter = XmlWriter.Create(stringWriter,new XmlWriterSettings{Indent = true}))
                {
                    xmlSerializer.Serialize(xmlWriter, value);
                    return stringWriter.ToString();
                }    
            }
        }
    }
}

Usage:

Foo foo = new Foo{MyProperty="I have been serialized"};

string xml = foo.Serialize();

Just reference the namespace holding your extension method in the file you would like to use it in and it'll work (in my example it would be: using MyProj.Extensions;)

Note that if you want to make the extension method specific to only a particular class(eg., Foo), you can replace the T argument in the extension method, eg.

public static string Serialize(this Foo value){...}