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Class with nested classes throws InvalidOperationException: Token StartElement in state Epilog would result in an invalid XML document

I am trying to Serialize a simple class with a single property for a SOAP request using System.Xml.Serialization.XmlSerializer which works fine, but as soon as I add another property to my class and the property type is another class I receive this error message when executing XmlSerializer.Serialize(StringWriter, myclass):
InvalidOperationException: Token StartElement in state Epilog would result in an invalid XML document.
The two classes are dead-simple:
[XmlRoot(Namespace = "http://example.org/", ElementName = "Foo")]
public class Foo
{
public string Id { get; set; }
public Bar Bar { get; set; }
}
public class Bar
{
public string Id { get; set; }
}
This is how I perform the serialization:
var foo = new Foo(Id = "foo-id", Bar = new Bar { Id = "bar-id" });
var soapReflectionImporter = new SoapReflectionImporter("http://example.org");
var xmlTypeMapping = soapReflectionImporter.ImportTypeMapping(typeof(Foo));
var serializer = new XmlSerializer(xmlTypeMapping);
using (var writer = new StringWriter())
{
serializer.Serialize(writer, foo);
}
If I remove the Bar property from Foo, everything works as expected. I already looked through this and this without it solving the issue. I also cannot simply call the constructor for XmlSerializer with a type parameter because I need the XmlTypeMapping for the SOAP request. Can someone point out where the issue is or if I am missing some additional configuration?

The output XML needs a root element. Using XmlWriter along with XmlWriterSettings can help, like below.
[XmlRoot(Namespace = "http://example.org/", ElementName = "Foo")]
public class Foo
{
public string Id { get; set; }
public Bar Bar { get; set; }
}
public class Bar
{
public string Id { get; set; }
}
public class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
var foo = new Foo() { Id = "foo-id", Bar = new Bar { Id = "bar-id" } };
var soapReflectionImporter = new SoapReflectionImporter("http://example.org");
var xmlTypeMapping = soapReflectionImporter.ImportTypeMapping(typeof(Foo));
var serializer = new XmlSerializer(xmlTypeMapping);
//using (var writer = new StringWriter())
//{
// serializer.Serialize(writer, foo);
//}
Stream st = new MemoryStream();
XmlWriterSettings settings = new XmlWriterSettings();
settings.Indent = true;
settings.WriteEndDocumentOnClose = true;
XmlWriter writer = XmlWriter.Create(st, settings);
writer.WriteStartElement("base");
serializer.Serialize(writer, foo);
writer.Close(); //will write the final closing tag
st.Position = 0;
StreamReader sr = new StreamReader(st);
string data = sr.ReadToEnd();
}
}

How to create constructor to fill xmlelement and attribute?

I have complex class which I want to serialize to XML format using costum attributes. I am stucked at XMLelement which is List and I would like to generate new items with constructor, where I can fill attribute name and text value.
Now I have to create seperate objects and those I can add to the List. I want to simplify this.
class to be serialized:
[XmlElement("Cfg")]
public ElCfg Cfg = new ElCfg();
public class ElCfg
{
[XmlAttribute("Name")] public string CfgName { get; set; } = "Default";
[XmlElement("Content")] public ElCont Content = new ElCont();
}
public class ElCont
{
[XmlAttribute("ver")] public string ContentVer { get; set; }
[XmlElement("Prop")] public List<ElProp> Properties = new List<ElProp>();
}
public class ElProp
{
[XmlAttribute("Name")]
public string PropertyName { get; set; }
[XmlText]
public string PropertyVal { get; set; }
}
usage in main:
static void Main(string[] args)
{
//build promotic object
PromoticXML xmlDoc = new PromoticXML();
xmlDoc.Cfg.Content.ContentVer = "80323";
PromoticXML.ElProp prop1 = new PromoticXML.ElProp();
prop1.PropertyName = "neco";
prop1.PropertyVal = "necojineho";
PromoticXML.ElProp prop2 = new PromoticXML.ElProp();
prop2.PropertyName = "neco";
prop2.PropertyVal = "necojineho";
xmlDoc.Cfg.Content.Properties.Add(prop1);
xmlDoc.Cfg.Content.Properties.Add(prop2);
//serialize promotic object
XmlWriterSettings xmlSet = new XmlWriterSettings();
xmlSet.Encoding = Encoding.Unicode;
xmlSet.Indent = true;
xmlSet.IndentChars = " ";
XmlSerializerNamespaces ns = new XmlSerializerNamespaces();
XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(PromoticXML));
using (XmlWriter writer = XmlWriter.Create("promotic.xml", xmlSet))
{
serializer.Serialize(writer, xmlDoc);
}
Process.Start("notepad.exe", "promotic.xml");
}
What my goal is:
xmlDoc.Cfg.Content.Properties.Add(new PromoticXML.ElProp("someName", "someText"));
instead of:
PromoticXML.ElProp prop1 = new PromoticXML.ElProp();
prop1.PropertyName = "neco";
prop1.PropertyVal = "necojineho";
xmlDoc.Cfg.Content.Properties.Add(prop1);

C# deserialize xml array of different types into multiple arrays

I have the following xml:
<Applications>
<AccessibleApplication></AccessibleApplication>
<AccessibleApplication></AccessibleApplication>
<EligibleApplication></EligibleApplication>
<EligibleApplication></EligibleApplication>
</Applications>
Is there a way to deserialize this into a C# object so that the AccessibleApplications and EligibleApplications are two separate arrays? I tried the following but get an exception because "Applications" is used more than once.
[XmlArray("Applications")]
[XmlArrayItem("AccessibleApplication")]
public List<Application> AccessibleApplications { get; set; }
[XmlArray("Applications")]
[XmlArrayItem("EligibleApplication")]
public List<Application> EligibleApplications { get; set; }
The exception is:
The XML element 'Applications' from namespace '' is already present in the current scope. Use XML attributes to specify another XML name or namespace for the element.
Is this possible to do?
Thanks!
Edit: I forgot to mention that I do not want to have an "Applications" class just for the sake of providing a container object for the two arrays. I have several situations like this and I don't want the clutter of these classes whose only purpose is to split up two arrays of the same type.
I was hoping to be able to deserialize the two arrays into an outer object using some sort of tag like [XmlArrayItem="Application/AccessibleApplication"] without creating an "Applications" class.

I've found a fairly neat way to do this, first make a class like this:
using System.Xml.Serialization;
[XmlRoot]
public class Applications
{
[XmlElement]
public string[] AccessibleApplication;
[XmlElement]
public string[] EligibleApplication;
}
Notice how the elements are individual arrays. Now using this class (I had my XML in a separate file hence the XmlDocument class).
var doc = new XmlDocument();
doc.Load("../../Apps.xml");
var serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(Applications));
Applications result;
using (TextReader reader = new StringReader(doc.InnerXml))
{
result = (Applications)serializer.Deserialize(reader);
}
Now to prove this works you can write this all in to a console app and do a foreach to print all the values in your arrays, like so:
foreach (var app in result.AccessibleApplication)
{
Console.WriteLine(app);
}
foreach (var app in result.EligibleApplication)
{
Console.WriteLine(app);
}

You can use XmlElement attribute to deserialize to different lists:
public class Applications
{
[XmlElement("AccessibleApplication")]
public List<Application> AccessibleApplications { get; set; }
[XmlElement("EligibleApplication")]
public List<Application> EligibleApplications { get; set; }
}
public class Application
{
[XmlText]
public string Value { get; set; }
}
So for a sample XML:
<Applications>
<AccessibleApplication>xyz</AccessibleApplication>
<AccessibleApplication>abc</AccessibleApplication>
<EligibleApplication>def</EligibleApplication>
<EligibleApplication>zzz</EligibleApplication>
</Applications>
The following snippet would output the below:
using (var reader = new StreamReader("XMLFile1.xml"))
{
var serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(Applications));
var applications = (Applications)serializer.Deserialize(reader);
Console.WriteLine("AccessibleApplications:");
foreach (var app in applications.AccessibleApplications)
{
Console.WriteLine(app.Value);
}
Console.WriteLine();
Console.WriteLine("EligibleApplications:");
foreach (var app in applications.EligibleApplications)
{
Console.WriteLine(app.Value);
}
}
Output:
AccessibleApplications:
xyz
abc
EligibleApplications:
def
zzz

You can use this class to create objects from strings, creating strings from objects and create byte [] from objects
StringToObject
var applicationObject = new XmlSerializerHelper<Applications>().StringToObject(xmlString);
ObjectToString
var xmlString = new XmlSerializerHelper<Applications>().ObjectToString(applicationObject);
ObjectToByteArray
var byteArray = new XmlSerializerHelper<Applications>().ObjectToByteArray(applicationObject);
The XmlSerializerHelper:
namespace StackOverflow
{
public class XmlSerializerHelper<T> where T : class
{
private readonly XmlSerializer _serializer;
public XmlSerializerHelper()
{
_serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(T));
}
public T ToObject(string xml)
{
return (T)_serializer.Deserialize(new StringReader(xml));
}
public string ToString(T obj, string encoding)
{
using (var memoryStream = new MemoryStream())
{
_serializer.Serialize(memoryStream, obj);
return Encoding.GetEncoding(encoding).GetString(memoryStream.ToArray());
}
}
public byte[] ToByteArray(T obj, Encoding encoding = null)
{
var settings = GetSettings(encoding);
using (var memoryStream = new MemoryStream())
{
using (var writer = XmlWriter.Create(memoryStream, settings))
{
_serializer.Serialize(writer, obj);
}
return memoryStream.ToArray();
}
}
private XmlWriterSettings GetSettings(Encoding encoding)
{
return new XmlWriterSettings
{
Encoding = encoding ?? Encoding.GetEncoding("ISO-8859-1"),
Indent = true,
IndentChars = "\t",
NewLineChars = Environment.NewLine,
ConformanceLevel = ConformanceLevel.Document
};
}
}
}
Your Class:
[XmlRoot]
public class Applications
{
[XmlElement("AccessibleApplication")]
public string[] AccessibleApplication { get; set; }
[XmlElement("EligibleApplication")]
public string[] EligibleApplication { get; set; }
}
Or
[XmlRoot]
public class Applications
{
[XmlElement("AccessibleApplication")]
public List<string> AccessibleApplication { get; set; }
[XmlElement("EligibleApplication")]
public List<string> EligibleApplication { get; set; }
}
Cheers.

Add schemaLocation to XML serializing List<T> using XmlSerializer

I'm trying to add schemaLocation attribute to XML root element when serializing List<T>. Code works fine if I'm serializing just one object but does not work on lists. My current code:
public class SomeObject
{
public int Id { get; set; }
public string Name { get; set; }
}
public class XmlListContainer<T> : List<T>
{
[XmlAttribute(Namespace = XmlSchema.InstanceNamespace)]
public string schemaLocation = "http :// localhost/someschema";
}
public class BuildXml
{
public static void GetXml()
{
var list = new XmlListContainer<SomeObject>()
{
new SomeObject() { Id = 1, Name = "One" },
new SomeObject() { Id = 2, Name = "Two" },
};
var objectToXml = list;
string output;
using (var writer = new StringWriter())
{
var xs = new XmlSerializer(objectToXml.GetType());
var nameSpaces = new XmlSerializerNamespaces();
nameSpaces.Add("xsi", "http :// www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance");
xs.Serialize(writer, objectToXml, nameSpaces);
output = writer.GetStringBuilder().ToString();
writer.Close();
}
Console.WriteLine(output);
}
}
XML root element appears without schemaLocation:
<ArrayOfSomeObject xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
If I'm changing code to
public class SomeObject
{
public int Id { get; set; }
public string Name { get; set; }
[XmlAttribute(Namespace = XmlSchema.InstanceNamespace)]
public string schemaLocation = "http :// localhost/someschema";
}
...
var objectToXml = new SomeObject() { Id = 1, Name = "One" };
...all looks fine but I need list list
<SingleObject xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://localhost/someschema">
Is it possible to add schemaLocation attribute when serializing List<T>?

Deserialize a restful uri

I'm trying to deserialize a rest uri located at http://ws.geonames.org/countryInfo?lang=it&country=DE and keep getting error (There is an error in XML document (1, 1)). Plug http://ws.geonames.org/countryInfo?lang=it&country=DE into the browser and you can see the result.
I have a class
public class Country
{
public string CountryName {get;set;}
public string CountryCode {get;set;}
}
and the method in my console app is as follows:
static void DeserializeTheXML()
{
XmlRootAttribute xRoot = new XmlRootAttribute();
xRoot.ElementName = "countryName";
xRoot.IsNullable = true;
XmlSerializer ser = new XmlSerializer(typeof(Country), xRoot);
XmlReader xRdr = XmlReader.Create(new StringReader("http://ws.geonames.org/countryInfo?lang=it&country=DE"));
Country tvd = new Country();
tvd = (Country)ser.Deserialize(xRdr);
Console.WriteLine("Country Name = " + tvd.CountryName);
Console.ReadKey();
}
any ideas on how to deserialize this rest service? thanks..

For serialization to work successfully you need to decorate your objects with the proper serialization attributes or use the XmlAttributeOverrides constructor. Also don't forget that XML is case sensitive and your objects must reflect the XML structure you are deserializing:
public class GeoNames
{
[XmlElement("country")]
public Country[] Countries { get; set; }
}
public class Country
{
[XmlElement("countryName")]
public string CountryName { get; set; }
[XmlElement("countryCode")]
public string CountryCode { get; set; }
}
class Program
{
static void Main()
{
var url = "http://ws.geonames.org/countryInfo?lang=it&country=DE";
var serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(GeoNames), new XmlRootAttribute("geonames"));
using (var client = new WebClient())
using (var stream = client.OpenRead(url))
{
var geoNames = (GeoNames)serializer.Deserialize(stream);
foreach (var country in geoNames.Countries)
{
Console.WriteLine(
"code: {0}, name: {1}",
country.CountryCode,
country.CountryName
);
}
}
}
}