XSD deserialization generates a mess of partial classes - c#

I have 12 quite complex schemas that I want to de-serialize. They form a kind of hierarchy, making use in each of them of the definitions of other(s). So I use the XML Schema Definition Tool like this, with the dependencies following the schema to be deserialized:
xsd.exe /c schema.xsd importedSchema1.xsd importedSchema2.xsd importedSchema3.xsd importedSchema4.xsd
and the result is something like:
schema.cs
schema_importedSchema1.cs
schema_importedSchema1_importedSchema2.cs
schema_importedSchema1_importedSchema2_importedSchema3.cs
schema_importedSchema1_importedSchema2_importedSchema3_importedSchema4.cs
And they're full of partial classes. There exists a way to avoid this?
I'm newbie with C# and it's the first time I play with serialization, so I thought that maybe I'm missing something out. All the examples I find are too simple, I can't find a complex situation like this. So I don't know what is exactly happening here, if there is a better way to make it or how I'm supposed to make use of these classes if they're splitted like this. Some suggestions?

Here there is a very clear explanation of what was happening to me:
XSD Gen Classes That Reference a Common Type
But the answer that best suited to me was this:
xsd.exe to generate classes as separate files?
Is not exactly what I wanted (I wanted all the types defined in a xsd in a single file), but anyway, that tool is a great help!

If you're asking 'why are they partial classes', the answer is here:
"Don’t forget that classes created by xsd.exe are all partial classes.
It’s a good idea to add default constructors and logic in a separate
partial class in a different file. It’s especially helpful for
initializing arrays since xsd.exe generated classes use arrays and not
ArrayLists or Generic Lists. This allows you to add logic, that won’t
be changed when the class is regenerated."
But, personally, I found the naming conventions of the auto-generated stuff to be ridiculous so I'm just going to need to tough it out in the future, using the auto-generated stuff as a guide to update my classes.

Related

How to properly add comments to generated class properties?

I have some classes generated by EF out of an Oracle database. Those class will be used to build a restful Web API with Help Pages. I wonder how do I add comments to the properties for those generated classes. I can edit those generated class files, but if I have to remap them, they'll be gone.
I tried creating DTO classes for the generated classes and use AutoMapper, but that quickly go out of hand since I have so many classes to create DTO for, and the worse is that the derived class will end up with two properties and that makes the Help Page not very helpful.
I hope C# lets me to redefine a property of a class, but I know that's not possible, I wonder what's the least painful way to add comments to generated classes.
You don't need to place comments in code: it can be done in an XML file.
This is an old MSDN article, but check the resulting XML document at the bottom of the article.
That is, you can create your own XML document and distribute it along with your assemblies as auto-generated ones.

C#: Un-nested struct in same .cs file as related class?

If I'm dealing with one class and one public struct (not nested), Should I create a separate .cs just for the struct? Or leave it un-nested in its .cs file of the class? (This is assuming the struct relates to the class, but isn't so exclusive to the class that it should be nested and declared private)
Edit: I removed my initial question about two classes because I found C# classes in separate files?
Note that the only person(s) that can accurately answer this question is you, and your team. If your team is happy to find several related types inside a single file, combined due to ... whatever... then what I, or whomever other person, says, should be just ... irrelevant.
In any case, I would turn the question upside down:
Is there any reason to place two separate types (related by names, functionality, or whatever, but separate nonetheless) in the same file
and I've yet to come up with a good reason.
There are extensions/addins to Visual Studio where you can type in the name, and quickly navigate to the file, and I can think of three, but there are undoubtedly others:
DPack
ReSharper
CodeRush/Refactor! Pro
The first allows you to quickly navigate to a file by name. If you know the type, but have people putting multiple types into the same type, this will not be helpful, at all.
The second and third, lets you navigate to a type by name, but you shouldn't rely on people having those, or knowing how to use them.
To that end, I would advocate following these rules:
Project names should be identical to the root namespace of that project. I differ from this point myself where in some cases I name my projects "...Core", and I then remove "Core" from the namespace, but otherwise, leave the project name identical to the namespace
Use folders in the project to build namespace hierarchies
The name of a type should correspond 100% to the name of the file + whatever extension is right for your language. So "YourType" should be "YourType.cs", "YourType.vb" or "YourType.whatever" depending on language
That depends on who you ask.
I, personally, find it easier to read if they are all, always, broken out. However, the compiler doesn't care... so whatever you and your team agree is easier to understand.
In my opinion it's a good practice to avoid that. Some day a developer will be looking around for ClassBar in the project and won't be able to find it easily because it's nested in ClassFoo.cs
Tools like Resharper have a neat feature where you can just select a class, right click, place in new file to make this easier.
If you read any of the popular coding standards (Lance Hunt, iDesign, Framework Design Guidelines etc) most of them advocate 1 class per file.
Its annoying to scroll down and search for how many class each.cs file contains/hides.
Maintainability issue while using version control
Usability with our team.
Check here for more interesting discussion on same.
I think it was less about whether you can or whether you should. For things like this, I feel it's best to look to the convention in the rest of the codebase. Sometime conformity is better because it makes other developers jobs easier becaues everybody knows where things are.
If it's entirely new project and you are setting the standards here by yourself, do what makes sense to you. To me if the struct has no use outside the related class, I may put them in the same file. Otherwise, I seperate them out.

C# Class function members declaration & implementation

Is there a concept in C# of class definition and implementation similar to what you find in C++?
I prefer to keep my class definitions simple by removing most, if no every, implementations details (it depends on several factors as you may know, but generally I move towards leaving most member implementation details outside the class definition). This has the benefit of giving me a bird's eye view of the class and its functionality.
However in C# it seems I'm forced to define my member functions at the point of declaration. Can this be avoided, or circumvent some way?
During my apprenticeship of C#, this is one aspect that is bothering me. Classes, especially complex ones, become increasingly harder to read.
This is really a case of needing to step back and see the bigger picture. Visual studio has many, many tools to help you write and manipulate your code, from outlining, #regions, class view, class diagrams, the Code Definition Window and many more.
C# isn't C++, if you try to make it so then you'll trip over yourself and no-one else will be able to read your code.
A day spent learning to use the Visual Studio tools will repay the investment many times over in terms of productivity and you'll soon wonder how you ever lived with that C++ way of doing things.
Update in response to comments
I have long since stopped regarding my code as simple text files. I regard code as an organic thing and I find that allowing myself to rely on a feature-rich IDE lets me move up and down levels of abstraction more easily and enhances my productivity no end. I suppose that could be a personal trait and perhaps it is not for everyone; I have a very 'visual' mind and I work best when I can see things in pictures.
That said, a clever IDE is not an excuse for poor style. There are best practices for writing "clean code" that don't require an smart IDE. One of the principles of clean code is to keep the definition of something near its use and I think that could be extended to cover declaration and definition. Personally, I think that separating the declaration and definition makes the code less clear. If you are finding that you get monster classes that are hard to understand, then that might be a sign that you're violating the Single Responsibility Principle.
The reason for separate definition and declaration in c/C++ is because C++ uses a single pass compiler, where forward references cannot be resolved later, unlike C# and its two-pass compiler which can happily find references regardless of the order of declaration. This difference stems from the different design philosphies of the compilers: C/C++ considers each source file to be a unit of compilation, whereas in C# the entire project is considered to be the unit of compilation. I suppose when you are used to working in the C/C++ way then separating the declaration and definition can appear to be a desirable element of style, but I personally believe that keeping declaration and use (or in this case declaration and definition) enhances, rather then reduces, readability. I used to be a C programmer myself until I started using C# in 2001. I always loved C and thought it's way of doing things was the 'bees knees'. These days when I read C/C++ code I think it looks absolutely horrendous and I can't believe we used to put up with working that way. It's all a matter of what you are used to, I suppose.
If you're using Visual Studio, you can take advantage of the Class View. You can also use the expand/collapse features of the source code editor.
In the improbable case that your tools don't help, you can always write a quick utility that will summarize the class for you.
If the class has been compiled, you can use Reflector to view the class, too.
No, there is no concept of implementation and header files in C# like you find in C/C++. The closest you can come to this is to use an interface, but the interface can only define the public members of your class. You would then end up with a 1-to-1 mapping of classes and interfaces, which really isn't the intent for how interfaces are to be used.
You could get a similar result by defining an interface for each of your classes which they then implement.
It sounds like you're referring to interfaces. In c#, you can define all of your member functions in an interface, and then implement them in another class.
In C# you could fake it with partial classes and partial members to a point, however, forward declarations and prototypes go the way of the dodo bird with your newer languages. Class View, Class Diagrams, Intellisense, et al, all help to remove the potential need for those "features".
Define an interface.
Then it's nice to be able to automatically implement the interface using a nice code assist tool.
If you find that a class is hard to read or difficult to understand, that's often a sign that the class is trying to do too much. Instead of trying to duplicate C++'s separation of declarations and definitions, consider refactoring the troublesome class into several classes so that each class has less responsibility.
Whenever it's possible or desirable, I'll go with the previous responses and define an interface. but it's not always appropriate.
alternatively, you can work around this "problem" by using some static code inspection tools. Resharper's "File Structure" window will give you exactly what you want. you can also use the built in "Class View" from visual studio. but I prefer the former.
The prototyping that I guess you are referring to does not really exist in C#. Defining interfaces as others have suggested will give you a point where you have declarations of your methods collected, but it's not the same thing as prototypes, and I am not so sure that it will help you in making your implementation classes easier to read.
C# is not C++, and should probably not be treated as C++.
Not sure what you mean by your classes continue to grow and become hard to read. Do you mean you want a header file like view of a class's members? If so, like John suggested, can't you just collapse the implementation so you don't have to see it?
If you don't want every class to implement a certain thing, then interfaces are probably the way to go (like others are saying).
But as a side thought, if your classes themselves get more and more complex as a your write the program, perhaps it's more of a design issue than a language problem? I think a class should have one responsibility and not take on more and more responsibilities as the program grows, rather the number of classes and how old classes are used should grow and get more complex as you continue to develop your software?
There are two remedies for this to make it more C++-ish:
Create an interface file that declares all method signatures and properties
Implement that interface in a class across multiple files by using the partial modifier on the class definitions
Edits:
// File: ICppLikeInterface.cs
public interface ICppLikeInterface
{
...
}
// File: CppLikeImplementation1.cs
public partial class CppLikeImplementation : ICppLikeInterface
{
...
}
// File: CppLikeImplementation2.cs
public partial class CppLikeImplementation : ICppLikeInterface
{
...
}
The C++ way of separating interface into a header file is mostly (I think) due to an early design decision when C was created to allow fast, incremental compilations during the "old days", as the compiler throws away any meta data, contrary to Smalltalk. This is not a matter with C# (nor Java) where tens of thousands of lines compiles within seconds on recent hardware (C++ still doesn't)

Naming types in a namespace by the .NET Framework Design Guidelines

I'm having some problems to come up with a sane type naming scheme for our new line of applications. I want to follow the .NET Framework Developer's Guide - Design Guidelines for Developing Class Libraries, but I'm starting to wonder if that's such a good idea.
I'd like to use the Company.Product.Feature namespace scheme as a basis.
Problem 1: We have our own control and form base classes, and I want these to go into the Company.Product.Forms namespace. However, according to the guidelines, we shouldn't let our type names be Control or Form, even if they are in our own Company.Product.Forms namespace, since they will clash with system types.
Problem 2: We have some distinct feature areas in the application and I want these to go into their own Company.Product.Feature namespace. Lots of these features have similar design, with a controller and some views, so under each Company.Product.Feature namespace I'd like to have types named Controller, SomeView, AnotherView, etc. However, according to the guidelines, we shouldn't have the same type names in different namespaces.
The only solution I see to overcome these problems is to prefix the types with something that in some way makes the namespaces redundant. Or not?
Microsoft clearly favors some redundancy. A common example is:
System.Xml.XmlDocument
General class names, even bound within a proper named namespace can cause headaches for the many programmers who like to avoid fully qualifying their class instantiations. "Document" could be an Xml, Html or word document. This ambiguity will cause endless confusion if you happen to import more than one namespace with a "Document" class.
I'd prefer Company.Product.UI, for some reason. I would use that naming for the web, too.
Regarding problem 1, if these are base types, you might include Base in the class name.
Then, you typically have a set of domain specific controls, which won't clash with built-in types.
If you also keep wrappers for common UI controls(TextBox, DropDownList etc), then i would actually recommend use a prefix for them,
maybe this prefix is an abbreviated name of the product.
And then, if you do that, then you might want to be consistent, and do it for all types,
regardless of whether they are ambigious names or not.
I tell you from my own experience.
You'll end up constantly hovering over variables to see their full type names, etc, you will use aliasing etc..
The code will be harder to read.
Problem 2: While at GUI layer, i tend to break these rules, because you will want naming consistency(common verbs; Show,Edit,List). If the guideline tells you otherwise, i would believe it is because it is simply not specific enough.
First post here in StackOverFlow, on an old question. Please, be kind with me :)
General class names, even bound within a proper named namespace can cause headaches for the many programmers who like to avoid fully qualifying their class instantiations. "Document" could be an Xml, Html or word document. This ambiguity will cause endless confusion if you happen to import more than one namespace with a "Document" class.
Microsoft MIGHT sometimes favor some redundency but it's not always de case.
As for the Document vs XMLDocument problematic, when you know there might be more than one type of document, why not just include the qualifying part of the namespace in the declaration?
For example :
Xml.XmlDocument
vs
Html.HtmlDocument
Instead of importing the XML and HTML namespace, why not just include the containing namespace? It would become like this :
Xml.Document
vs
Html.Document
If it makes logical sense, then do it. They are just guidelines, not the LAW. (not that you cant break that too.)
Having classes in the with the same name in different namespaces is just is against the guidelines for a reason, it makes reading the code just a little bit harder because when you see "Controller" you have to mentally map it to "Feature1.Controller" or "Feature2.Controller".
I would prefer to use Company.Product.Features.Feature1.Feature1Conroller with the redundant information or maybe Company.Product.Features.Feature1Controller if it bothers you (and I personally don't like having too many namespaces).
But feel free to break the guidelines, rules are there to make you think before you break them :-)

Serialize in memory object with C#

I've got a program that picks up some code from script files and compiles it.
And It works fine.
The problem is: in the scripts I declare a couple of classes and I want to serialize them.
Obviously the C# serializer (xml and binary) doesn't like to serialize and the de-serialize object defined in a in-memory assembly.
I prefer to don't leave the in-memory assembly so i'm looking for another way of serializing, but in case, is possible to build assembly in memory and eventually write it on file ?
You could always write your own ToXml function using reflection to write out your property data to a string. Then your object would deserialize itself.
Just a thought.
If you want to create assemblies dynamically look into IL emitting via reflection. Here is a good article to get you started.
So just to clarify, are you asking how you can serialize a type if it hasn't got the [Serializable] attribute applied?
One solution is to use the WCF Data Contract Serializer: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms731923.aspx.
Obviously this will only work if you can target .Net 3.0 or higher.
Alternately you can implement an ISerializationSurrogate. Jeffrey Richter has a great introduction at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/cc188950.aspx.
I would avoid all built-in serialization whenever possible, both are badly broken. For example, XML serialization doesn't support dictionaries and normal serialization/SOAP doesn't support generics. And both have versioning issues.
It is time consuming, but createing ToXML and FromXML methods is probably to most effective way to go.
Hava a look at here for custom serialisers, which is a sample for dictionary XML serializing
I'm slightly confused by the statement that the XmlSerializer can't serialize dynamically generated types. The XmlSerializer generates it's own serialization code dynamically as well during construction so there should be no issue with it serializing your type.
You may need to decorate your dynamic classes with the appropriate attributes, depending on what you are generating (like derived classes), but there shouldn't be any issue with using the XmlSerializer in the situation you described.
If you could post details about the issues the XmlSerializer is giving you I can help you work out what the problem is.
Also, I'm of the belief that auto-generating code is in general a blessing. All to often have I had to go back into a class to fix one or all of the copy/paste/save/load functions, just because someone forgot to update them when adding a new variable. Save/Load code is boiler plate code. Let the computers write it.

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