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XElement.Load() and "undeclared prefix" exception

I'm trying to load xml file using Xelement.Load() method and in case of some files, I get "ditaarch" is an undeclared prefix exception. The content of such troublesome xml's are similar to this simplified version:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<concept ditaarch:DITAArchVersion="1.3">
<title>Test Title</title>
<menucascade>
<uicontrol>text</uicontrol>
<uicontrol/>
</menucascade>
</concept>
I've tried to follow suggestions to manually add or ignore "ditaarch" namespace using xml namespace manager:
using (XmlReader reader = XmlReader.Create(#"C:\test\example.xml"))
{
NameTable nameTable = new NameTable();
XmlNamespaceManager nameSpaceManager = new XmlNamespaceManager(nameTable);
nameSpaceManager.AddNamespace("ditaarch", "");
XmlParserContext parserContext = new XmlParserContext(null, nameSpaceManager, null, XmlSpace.None);
XElement elem = XElement.Load(reader);
}
But it leads to same exception as before. Most probably the solution is trivial but I just can't see it :(
If anyone would be able to point me in the right direction, I would be most grateful.

The presented markup is not namespace well-formed XML so I don't think XElement or XDocument is an option as it doesn't support colons in names. You can parse it with a legacy new XmlTextReader("foo.xml") { Namespaces = false } however.
And you could use XmlDocument instead of XDocument or XElement and check for any empty elements with e.g.
XmlDocument doc = new XmlDocument();
using (XmlReader xr = new XmlTextReader("example.xml") { Namespaces = false })
{
doc.Load(xr);
}
Console.WriteLine("Number of empty elements: {0}", doc.SelectNodes("//*[not(*)][not(normalize-space())]").Count);

Most efficient way to determine how class use to Deserialize XML

I have many .xsd files for many xml schemas
example
XML 1.0 - xml_1_0.xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<cars version="1.00">
<car>Honda</car>
<car>Ferrari</car>
</cars>
XML 2.0 - xml_2_0.xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<cars version="2.00">
<car>
<name>Honda</name>
<color>White</color>
</car>
<car>
<name>Honda</name>
<color>Red</color>
</car>
</cars>
I create my classes from .xsd like this
xsd.exe cars_1_0.xsd /c
xsd.exe cars_2_0.xsd /c
And Deserialize like this:
foreach(string file in files) {
XmlDocument doc = new XmlDocument();
doc.Load(file);
string version = doc.SelectSingleNode("/Cars/#version").Value;
if(version == "1.00")
{
Stream reader = new FileStream(file, FileMode.Open);
XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(v1.Cars));
v1.Cars XML = new v1.Cars();
XML = (v1.Cars)serializer.Deserialize(reader);
}
else if(version == "2.00")
{
Stream reader = new FileStream(file, FileMode.Open);
XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(v2.Cars));
v2.Cars XML = new v2.Cars();
XML = (v2.Cars)serializer.Deserialize(reader);
}
}
Does anyone know a better way to do this, or have a better performance?

You have several options, depending on how far you want to take this. One fairly non invasive option would be to not use XmlDocument and avoid loading the stream more than once. For example, your existing code could be simplified/streamlined to :
foreach (string file in files)
{
using (var stream = new FileStream(file, FileMode.Open))
{
var settings = new XmlReaderSettings();
settings.CloseInput = false;
string version = "";
using (var xmlReader = XmlReader.Create(stream))
{
if (xmlReader.ReadToFollowing("Cars"))
{
version = xmlReader.GetAttribute("version");
}
else
{
throw new XmlException("Could not get 'version' attribute of 'Cars' root element!");
}
}
stream.Position = 0;
if (version == "1.00")
{
XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(v1.Cars));
v1.Cars XML = new v1.Cars();
XML = (v1.Cars)serializer.Deserialize(stream);
}
else if (version == "2.00")
{
XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(v2.Cars));
v2.Cars XML = new v2.Cars();
XML = (v2.Cars)serializer.Deserialize(stream);
}
}
}
Since you're just reading off the root element, you might even be able to get away with deserializing from the XmlReader and not have to reset the position on the FileStream.
This avoids the overhead of loading the entire file twice (once for XmlDocument, then again for XmlSerializer) - and particularly avoids the memory overhead of creating a DOM for each document.
A more nuclear option would be implementing IXmlSerializable on a set of custom classes, which would have custom logic in the ReadXml methods to parse the version attribute and instantiate the correct child type(s) - e.g. a CarCollection class that has a List<Car> property, where Car is an abstract class that has CarV1 and CarV2 as descendants. This would be about as efficient as you could get (and offer very fine grained control over your class hierarchy design), but would eliminate the possibility of using xsd.exe to generate your classes.

XML deserialize iso 20022 pain.001.001.03 from xsd using c#

I want to get an object from an xml file. In my example I am using iso 2002 pain.001.001.03
I have downloaded the schema from
pain.001.001.03.xsd
and the xml file from
pain.001.001.03.xml
I have validated my xml against the xsd using this tool
Validate XML
I have generated a class using xsd
and I am using the code below in order to deserialize
XmlSerializer ser = new XmlSerializer(typeof(CustomerCreditTransferInitiationV03), new XmlRootAttribute
{
ElementName = "Document",
Namespace = "urn:iso:std:iso:20022:tech:xsd:pain.001.001.03",
});
FileStream myFileStream = new FileStream("C:\\001.001.03\\pain.001.001.03.xml", FileMode.Open);
CustomerCreditTransferInitiationV03 myObject = (CustomerCreditTransferInitiationV03) ser.Deserialize(myFileStream);
The code return null values but my xml has values

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Document xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns="urn:iso:std:iso:20022:tech:xsd:pain.001.001.03">
<CstmrCdtTrfInitn>
The root element is an Document, and not a CstmrCdtTrfInitn :
var serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(Document));
using (var file = File.OpenRead(path))
{
var document = (Document)serializer.Deserialize(file);
var transfer = document.CstmrCdtTrfInitn;
}

How to validate xml, not containing xmlns=..., with c# XmlSerializer?

I am working with Mismo 2.3.1, dtd based schema. I converted the dtd to xsd and then generated c# code to serialize/deserialze object representations of the xml doc.
Given a valid mismo 2.3.1 xml doc, I can deserialize into my generated C# class.
I have code working to use XmlSerializer along with XmlReaderSettings and XmlSchmeas collection, reading in my converted xsd.
If I put xmlns="http://mySchema..." in the root element, and try to validate intentionally invalid xml, works as expected, my validation event gets pinged with accurate description.
If I take out the xmlns attribute, then i get "could not find schema information for element [my root element]"
Any idea on how to validate xml that comes in without the xmlns spec? Any settings to say to the serializer "use this schema when you come across this element"?
Thanks in advance!

static void Main() {
var settings = new XmlReaderSettings();
settings.NameTable = new NameTable();
var nsMgr = new XmlNamespaceManager(settings.NameTable);
nsMgr.AddNamespace("", "http://example.com/2013/ns"); // <-- set default namespace
settings.ValidationType = ValidationType.Schema;
settings.Schemas.Add(null, #"C:\XSDSchema.xsd"); // <-- set schema location for the default namespace
var parserCtx = new XmlParserContext(settings.NameTable, nsMgr, XmlSpace.Default);
using (var reader = XmlReader.Create(#"C:\file.xml", settings, parserCtx)) {
var serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(Foo));
Foo f = (Foo)serializer.Deserialize(reader);
}
}

How do I create an XmlNode from a call to XmlSerializer.Serialize?

I am using a class library which represents some of its configuration in .xml. The configuration is read in using the XmlSerializer. Fortunately, the classes which represent the .xml use the XmlAnyElement attribute at which allows me to extend the configuration data for my own purposes without modifying the original class library.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Config>
<data>This is some data</data>
<MyConfig>
<data>This is my data</data>
</MyConfig>
</Config>
This works well for deserialization. I am able to allow the class library to deserialize the .xml as normal and the I can use my own XmlSerializer instances with a XmlNodeReader against the internal XmlNode.
public class Config
{
[XmlElement]
public string data;
[XmlAnyElement]
public XmlNode element;
}
public class MyConfig
{
[XmlElement]
public string data;
}
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
using (Stream fs = new FileStream(#"c:\temp\xmltest.xml", FileMode.Open))
{
XmlSerializer xser1 = new XmlSerializer(typeof(Config));
Config config = (Config)xser1.Deserialize(fs);
if (config.element != null)
{
XmlSerializer xser2 = new XmlSerializer(typeof(MyConfig));
MyConfig myConfig = (MyConfig)xser2.Deserialize(new XmlNodeReader(config.element));
}
}
}
I need to create a utility which will allow the user to generate a new configuration file that includes both the class library configuration as well my own configuration, so new objects will be created which were not read from the .xml file. The question is how can I serialize the data back into .xml?
I realize that I have to initially call XmlSerializer.Serialize on my data before calling the same method on the class library configuration. However, this requires that my data is represented by an XmlNode after calling Serialize. What is the best way to serialize an object into an XmlNode using the XmlSerializer?
Thanks,
-kevin
btw-- It looks like an XmlNodeWriter class written by Chris Lovett was available at one time from Microsoft, but the links are now broken. Does anyone know of an alternative location to get this class?

So you need to have your class contain custom configuration information, then serialize that class to XML, then make that serialized XML into an XML node: is that right?
Could you just take the string created by the XMLSerializer and wrap that in it's own XML tags?
XmlSerializer xs = new XmlSerializer(typeof(MyConfig));
StringWriter xout = new StringWriter();
xs.Serialize(xout, myConfig);
XmlDocument x = new XmlDocument();
x.LoadXml("<myConfig>" + xout.ToString() + "</myConfig>");
Now x is an XmlDocument containing one element, "<myconfig>", which has your serialized custom configuration in it.
Is that at all what you're looking for?

It took a bit of work, but the XPathNavigator route does work... just remember to call .Close on the XmlWriter, .Flush() doesn't do anything:
//DataContractSerializer serializer = new DataContractSerializer(typeof(foo));
XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(foo));
XmlDocument doc = new XmlDocument();
XPathNavigator nav = doc.CreateNavigator();
XmlWriter writer = nav.AppendChild();
writer.WriteStartDocument();
//serializer.WriteObject(writer, new foo { bar = 42 });
serializer.Serialize(writer, new foo { bar = 42 });
writer.WriteEndDocument();
writer.Flush();
writer.Close();
Console.WriteLine(doc.OuterXml);

One solution is to serialize the inner object to a string and then load the string into a XmlDocument where you can find the XmlNode representing your data and attach it to the outer object.
XmlSerializer xser1 = new XmlSerializer(typeof(Config));
XmlSerializer xser2 = new XmlSerializer(typeof(MyConfig));
MyConfig myConfig = new MyConfig();
myConfig.data = "My special data";
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
StringWriter sw = new StringWriter(sb);
XmlWriter xw = new XmlTextWriter(sw);
xser2.Serialize(xw, myConfig);
XmlDocument doc = new XmlDocument();
doc.LoadXml(sb.ToString());
Config config = new Config();
config.data = "some new info";
config.element = doc.LastChild;
xser1.Serialize(fs, config);
However, this solution is cumbersome and I would hope there is a better way, but it resolves my problem for now.
Now if I could just find the mythical XmlNodeWriter referred to on several blogs!

At least one resource points to this as an alternative to XmlNodeWriter: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/5x8bxy86.aspx. Otherwise, you could write MS using that form they have on the new MSDN Code Library replacement for GotDotNet looking for XmlNodeWriter.