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C# serialize object to XML with element containing XML text without escaping

I searched and tried some attributes but none of them worked for my below scenario:
public class ObjSer
{
[XmlElement("Name")]
public string Name
{
get; set;
}
}
//Code to serialize
var obj = new ObjSer();
obj.Name = "<tag1>Value</tag1>";
var stringwriter = new System.IO.StringWriter();
System.Xml.Serialization.XmlSerializer serializer = new System.Xml.Serialization.XmlSerializer(obj.GetType());
serializer.Serialize(stringwriter, obj);
Output would be as follows:
<ObjSer><Name><tag1>Value</tag1></Name></ObjSer>
But I need output as:
<ObjSer><Name><tag1>Value</tag1></Name></ObjSer>
Scenario 2: In some cases I need to set:
obj.Name = "Value";
Is there any attribute or method I can override to make it possible?

You can't with default serializer. XmlSerializer does encoding of all values during serialization.
If you want your member to hold xml value, it must be XmlElement. Here is how you can accomplish it
public class ObjSer
{
[XmlElement("Name")]
public XmlElement Name
{
get; set;
}
}
var obj = new ObjSer();
// <-- load xml
var doc = new XmlDocument();
doc.LoadXml("<tag1>Value</tag1>");
obj.Name = doc.DocumentElement;
// --> assign the element
System.Xml.Serialization.XmlSerializer serializer = new System.Xml.Serialization.XmlSerializer(obj.GetType());
serializer.Serialize(Console.Out, obj);
Output:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="IBM437"?>
<ObjSer xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
<Name>
<tag1>Value</tag1>
</Name>
</ObjSer>
UPDATE:
In case if you want to use XElement instead of XmlElement, here is sample on how to do it
public class ObjSer
{
[XmlElement("Name")]
public XElement Name
{
get; set;
}
}
static void Main(string[] args)
{
//Code to serialize
var obj = new ObjSer();
obj.Name = XDocument.Parse("<tag1>Value</tag1>").Document.FirstNode as XElement;
System.Xml.Serialization.XmlSerializer serializer = new System.Xml.Serialization.XmlSerializer(obj.GetType());
serializer.Serialize(Console.Out, obj);
}

No, you can't. It is the natural and usual behaviour of the xml serializer. The serializer doesn't have to handle within the XML strings. So, it escapes the xml as expected.
You should decode the escaped string again while deserializing it.
If you want to add dynamically elements in the XML I suggest you to use Linq to XML and you can create tag1 or another kind of elements easily.

I would suggest serializing to an XDocument then converting that to a string and manually unescaping the desired part and writing it to a file. I would say this would give you the least headache it shouldn't be more than a couple lines of code. If you need it I can provide some code example if needed.

I found one more way of changing the type
public class NameNode
{
public string tag1
{
get; set;
}
[XmlText]
public string Value
{
get; set;
}
}
public class ObjSer
{
[XmlElement("Name")]
public NameNode Name
{
get; set;
}
}
To set value of Name:
var obj = new ObjSer();
var valueToSet = "<tag1>Value</tag1>";
//or var valueToSet = "Value";
//With XML tag:
if (valueToSet.Contains("</"))
{
var doc = new XmlDocument();
doc.LoadXml(valueToSet);
obj.Name.tag1 = doc.InnerText;
}
else //Without XML Tags
{
obj.Name.Value = senderRecipient.Name;
}
This solution will work in both cases, but has limitation. It will work only for predefined tags (ex. tag1)

Load xml from file

Been looking around alot to find answers to my problem. I found a great way to convert my List to an xml file, but I also want to get it back to a list.
My current xml file looks like this:
<Commands>
<Command command="!command1" response="response1" author="niccon500" count="1237"/>
<Command command="!command2" response="response2" author="niccon500" count="1337"/>
<Command command="!command3" response="response3" author="niccon500" count="1437"/>
</Commands>
Generated with:
var xml = new XElement("Commands", commands.Select(x =>
new XElement("Command",
new XAttribute("command", x.command),
new XAttribute("response", x.response),
new XAttribute("author", x.author),
new XAttribute("count", x.count))));
File.WriteAllText(file_path, xml.ToString());
So, how would I get the info back from the xml file?

You can use the following piece of code:
XDocument doc = XDocument.Load(#"myfile.xml");
to load the XML file into an XDocument object.
Then you can use .Descendants("Commands").Elements() to access all elements contained inside the <Commands> element and add them to a list:
List<Command> lstCommands = new List<Command>();
foreach(XElement elm in doc.Descendants("Commands").Elements())
{
lstCommands.Add(new Command
{
command = elm.Attribute("command").Value,
response = elm.Attribute("response").Value,
author = elm.Attribute("author").Value,
count = int.Parse(elm.Attribute("count").Value)
});
}

When using xml for persistent storage, start with defining POC classes and decorate them with proper attributes - like
[XmlType("Command")]
public class CommandXml
{
[XmlAttribute("command")]
public string Command { get; set; }
[XmlAttribute("response")]
public string Response { get; set; }
[XmlAttribute("author")]
public string Author { get; set; }
[XmlAttribute("count")]
public int Count { get; set; }
}
[XmlRoot("Commands")]
public class CommandListXml : List<CommandXml>
{
}
And then de-serialization is simple as:
var txt = #"<Commands>
<Command command=""!command1"" response=""response1"" author=""niccon500"" count=""1237""/>
<Command command=""!command2"" response=""response2"" author=""niccon500"" count=""1337""/>
<Command command=""!command3"" response=""response3"" author=""niccon500"" count=""1437""/>
</Commands>";
CommandListXml commands;
using (var reader = new StringReader(txt))
{
var serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(CommandListXml));
commands = (CommandListXml)serializer.Deserialize(reader);
}

You can use XDocument.Load method to load the document and then create command list using LINQ to XML syntax :
XDocument doc = XDocument.Load(file_path);
var commands = doc.Root.Elements("Commands").Select(e =>
new Command()
{
command = e.Attribute("command").Value,
response = e.Attribute("response").Value,
author = e.Attribute("author").Value,
count= int.Parse(e.Attribute("count").Value)
}).ToList();

how do i deserialize this xml?

I need to deserialize the xml below. I want to use xmlserializer because I am (more) familiar with it.
I believe this xml is not constructed correctly however I cannot change it.
The below represents a list of category objects. When I try to deserialize using
xmlserializer(typeof(List<Category>))
I get this error: "categories xmlns='' is not expected"
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<categories>
<category id="16" name="Exports" parent_id="13"/>
<category id="17" name="Imports" parent_id="13"/>
<category id="3000" name="Income Payments & Receipts" parent_id="13"/>
<category id="125" name="Trade Balance" parent_id="13"/>
<category id="127" name="U.S. International Finance" parent_id="13"/>
</categories>
I don't mind making some kind of dummy class to deserilize these if that is what I have to do.
Here is my Category Class
[XmlType("category")]
public class Category
{
[XmlAttribute("id")]
public int ID { get; set; }
[XmlAttribute("parent_id")]
public int ParentID { get; set; }
[XmlAttribute("name")]
public string Name { get; set; }
}
My code:
XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(List<Category>));
StringReader reader = new StringReader(xml);
List<Category> obj = null;
using (System.Xml.XmlReader xmlReader = System.Xml.XmlReader.Create(reader))
{
obj = (List<Category>)serializer.Deserialize(xmlReader);
}
return obj;

You can just pass in the XmlRootAttribute into the serializer for the "categories" part.
BUT... you must remove the "&" from your xml because its not valid
XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(List<Category>), new XmlRootAttribute("categories"));
using (FileStream fileStream = new FileStream(#"C:\Test.xml", FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read, FileShare.Read))
{
var test = serializer.Deserialize(fileStream);
}
Here is your method working with a String.Replace to sort out the "&"
private List<Category> GetCategories(string xmlData)
{
List<Category> obj = null;
XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(List<Category>), new XmlRootAttribute("categories"));
StringReader reader = new StringReader(xmlData.Replace("&","&"));
using (System.Xml.XmlReader xmlReader = System.Xml.XmlReader.Create(reader))
{
obj = (List<Category>)serializer.Deserialize(xmlReader);
}
return obj;
}

Try to make a categories class that will contain your List<Category> like this:
[XmlRoot("categories")]
public class Categories
{
public Categories()
{
Items = new List<User>();
}
[XmlElement("category")]
public List<Category> Items {get;set;}
}
You can than create a serializer like this:
XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(Categories));

Do you have an XSD that this XML should conform to? If so, you can generate the required code using:
"xsd your.xsd /classes"

Cannot Deserialize XML File into a List

My problem is, my program isn't taking data from my XML file and putting it into a list
I can save data just fine but I can't load it back.
Here is my Save function
public void Save_Data_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
XmlSerializer PSR = new XmlSerializer(typeof(Pickup));
XmlSerializer DSR = new XmlSerializer(typeof(Delivery));
TextWriter PickupStream = new StreamWriter(#"Pickup Save Data.xml");
TextWriter DeliveryStream = new StreamWriter(#"Delivery Save Data.xml");
PSR.Serialize(PickupStream, thePickup);
DSR.Serialize(DeliveryStream, theDelivery);
DeliveryStream.Close();
PickupStream.Close();
MessageBox.Show("All data saved!");
}
Here is my xml load code
XmlSerializer SerializerObj = new XmlSerializer(typeof(Pickup));
FileStream ReadFileStream = new FileStream(#"Pickup Save Data.xml", FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read, FileShare.Read);
Pickup LoadedObj = (Pickup)SerializerObj.Deserialize(ReadFileStream);
ReadFileStream.Close();
Here is my Pickup Class
namespace Vans
{
[Serializable]
public class Pickup
{
public List<Pickups> Pickups = new List<Pickups>();
public void addPickup(Pickups Pic)
{
Pickups.Add(Pic);
}
public List<String> listPickups()
{
List<String> listPickups = new List<string>();
foreach (Pickups pick in Pickups)
{
String pickupString = pick.ToString();
listPickups.Add(pickupString);
}
return listPickups;
}
public Pickups getPickup(int i)
{
int c = 0;
foreach (Pickups Pic in Pickups)
{
if (i == c)
return Pic;
c++;
}
return null;
}
}
}
My Delivery class is the same as the Pickup class.
Edit
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Pickup xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
<Pickups>
<Pickups>
<pickupfirstname>dsf</pickupfirstname>
<pickuplastname>sdf</pickuplastname>
<pickupdeliveryaddress>sd</pickupdeliveryaddress>
<pickuptime>dsf</pickuptime>
</Pickups>
</Pickups>
</Pickup>
this is some sample XML code

In this example, every field, that should be (de-)serialized, has an annotation [XmlElement], maybe thats the reason...

Make sure your Pickups class is as follows to deserialize it correctly:
public class Pickups
{
public string pickupfirstname;
public string pickuplastname;
public string pickupdeliveryaddress;
public string pickuptime;
}
Note: I have tested your code locally with the inclusion of this class and it is working perfectly fine.

Serialize List<T> to XML, and reverse the XML to List<T>

Does anyone know how I (or if it's possible to) reverse the XML I'm creating below
[Serializable()]
public class CustomDictionary
{
public string Key { get; set; }
public string Value { get; set; }
}
public class OtherClass
{
protected void BtnSaveClick(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
var analysisList = new List<CustomDictionary>();
// Here i fill the analysisList with some data
// ...
// This renders the xml posted below
string myXML = Serialize(analysisList).ToString();
xmlLiteral.Text = myXML;
}
public static StringWriter Serialize(object o)
{
var xs = new XmlSerializer(o.GetType());
var xml = new StringWriter();
xs.Serialize(xml, o);
return xml;
}
}
The xml rendered
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?>
<ArrayOfCustomDictionary xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
<CustomDictionary>
<Key>Gender</Key>
<Value>0</Value>
</CustomDictionary>
<CustomDictionary>
<Key>Height</Key>
<Value>4</Value>
</CustomDictionary>
<CustomDictionary>
<Key>Age</Key>
<Value>2</Value>
</CustomDictionary>
</ArrayOfCustomDictionary>
Now, after a few hours of Googling and trying I'm stuck (most likely my brain have some vacation already). Can anyone help me how to reverse this xml back to a List?
Thanks

Just deserialize it:
public static T Deserialize<T>(string xml) {
var xs = new XmlSerializer(typeof(T));
return (T)xs.Deserialize(new StringReader(xml));
}
Use it like this:
var deserializedDictionaries = Deserialize<List<CustomDictionary>>(myXML);

XmlSerializer.Deserialize