xmlSerializer.Deserialize poorly formed XML - c#

I'm attempting to deserialize the XML (below)
I'm stuck due to the "non-standard" structure of the XML. Instead of the normal way to serialize a Products collection, ie: a parent with many child elements. They have many parent elements each with a single child element.
My issue is that due to this unusual array structure (I suspect due to a bug), I can't figure out how to set the attributes ie:[XMLArrayItem] so that I can extract meaningful data.
Note: The XML is an HTTPResponse from a public 3rd party. (So I can't get them to change it.)
Specifically: Instead of a < Products> parent with many < Product> elements.
The < betType> node has multiple < Products> parent elements each with a single < Product> child element.
You have total freedom to create whatever classes with whatever properties are needed.
Clearly the solution needs BetType & Product classes. I've tried both with & without a Products class.
<rootnode>
:
<bet_types>
<bet_type id="105">
<name>Exacta</name>
<products>
<product id="17">
<name>STAB</name>
<max_stake>10000</max_stake>
<allow_multiple>0</allow_multiple>
<allow_flexi>1</allow_flexi>
<product_default>1</product_default>
</product>
</products>
<products>
<product id="25">
<name>NSW</name>
<max_stake>10000</max_stake>
<allow_multiple>0</allow_multiple>
<allow_flexi>1</allow_flexi>
</product>
</products>
</bet_type>
<bet_type id="107">
<name>Quinella</name>
<products>
<product id="18">
<name>STAB</name>
<max_stake>10000</max_stake>
<allow_multiple>0</allow_multiple>
<allow_flexi>1</allow_flexi>
<product_default>1</product_default>
</product>
</products>
<products>
<product id="26">
<name>NSW</name>
<max_stake>10000</max_stake>
<allow_multiple>0</allow_multiple>
<allow_flexi>1</allow_flexi>
</product>
</products>
</bet_type>
:
</rootnode>
Ideally we could use the .Net C# xmlSerializer as I'm using it for all the other calls. And this sample is a small fragment nested deep in the HTTPResponse.
One possible alternative be to use XSLT to reformat it, but am hoping there is a way to do it with attributes. I think it is cleaner, & I'm unsure how I'd write the XSLT to do it.
Note: Alternatively if you can suggest a way to "not produce" a Node for the parent array & just create the node for each array item, that would help. As one of the approaches I've tried got really close. But I still had a "Products" node that was a parent to the multiple Products nodes that each contained a single Product node.
Thanks for your help.

When in doubt, create an XML schema for your XML document and run xsd.exe on it. You can then look at (or use) the generated code.
To get you started, here's an XML schema that matches the XML you posted above. Run xsd.exe /c /f /n:Your.Namespace.Here FileName.xsd to generate the code.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<xs:schema xmlns="" xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" elementFormDefault="qualified" >
<xs:element name="rootnode">
<xs:complexType>
<xs:sequence>
<xs:element name="bet_types">
<xs:complexType>
<xs:sequence>
<xs:element name="bet_type" minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="unbounded">
<xs:complexType>
<xs:sequence>
<xs:element name="name" type="xs:string" />
<xs:element name="products" minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="unbounded">
<xs:complexType>
<xs:sequence>
<xs:element name="product">
<xs:complexType>
<xs:sequence>
<xs:element name="name" type="xs:string" />
<xs:element name="max_stake" type="xs:int" />
<xs:element name="allow_multiple" type="xs:int" />
<xs:element name="allow_flexi" type="xs:int" />
<xs:element name="product_default" type="xs:int" minOccurs="0" />
</xs:sequence>
<xs:attribute name="id" type="xs:int" use="required" />
</xs:complexType>
</xs:element>
</xs:sequence>
</xs:complexType>
</xs:element>
</xs:sequence>
<xs:attribute name="id" type="xs:int" use="required" />
</xs:complexType>
</xs:element>
</xs:sequence>
</xs:complexType>
</xs:element>
</xs:sequence>
</xs:complexType>
</xs:element>
</xs:schema>

Related

How to iterate/traverse XML file elements( which contains different namespaces) to convert it as Data table in C#

I have a sample to read a xml schema set for a xml file which contains different namespaces. For this i can get different schema for each namespace as i explained below.
Sample File:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<data xmlns:d="http://sampleschema/dataservices" xmlns:m="http://sampleschema/dataservices/metadata">
<content>
<m:properties>
<d:CustomerID>ALFKI</d:CustomerID>
<d:CompanyName>Alfreds Futterkiste</d:CompanyName>
</m:properties>
</content>
</data>
Sample Code to get XML Schema Set:
strFileName = #"C:\Sample\Sample.xml";
XmlReader reader = XmlReader.Create(strFileName);
XmlSchemaInference schema = new XmlSchemaInference();
XmlSchemaSet schemaSet = schema.InferSchema(reader);
It gives three different types of schemas while using the above code. But my requirement will be i need a single schema for the entire xml file which contain any number of namespaces in it. I have checked with possibilities of codes in msdn and stack overflow. I can't find any proper solution for this.
The expected schema output will be like below.
<xs:schema xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" elementFormDefault="qualified" attributeFormDefault="unqualified">
<xs:element name="data">
<xs:complexType>
<xs:sequence>
<xs:element name="content">
<xs:complexType>
<xs:sequence>
<xs:element name="m:properties">
<xs:complexType>
<xs:sequence>
<xs:element name="d:CustomerID" type="xs:string"></xs:element>
<xs:element name="d:CompanyName" type="xs:string"></xs:element>
</xs:sequence>
</xs:complexType>
</xs:element>
</xs:sequence>
</xs:complexType>
</xs:element>
</xs:sequence>
<xs:attribute name="xmlns:d" type="xs:string"></xs:attribute>
<xs:attribute name="xmlns:m" type="xs:string"></xs:attribute>
</xs:complexType>
</xs:element>
</xs:schema>
Any one can help to achieve this requirement.
Thanks in advance.
Try something like this :
<xs:schema xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:m="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:d="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" elementFormDefault="qualified" attributeFormDefault="unqualified">
<xs:element name="data">
<xs:complexType>
<xs:sequence>
<xs:element name="content">
<m:complexType>
<m:sequence>
<m:element name="properties">
<d:complexType>
<d:sequence>
<d:element name="CustomerID" type="xs:string"></d:element>
<d:element name="CompanyName" type="xs:string"></d:element>
</d:sequence>
</d:complexType>
</m:element>
</m:sequence>
</m:complexType>
</xs:element>
</xs:sequence>
<d:attribute name="xmlns_d" type="d:string"></d:attribute>
<m:attribute name="xmlns_m" type="d:string"></m:attribute>
</xs:complexType>
</xs:element>
</xs:schema>

XSD2Code classes require duplicate-named element containing collection of elements

Given XSD like:
<xs:complexType name="accident">
<xs:sequence>
<xs:element name="NAME" type="xs:string" />
<xs:element name="DESCRIPTION" type="xs:string" />
<xs:element name="CREATIONDATE" type="xs:dateTime" />
</xs:sequence>
</xs:complexType>
<xs:element name="accidents">
<xs:complexType>
<xs:sequence>
<xs:element name="accident" type="accident" maxOccurs="unbounded" minOccurs="0"/>
</xs:sequence>
</xs:complexType>
</xs:element>
I expect XML like:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<accidents>
<accident>
<NAME>Accident 123</NAME>
<DESCRIPTION>Car crash</DESCRIPTION>
<CREATIONDATE>2016-01-20T12:08:00+00:00</CREATIONDATE>
</accident>
</accidents>
I used XSD2Code to generate C# classes so I can easy deserialize XML from a web-service. But they weren't working right - they were successfully loading a test XML like my example but there were zero accident elements.
So I decided to reverse the process:
accidents aa = new accidents();
accident a = new accident();
a.NAME = "test";
aa.accident.Add(a);
aa.SaveToFile("accidents.xml");
This emitted the following XML:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<accidents xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
<accident>
<accident>
<NAME>test</NAME>
<CREATIONDATE>0001-01-01T00:00:00</CREATIONDATE>
</accident>
</accident>
</accidents>
If I attempt to deserialize that XML, it works just fine. But note, there is a nested accident which is not correct and I have no idea it would do this or what to do to fix it!
This seems to be a similar question but since it didn't get much attention and the XSD isn't included, I'm not sure: xsd2code creates extra nested collection when serializing lists
I'm a bit late on the scene for this one but here goes anyway !!
I have been using Xsd2Code myself for a while to take advantage of some cool features, but I have found it does have some annoying quirks. I agree that this issue you describe looks like a bug. However I have found that the issue disappears if your collection is itself a child element of another complex type. If you are happy for your "accidents" to exist as a property of a "report" for example, then you would alter your schema as follows:
<xs:schema xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" elementFormDefault="qualified">
<xs:complexType name="accident">
<xs:sequence>
<xs:element name="NAME" type="xs:string" />
<xs:element name="DESCRIPTION" type="xs:string" />
<xs:element name="CREATIONDATE" type="xs:dateTime" />
</xs:sequence>
</xs:complexType>
<xs:complexType name="accidents">
<xs:sequence>
<xs:element name="accident" type="accident" maxOccurs="unbounded" minOccurs="0"/>
</xs:sequence>
</xs:complexType>
<xs:complexType name="report">
<xs:sequence>
<xs:element name="accidents" type="accidents"/>
</xs:sequence>
</xs:complexType>
</xs:schema>
When you run this through the Xsd2Code tool you will find that the
generated code creates the accidents property of report type as a list of accidents and will serialize in the way you would expect it.
Your test code should look more like this:
report r = new report();
r.accidents = new List<accident>();
accident a = new accident();
a.NAME = "test";
r.accidents.Add(a);
r.SaveToFile("accidents.xml");
The dodgy accidents class is still generated unfortunately - which could cause confusion to other developers, but there is a way to prevent this.
First, put the accident and accidents complexType definitions in a
file, accidents.xsd. Then put the report definition in report.xsd with
an include statement referencing accidents.xsd. Only pass report.xsd
through the Xsd2Code tool. The malformed accidents class will not appear in the generated code. This is just an illustrative example of course - expand as required. In the absence of a fix, this has been a very good solution for me - hopefully it will suit your needs.
You might start by specifying a target namespace and explicit qualification flags in your XSD. That is, convert your xsd to:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<xs:schema attributeFormDefault="unqualified"
elementFormDefault="qualified"
xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"
targetNamespace="http://example.com/foo"
xmlns="http://example.com/foo">
<xs:complexType name="accident">
<xs:sequence>
<xs:element name="NAME" type="xs:string" />
<xs:element name="DESCRIPTION" type="xs:string" />
<xs:element name="CREATIONDATE" type="xs:dateTime" />
</xs:sequence>
</xs:complexType>
<xs:element name="accidents">
<xs:complexType>
<xs:sequence>
<xs:element name="accident" type="accident" maxOccurs="unbounded" minOccurs="0"/>
</xs:sequence>
</xs:complexType>
</xs:element>
</xs:schema>
and your XML to:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<accidents xmlns="http://example.com/foo"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://example.com/foo foo.xsd">
<accident>
<NAME>Accident 123</NAME>
<DESCRIPTION>Car crash</DESCRIPTION>
<CREATIONDATE>2016-01-20T12:08:00+00:00</CREATIONDATE>
</accident>
</accidents>
(You will need to save your xsd file as foo.exe for the above reference to work).
I'm not sure if this will fix your XSD2Code issue, but I've used this header format with xsd.exe for lots of equivalent (and much more complex) code. It gets you Intellisense in your XML and might also be sufficient to get XSD2Code to behave properly.

Create multiple instances of class to match XML

I have been provided the following XML request as a model to follow along with the WSDL.
<xs:complexType name="commonInput">
<xs:sequence>
<xs:element minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="unbounded" name="propertyList" nillable="true" type="tns:commonProperty" />
</xs:sequence>
</xs:complexType>
<xs:complexType name="commonProperty">
<xs:sequence>
<xs:element minOccurs="0" name="context" type="xs:string" />
<xs:element minOccurs="0" name="name" type="xs:string" />
<xs:element minOccurs="0" name="value" type="xs:string" />
</xs:sequence>
</xs:complexType>
I am expected to create a response in code using these types to create something similar to the following
<commonInput>
<loginId></loginId>
<propertyList>
<context></context>
<name></name>
<value></value>
</propertyList>
<propertyList>
<context></context>
<name></name>
<value></value>
</propertyList>
</commonInput>
The issue I'm encountering is that I cannot figure out how to create this structure in code since the commonInput.propertyList is not an array or list, it is simply a class.
How can I create multiple instances of propertyList within the commonInput?
Your class commonInput has an attribute called propertyList, which is a sequence of entities of type commonProperty. Note the <xs:sequence> tags that enclose its definition.
So you should be able to use something like:
private List<CommonProperty> propertyList = new ArrayList<CommonProperty>();
I'm not exactly sure what translation you use from XML to your "class".
We use Jaxb to translate between XML and java classes automatically.
In response to your comment, I will try to clarify with an example:
Our WSDL defines:
<s:complexType name="ArrayOfTEKLeverancierObj">
<s:sequence>
<s:element minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="unbounded" name="TEKLeverancierObj"
nillable="true" type="tns:TEKLeverancierObj" />
</s:sequence>
</s:complexType>
And in our java class this translates to:
public class ArrayOfTEKLeverancierObj {
#XmlElement(name = "TEKLeverancierObj", nillable = true)
protected List<TEKLeverancierObj> tekLeverancierObj;

Can't get xs:element with attribute

I have XML elements with and without attributes
<xs:element name='element0'>
<xs:complexType name='internationalShoeSize'>
<xs:annotation>
<xs:documentation>Data ...</xs:documentation>
</xs:annotation>
<xs:complexType>
<xs:simpleContent>
<xs:extension base='xs:string'>
<xs:attribute name='attribute0' type='xs:string' />
</xs:extension>
</xs:simpleContent>
</xs:complexType>
</xs:element>
<xs:element name='element1'>
<xs:complexType name='internationalShoeSize'>
<xs:annotation>
<xs:documentation>Data1 ...</xs:documentation>
</xs:annotation>
</xs:element>
When I get the elements in a DataTable, only get the elements without attributes.
foreach(DataColum colum in table.colums)
{
....
}
This foreach only get the elements without attributes: the element1.
How can I get all the elements, with and without attributes?
I think you need to start with a better schema snippet, the one you've posted is mangled beyond use. I took yours and cleaned it up - in the process maybe deviated from your intentions; feel free to take my sample and used it to edit your question for better illustration.
(Alternatively, if you have a sample XML, post that instead - it might be even easier to explain.)
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<!-- XML Schema generated by QTAssistant/XSD Module (http://www.paschidev.com) -->
<xs:schema targetNamespace="http://tempuri.org/XMLSchema.xsd" xmlns="http://tempuri.org/XMLSchema.xsd" elementFormDefault="qualified" xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
<xs:element name="element0" type="internationalShoeSize"/>
<xs:element name="element1" type="internationalShoeSize"/>
<xs:complexType name="internationalShoeSize">
<xs:annotation>
<xs:documentation>Data ...</xs:documentation>
</xs:annotation>
<xs:simpleContent>
<xs:extension base="xs:string">
<xs:attribute name="attribute0" type="xs:string"/>
</xs:extension>
</xs:simpleContent>
</xs:complexType>
</xs:schema>
Meanwhile, this is the equivalent data structure you would get (on .NET):
Your attribute is there...

NDBUnit schema error

I've been searching for an answer for quite some time without any luck.
I'm using NDbUnit for my test data and I want to be able to generate my XSD files automatically. I don't want to have to regenerate my XSD files each time I add a new property to my classes. So my plan is to automatically generate the XSD files using the XsdDataContractExporter class since some of my classes contain IList and I got some errors using the xml serializer.
this is the code I got so far:
XsdDataContractExporter exporter = new XsdDataContractExporter();
exporter.Export(typeof(Supplier));
//XmlQualifiedName xmlQualifiedName = exporter.GetRootElementName(typeof(Supplier));
foreach (XmlSchema schema in exporter.Schemas.Schemas()) {
XmlWriter writer = XmlWriter.Create(String.Format(#"..\..\data\{0}.xsd", GetSchemaName(schema)), new XmlWriterSettings() {
ConformanceLevel = ConformanceLevel.Auto,
Encoding = Encoding.UTF8,
Indent = true,
OmitXmlDeclaration = false
});
foreach (XmlSchemaObject include in schema.Includes) {
XmlSchemaImport importedSchema = include as XmlSchemaImport;
if (importedSchema != null) {
ArrayList lst = new ArrayList(exporter.Schemas.Schemas(importedSchema.Namespace));
XmlSchema actualImportedSchema = (XmlSchema)lst[0];
importedSchema.Schema = actualImportedSchema;
importedSchema.SchemaLocation = Path.GetFullPath(String.Format(#"..\..\data\{0}.xsd", GetSchemaName(actualImportedSchema)));
}
}
schema.Write(writer);
writer.Close();
}
DataSet ds = new DataSet();
ds.ReadXmlSchema(#"..\..\data\business.model.supplier.xsd");
the problem is that I get an error when reading the schema which is:
failed: System.InvalidOperationException : Nested table 'SupplierCategory' which inherits its namespace cannot have multiple parent tables in different namespaces.
The bottom line is, I want to use a dynamically generated XSD file from a type to use with NDBUnit to populate my database with test data. Is this the right approach ? This is the schema that are generated and that gives my the error:
Supplier:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<xs:schema xmlns:tns="http://schemas.datacontract.org/2004/07/Business.Model.Supplier" elementFormDefault="qualified" targetNamespace="http://schemas.datacontract.org/2004/07/Business.Model.Supplier" xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
<xs:import schemaLocation="C:\dev\skeleton\branches\dev\src\testconsole\data\business.model.supplier.category.xsd" namespace="http://schemas.datacontract.org/2004/07/Business.Model.Supplier.Category" />
<xs:import schemaLocation="C:\dev\skeleton\branches\dev\src\testconsole\data\arrays.xsd" namespace="http://schemas.microsoft.com/2003/10/Serialization/Arrays" />
<xs:complexType name="Supplier">
<xs:sequence>
<xs:element minOccurs="0" name="Categories" nillable="true" xmlns:q1="http://schemas.datacontract.org/2004/07/Business.Model.Supplier.Category" type="q1:ArrayOfSupplierCategory" />
<xs:element minOccurs="0" name="Comments" nillable="true" xmlns:q2="http://schemas.microsoft.com/2003/10/Serialization/Arrays" type="q2:ArrayOfstring" />
<xs:element minOccurs="0" name="Description" nillable="true" type="xs:string" />
<xs:element minOccurs="0" name="Name" nillable="true" type="xs:string" />
</xs:sequence>
</xs:complexType>
<xs:element name="Supplier" nillable="true" type="tns:Supplier" />
</xs:schema>
SupplierCategory:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<xs:schema xmlns:tns="http://schemas.datacontract.org/2004/07/Business.Model.Supplier.Category" elementFormDefault="qualified" targetNamespace="http://schemas.datacontract.org/2004/07/Business.Model.Supplier.Category" xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
<xs:complexType name="ArrayOfSupplierCategory">
<xs:sequence>
<xs:element minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="unbounded" name="SupplierCategory" nillable="true" type="tns:SupplierCategory" />
</xs:sequence>
</xs:complexType>
<xs:element name="ArrayOfSupplierCategory" nillable="true" type="tns:ArrayOfSupplierCategory" />
<xs:complexType name="SupplierCategory">
<xs:sequence>
<xs:element minOccurs="0" name="Description" nillable="true" type="xs:string" />
</xs:sequence>
</xs:complexType>
<xs:element name="SupplierCategory" nillable="true" type="tns:SupplierCategory" />
</xs:schema>
Any advice would be great !
Thx,
Franck
See the list of suggestions in this post Getting XML Schema from MS SQL Database (specifically the top-voted answer) but also note my suggestion of using MyGeneration to achieve the same thing.
That's a problem I've also been facing quite a time later, as we were using NDbUnit for integration tests in our project – ended up with a custom library, which doesn't need a schema to be defined separately, it reads it from database on its own. Library is Reseed.

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