We Keep Coding

By pass XmlElement serilization inside a Property with XmlText attribute

I have a class with a string property.
[Serializable]
public class Gather
{
[XmlAttribute("action")]
public string Action { get; set; }
[XmlAttribute("method")]
public string Method { get; set; }
[XmlAttribute("timeout")]
public string Timeout { get; set; }
[XmlAttribute("finishOnKey")]
public string FinishOnKey { get; set; }
[XmlElement]
public Say Say;
}
[Serializable]
public class Say
{
[XmlText]
public string Value;
}
I was doing xml serilization successfully from the following code then i got to know that inside Value property of Say class i need to pass plain xml some time
private string GetSpeechwithGatherXml(string value)
{
Say speechToText = new Say { Value = value };
Gather gather = new Gather
{
Action = txtCallback.Text,
Method = "Get",
Timeout = Convert.ToInt32(numericMaxTime.Value).ToString(),
FinishOnKey = "#",
Say = speechToText
};
GatherResponse response = new GatherResponse { Gather = gather };
var emptyNamespaces = new XmlSerializerNamespaces(new[] { XmlQualifiedName.Empty });
var serializer = new XmlSerializer(response.GetType());
var settings = new XmlWriterSettings();
settings.Indent = true;
settings.OmitXmlDeclaration = true;
using (var stream = new StringWriter())
using (var writer = XmlWriter.Create(stream, settings))
{
serializer.Serialize(writer, response, emptyNamespaces);
return stream.ToString();
}
}
But xml tags are changing to < and > understandingly.
Any way I can by-pass this behavior in one propery (Value of Say class)
I wanted to send something like
<Response>
<Say>John’s phone number is, <say-as interpret-as="telephone">1234</say-as></Say>
</Response>
which is a valid xml

JSON Not Deserializing

This is one of my first ventures into WCF/JSON. I created a WCF Web Service. This is one of my methods. It is how I serialize the datable to JSON.
public string GetPrayers()
{
DataTable myDt = new DataTable();
myDt = sprocToDT("LoadPrayers");
string JSONString = string.Empty;
JSONString = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(myDt, Formatting.None);
return JSONString;
}
This returns a nice JSON Dataset:
{"GetPrayersResult":"[{\"prayerid\":2,\"prayer\":\"Please pray for my
dog Rusty. He has cancer
:(\",\"prayerCategory\":\"General\",\"prayerDate\":\"2017-06-10T21:24:16.1\",\"handle\":\"GuruJee\",\"country\":\"USA\"},{\"prayerid\":1,\"prayer\":\"Help
Me I need a appendectomy
STAT\",\"prayerCategory\":\"Sports\",\"prayerDate\":\"2017-04-10T20:30:39.77\",\"handle\":\"GuruJee\",\"country\":\"USA\"}]"}
When I go to deserialize it I get all nulls. Here is the classes I created:
public class PrayUpPrayers
{
public string prayer { get; set; }
public string prayerid { get; set; }
public string prayerCategory { get; set; }
public string prayerCategoryID { get; set; }
public string prayerDate { get; set; }
public string handle { get; set; }
public string country { get; set; }
}
public class ThePrayer
{
public PrayUpPrayers prayers { get; set; }
}
}
This is how I am retrieving the JSON:
void getData()
{
var request = HttpWebRequest.Create(string.Format(#"URLGoesHere"));
request.ContentType = "application/json";
request.Method = "GET";
using (HttpWebResponse response = request.GetResponse() as HttpWebResponse)
{
if (response.StatusCode != HttpStatusCode.OK)
Console.Out.WriteLine("Error fetching data. Server returned status code: {0}", response.StatusCode);
using (StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(response.GetResponseStream()))
{
var content = reader.ReadToEnd();
string foo = content.ToString();
var testing = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<prayupapp.ModelClasses.PrayUpPrayers>(foo,
new JsonSerializerSettings
{
NullValueHandling = NullValueHandling.Ignore
});
Testing is always null? Is the issue that I am serializing it wrong, could it be the class structure, or is it related to how I am deserializing it. One important note: I checked my JSON on one of these JSONClassesFromC# sites and it only returns the GetPrayersResult as the only class item. Ignoring completely my entire structure.

You didn't provide the code for sprocToDT, but it should create ThePrayer object witch should contain list of PrayUpPrayers
public class ThePrayer
{
public List<PrayUpPrayers> prayers { get; set; }
}
And then you should deserialize ThePrayer object, not PrayUpPrayers.
For example
PrayUpPrayers prayUpPrayers1 = new PrayUpPrayers
{
prayer = "Please pray for my dog Rusty. He has cancer",
prayerid = "2",
prayerCategory = "General",
prayerDate = "2017-06-10T21:24:16.1",
handle = "GuruJee",
country = "USA"
};
PrayUpPrayers prayUpPrayers2 = new PrayUpPrayers
{
prayer = "Help Me I need a appendectomy STAT",
prayerid = "1",
prayerCategory = "Sports",
prayerDate = "2017-04-10T20:30:39.77",
handle = "GuruJee",
country = "USA"
};
ThePrayer thePrayer = new ThePrayer
{
prayers = new List<PrayUpPrayers>
{
prayUpPrayers1, prayUpPrayers2
}
};
myDt in your code should be the same as thePrayer instance in my code.
JSONString = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(myDt, Formatting.None);
will provide Json that looks like
"{\"prayers\":[{\"prayer\":\"Please pray for my dog Rusty. He has
cancer\",\"prayerid\":\"2\",\"prayerCategory\":\"General\",\"prayerCategoryID\":null,\"prayerDate\":\"2017-06-10T21:24:16.1\",\"handle\":\"GuruJee\",\"country\":\"USA\"},{\"prayer\":\"Help
Me I need a appendectomy
STAT\",\"prayerid\":\"1\",\"prayerCategory\":\"Sports\",\"prayerCategoryID\":null,\"prayerDate\":\"2017-04-10T20:30:39.77\",\"handle\":\"GuruJee\",\"country\":\"USA\"}]}"
And deserialize will look like
var testing = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<prayupapp.ModelClasses.ThePrayer>(foo,
new JsonSerializerSettings
{
NullValueHandling = NullValueHandling.Ignore
});

that's simple. you should deserilze the output twice. try this:
var output= DeserializeObject<string>(foo);
var testing = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<prayupapp.ModelClasses.PrayUpPrayers>(output,
new JsonSerializerSettings
{
NullValueHandling = NullValueHandling.Ignore
});

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>?

Problems deserializing List of objects

I am having trouble deserializing a list of objects. I can get just one object to serialize into an object but cannot get the list. I get no error it just returns an empty List. This is the XML that gets returned:
<locations>
<location locationtype="building" locationtypeid="1">
<id>1</id>
<name>Building Name</name>
<description>Description of Building</description>
</location>
</locations>
This is the class I have and I am deserializing in the GetAll method:
[Serializable()]
[XmlRoot("location")]
public class Building
{
private string method;
[XmlElement("id")]
public int LocationID { get; set; }
[XmlElement("name")]
public string Name { get; set; }
[XmlElement("description")]
public string Description { get; set; }
[XmlElement("mubuildingid")]
public string MUBuildingID { get; set; }
public List<Building> GetAll()
{
var listBuildings = new List<Building>();
var building = new Building();
var request = WebRequest.Create(method) as HttpWebRequest;
var response = request.GetResponse() as HttpWebResponse;
var streamReader = new StreamReader(response.GetResponseStream());
TextReader reader = streamReader;
var serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(List<Building>),
new XmlRootAttribute() { ElementName = "locations" });
listBuildings = (List<Building>)serializer.Deserialize(reader);
return listBuildings;
}
}

Try this:
[XmlRoot("locations")]
public class BuildingList
{
public BuildingList() {Items = new List<Building>();}
[XmlElement("location")]
public List<Building> Items {get;set;}
}
Then deserialize the whole BuildingList object.
var xmlSerializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(BuildingList));
var list = (BuildingList)xmlSerializer.Deserialize(xml);

I know this is an old(er) question, but I struggled with this today, and found an answer that doesn't require encapsulation.
Assumption 1: You have control over the source Xml and how it is constructed.
Assumption 2: You are trying to serialise the Xml directly into a List<T> object
You must name the Root element in the Xml as ArrayOfxxx where xxx is the name of your class (or the name specified in XmlType (see 2.))
If you wish your xml Elements to have a different name to the class, you should use XmlType on the class.
NB: If your Type name (or class name) starts with a lowercase letter, you should convert the first character to uppercase.
Example 1 - Without XmlType
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
//String containing the xml array of items.
string xml =
#"<ArrayOfItem>
<Item>
<Name>John Doe</Name>
</Item>
<Item>
<Name>Martha Stewart</Name>
</Item>
</ArrayOfItem>";
List<Item> items = null;
using (var mem = new MemoryStream(Encoding.Default.GetBytes(xml)))
using (var stream = new StreamReader(mem))
{
var ser = new XmlSerializer(typeof(List<Item>)); //Deserialising to List<Item>
items = (List<Item>)ser.Deserialize(stream);
}
if (items != null)
{
items.ForEach(I => Console.WriteLine(I.Name));
}
else
Console.WriteLine("No Items Deserialised");
}
}
public class Item
{
public string Name { get; set; }
}
Example 2 - With XmlType
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
//String containing the xml array of items.
//Note the Array Name, and the Title case on stq.
string xml =
#"<ArrayOfStq>
<stq>
<Name>John Doe</Name>
</stq>
<stq>
<Name>Martha Stewart</Name>
</stq>
</ArrayOfStq>";
List<Item> items = null;
using (var mem = new MemoryStream(Encoding.Default.GetBytes(xml)))
using (var stream = new StreamReader(mem))
{
var ser = new XmlSerializer(typeof(List<Item>)); //Deserialising to List<Item>
items = (List<Item>)ser.Deserialize(stream);
}
if (items != null)
{
items.ForEach(I => Console.WriteLine(I.Name));
}
else
Console.WriteLine("No Items Deserialised");
}
}
[XmlType("stq")]
public class Item
{
public string Name { get; set; }
}

Not sure how Building corresponds with the location you have in your xml, but to me it makes more sense if they're named equivalently. Instead of using a List use a LocationList, and it becomes:
[Serializable()]
[XmlRoot("locations")]
public class LocationCollection{
[XmlElement("location")]
public Location[] Locations {get;set;}
}
[Serializable()]
[XmlRoot("location")]
public class Location
{
[XmlElement("id")]
public int LocationID { get; set; }
[XmlAttribute("locationtype")]
public string LocationType {get;set;}
[XmlElement("name")]
public string Name { get; set; }
[XmlElement("description")]
public string Description { get; set; }
[XmlElement("mubuildingid")]
public string MUBuildingID { get; set; }
}
You can then deserialize as follows:
var request = WebRequest.Create(method) as HttpWebRequest;
var response = request.GetResponse() as HttpWebResponse;
var streamReader = new StreamReader(response.GetResponseStream());
TextReader reader = streamReader;
var serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(LocationCollection),
new XmlRootAttribute() { ElementName = "locations" });
var listBuildings = (LocationCollection)serializer.Deserialize(reader);
return listBuildings;

I know, old question, but came across it when faced by a similar issue.
Building on #ricovox's answer and in context of the OP's question, this is the model I would use to serialize his xml:
[Serializable, XmlRoot("locations")]
public class BuildingList
{
[XmlArrayItem("location", typeof(Building))]
public List<Building> locations { get; set; }
}
[Serializable]
public class Building
{
public int LocationID { get; set; }
public string Name { get; set; }
public string Description { get; set; }
public string MUBuildingID { get; set; }
public List<Building> GetAll()
{
...
}
}
The OP's mistake was to create the list item as the root

Use [XMLArray] for collection properties.

How can I serialize an object with a Dictionary<string,object> property?

In the example code below, I get this error:
Element
TestSerializeDictionary123.Customer.CustomProperties
vom Typ
System.Collections.Generic.Dictionary`2[[System.String,
mscorlib, Version=2.0.0.0,
Culture=neutral,
PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089],[System.Object,
mscorlib, Version=2.0.0.0,
Culture=neutral,
PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089]] can
not be serialized because it
implements IDictionary.
When I take out the Dictionary property, it works fine.
How can I serialize this Customer object with the dictionary property? Or what replacement type for Dictionary can I use that would be serializable?
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Xml.Serialization;
using System.IO;
using System.Xml;
using System.Text;
namespace TestSerializeDictionary123
{
public class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
List<Customer> customers = Customer.GetCustomers();
Console.WriteLine("--- Serializing ------------------");
foreach (var customer in customers)
{
Console.WriteLine("Serializing " + customer.GetFullName() + "...");
string xml = XmlHelpers.SerializeObject<Customer>(customer);
Console.WriteLine(xml);
Console.WriteLine("Deserializing ...");
Customer customer2 = XmlHelpers.DeserializeObject<Customer>(xml);
Console.WriteLine(customer2.GetFullName());
Console.WriteLine("---");
}
Console.ReadLine();
}
}
public static class StringHelpers
{
public static String UTF8ByteArrayToString(Byte[] characters)
{
UTF8Encoding encoding = new UTF8Encoding();
String constructedString = encoding.GetString(characters);
return (constructedString);
}
public static Byte[] StringToUTF8ByteArray(String pXmlString)
{
UTF8Encoding encoding = new UTF8Encoding();
Byte[] byteArray = encoding.GetBytes(pXmlString);
return byteArray;
}
}
public static class XmlHelpers
{
public static string SerializeObject<T>(object o)
{
MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream();
XmlSerializer xs = new XmlSerializer(typeof(T));
XmlTextWriter xtw = new XmlTextWriter(ms, Encoding.UTF8);
xs.Serialize(xtw, o);
ms = (MemoryStream)xtw.BaseStream;
return StringHelpers.UTF8ByteArrayToString(ms.ToArray());
}
public static T DeserializeObject<T>(string xml)
{
XmlSerializer xs = new XmlSerializer(typeof(T));
MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream(StringHelpers.StringToUTF8ByteArray(xml));
XmlTextWriter xtw = new XmlTextWriter(ms, Encoding.UTF8);
return (T)xs.Deserialize(ms);
}
}
public class Customer
{
public int Id { get; set; }
public string FirstName { get; set; }
public string LastName { get; set; }
public string Street { get; set; }
public string Location { get; set; }
public string ZipCode { get; set; }
public Dictionary<string,object> CustomProperties { get; set; }
private int internalValue = 23;
public static List<Customer> GetCustomers()
{
List<Customer> customers = new List<Customer>();
customers.Add(new Customer { Id = 1, FirstName = "Jim", LastName = "Jones", ZipCode = "23434" });
customers.Add(new Customer { Id = 2, FirstName = "Joe", LastName = "Adams", ZipCode = "12312" });
customers.Add(new Customer { Id = 3, FirstName = "Jack", LastName = "Johnson", ZipCode = "23111" });
customers.Add(new Customer { Id = 4, FirstName = "Angie", LastName = "Reckar", ZipCode = "54343" });
customers.Add(new Customer { Id = 5, FirstName = "Henry", LastName = "Anderson", ZipCode = "16623" });
return customers;
}
public string GetFullName()
{
return FirstName + " " + LastName + "(" + internalValue + ")";
}
}
}

In our application we ended up using:
DataContractSerializer xs = new DataContractSerializer(typeof (T));
instead of:
XmlSerializer xs = new XmlSerializer(typeof (T));
which solved the problem as DatacontractSerializer supports Dictionary.
Another solution is ths XML Serializable Generic Dictionary workaround also works in the above example, and there is a long discussion at that link from people using it, might be useful for people working with this issue.

Here's a generic dictionary class that knows how to serialize itself:
public class XmlDictionary<T, V> : Dictionary<T, V>, IXmlSerializable {
[XmlType("Entry")]
public struct Entry {
public Entry(T key, V value) : this() { Key = key; Value = value; }
[XmlElement("Key")]
public T Key { get; set; }
[XmlElement("Value")]
public V Value { get; set; }
}
System.Xml.Schema.XmlSchema IXmlSerializable.GetSchema() {
return null;
}
void IXmlSerializable.ReadXml(System.Xml.XmlReader reader) {
this.Clear();
var serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(List<Entry>));
reader.Read(); // Why is this necessary?
var list = (List<Entry>)serializer.Deserialize(reader);
foreach (var entry in list) this.Add(entry.Key, entry.Value);
reader.ReadEndElement();
}
void IXmlSerializable.WriteXml(System.Xml.XmlWriter writer) {
var list = new List<Entry>(this.Count);
foreach (var entry in this) list.Add(new Entry(entry.Key, entry.Value));
XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer(list.GetType());
serializer.Serialize(writer, list);
}
}

You can't (short of doing it all yourself, which is horrible); the xml serializer isn't going to have a clue what to do with object, as it doesn't include type metadata in the wire format. One (hacky) option would be to stream these all as strings for the purposes of serialization, but then you have a lot of extra parsing (etc) code to write.

You can use Binary serialization instead. (Just make sure all your classes are marked as [Serializable]. Of course, it won't be in XML format, but you didn't list that as a requirement :)

I've just found this blog post by Rakesh Rajan which describes one possible solution:
Override XmlSerialization by making the type implement the System.Xml.Serialization.IXmlSerializable class. Define how you want the object to be serialized in XML in the WriteXml method, and define how you could recreate the object from an xml string in the ReadXml method.
But this wouldn't work as your Dictionary contains an object rather than a specific type.

What about to mark Customer class as DataContract and its properties as DataMembers. DataContract serializer will do the serialization for you.

Try Serializating through BinaryFormatter
private void Deserialize()
{
try
{
var f_fileStream = File.OpenRead(#"dictionarySerialized.xml");
var f_binaryFormatter = new System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Binary.BinaryFormatter();
myDictionary = (Dictionary<string, myClass>)f_binaryFormatter.Deserialize(f_fileStream);
f_fileStream.Close();
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
;
}
}
private void Serialize()
{
try
{
var f_fileStream = new FileStream(#"dictionarySerialized.xml", FileMode.Create, FileAccess.Write);
var f_binaryFormatter = new System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Binary.BinaryFormatter();
f_binaryFormatter.Serialize(f_fileStream, myDictionary);
f_fileStream.Close();
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
;
}
}