So I’ve spent a lot of time (seems like a huge amount) trying to get to grips with the XMLSerializer in .NET. I think I have pretty much come to the conclusion that what I’m trying to achieve is not possible (even though it seems like a logical thing)…
I’m trying to serialize a bunch of class data into XML format. The actual objects seem to Serialize correctly (if I set the ArrayList, al, to public in the collection) and I can modify the element names in the XML that is produced by using the [XmlElement(“new_name”)] attribute.
However, trying to set the ArrayList to non public and have the XMLSerializer use the C# indexer to get the objects gives me no end of hassle.
- If I set the indexer to return objects of the interface type it will always fail
- If I change the indexer to return objects of the concrete class then I cannot seem to modify the element name of the concrete class in the XML – it always comes out as ‘MyClass’
I’ve tried overrides, but these also fail telling me I cannot apply a RootAttribute or TypeAttribute to the class
Looks like it’s going to have to be implementing IXMLSerializer instead…
Here’s a snippet of the code that I can’t get working…
public interface IMyInterface
{
double BigNum { get; set;}
}
public class MyClass : IMyInterface
{
private double mBigNum = 0;
public MyClass() { } // default contructor
[XmlElement(“bignumber”)]
public double BigNum // property
{
get { return mBigNum; }
set { mBigNum = value; }
}
}
[XmlRootAttribute(“gpx”)]
[XmlInclude(typeof(MyClass))]
[XmlInclude(typeof(IMyInterface))]
public class MyCollection : ICollection
{
private ArrayList al;
public MyCollection() { } // default constructor
public Add(IMyInterface obj) { al.Add(obj); }
public IMyInterface this[int index]
{
get { return (IMyInterface)col[index]; }
}
// ICollection members all implemented correctly
// IEnumerable members all implememnted correctly
}
// code you want to run to do the serialization
MyCollection mc = new MyCollection
XmlSerializer xSer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(WaypointCollection));
TextWriter writer = new StreamWriter(@”c:myfile.gpx”);
xSer.Serialize(writer, mc);
writer.Close();