Why doesn't this class property serialize?

Question

[Serializable]
public class ProfilesCollection : ObservableCollection<Profile>
{  
    public ProfilesCollection()
    {            
    }
}

[Serializable]
public class Profile : ObservableCollection<SomeData>
{
    private string _name;        
    public string Name
    {
        get { return _name; }
        set
        {
            _name = value;
            OnPropertyChanged(new PropertyChangedEventArgs("Name"));
        }
    }

    public Profile()
    {
    }
}

[Serializable]
public class SomeData : INotifyPropertyChanged
{
    // some properties

    public SomeData()
    { ... }

    [field: NonSerialized]
    public event PropertyChangedEventHandler PropertyChanged;

    protected void NotifyPropertyChanged(string property)
    {
        if (PropertyChanged != null)
            PropertyChanged(this, new PropertyChangedEventArgs(property));
    }
}

I am trying to serialize ProfilesCollection (or Profile) object using XmlSerializer:

using (var writer = new StreamWriter("1.xml"))
{
    var xs = new XmlSerializer(typeof(ProfilesCollection));
    xs.Serialize(writer, _profiles);
}

but .xml doesn't contain Name property which is in Profile class. Everything except that is ok. What should I do to fix that?

Possible duplicate of http://stackoverflow.com/questions/8633398/xmlserialize-an-observablecollection — Matthew Strawbridge, Sep 30 '12 at 11:33
@MatthewStrawbridge I've tried to add [XmlInclude(typeof(Profile))] [XmlInclude(typeof(ProfilesCollection))] before SomeData class, but the same result. — Alex P., Sep 30 '12 at 11:56

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 30 '12 at 12:22

When XmlSerializer serializes a collection, it only looks at the items in the collection, not the other properties of the collection class. If you need to serialize the name, you need to do something like this:

public class Profile
{
    private string _name;        
    public string Name
    {
        get { return _name; }
        set
        {
            _name = value;
            OnPropertyChanged(new PropertyChangedEventArgs("Name"));
        }
    }


    private readonly ObservableCollection<SomeData> _data = new ObservableCollection<SomeData>();
    public ObservableCollection<SomeData> Data
    {
        get { return _data; }
    }

    public Profile()
    {
    }
}

BTW, the Serializable and NonSerialized attributes are not used by XmlSerializer, so you don't need them (and events are not serialized by XmlSerializer anyway)

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 30 '12 at 13:08

0

I think your 1.xml file should have the same structure to the Profile class. (It should have a Name node?)

answered Sep 30 '12 at 13:08

King King

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Why doesn't this class property serialize?

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