Xml .NET : Remove ArrayOfXmlElement and XmlElement

Question

I created a .NET class for XML serialization

[Serializable()]
[XmlRoot("documents")]
public class BdfXmlData
{
    [XmlElement("document")]
    public List<XmlElement> Documents { get; set; }

    public BdfXmlData()
    {
        Documents = new List<XmlElement>();
    }
}

When I try to serialize an object, I get with this tree:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<ArrayOfXmlElement xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
  <XmlElement>
    <documents>
      <document>
               ...
      <document>
    <documents>
  </XmlElement>
</ArrayOfXmlElement>

How can I have the following three?

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<documents>
  <document>
    ...
  <document>
<documents>

Thanks in advance.

The code to serialize my class is the following:

public static string GetSerializedObject<T>(T t)
{
    using (MemoryStream stream = new MemoryStream())
    {
        XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(T));
        serializer.Serialize(stream, t);
        stream.Position = 0;
        using (StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(stream))
        return reader.ReadToEnd();
    }
}

you mean you want everything between node? – Neel Jun 20 '16 at 12:37 — Neel, Jun 20 '16 at 12:37

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Jun 20 '16 at 12:49

0

I think you can at least simplify your xml-code:

<ArrayOfdocuments xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
  <documents>
    <document>
               ...
    <document>
  <documents>
</ArrayOfdocuments>

The "XmlElement" element can be left out.

answered Jun 20 '16 at 12:49

rbr94

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My Property is "Documents" and the xml tag is "document" – Bertrand Deroanne Jun 20 '16 at 12:54
Do you want to use the "XmlElement" element several times in your xml? – rbr94 Jun 20 '16 at 12:58
Yes, I want to have several instance of in the root (documents) – Bertrand Deroanne Jun 20 '16 at 16:17

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 20 '16 at 13:05

Surely you are serialising an array of BdfXmlData

in pseudo code

BdfXmlData[] dataInArray = new [] {new BdfXmlData()};
GetSerializedObject(dataInArray)

would produce what you have whereas,

in pseudo code..

BdfXmlData data = new BdfXmlData();
GetSerializedObject(data)

should give you what you want!

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Jun 20 '16 at 14:24

Exact, I serialise the Documents collection :

SerializationHelper.GetSerializedObject(xmlRootData.Documents);

In fact, I receive some XmlElement with this tree :

<document>
           ...
<document>

and I add these elements to my List "Documents".

xmlRootData.Documents.Add(xmlData);

When I serialise my final object (BdfXmlData), the xml contains 2 documents tags and 2 document tags

string xmlData = SerializationHelper.GetSerializedObject(xmlRootData);

<documents xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
  <document>
    <documents>
      <document>
      </document>
    <documents>
  </document>
</documents>

Xml .NET : Remove ArrayOfXmlElement and XmlElement

3 Answers3