XmlSerialization, Serialize only one Property of a Child Element

Question

With a model such as ..

class Base {
  public Child Child { get; set; }
}
class Child {
  public int Id { get; set; }
  // other properties
}

I want to do Xml Serialization, but for the Child object on Base, I only want to serialize the Id property. The rest of the Child object will be serialized into its own separate file. Is this possible to do without making two sets of models?

Even if this is possible how you could handle the deserialization for the Base? — Jalal Said, Jun 29 '11 at 18:05

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Jun 29 '11 at 17:56

1

You could possibly use the XmlIgnore attribute on all of the other properties. Not sure if that will get the result you're after.

answered Jun 29 '11 at 17:56

Matthew Steeples

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score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 29 '11 at 17:59

1

If you only serialize Child in the context of Base, you can mark the other members with [XmlIgnore] and they won't appear.

If you need a different layout in different contexts, then you can use XmlAttributeOverrides to define the model at runtime, but this isn't trivial. Also, if doing this you MUST cache and re-use the resulting XmlSerializer (there is a ctor that accepts the overrides), or it will leak dynamic assemblies (there is an inbuilt cache for the trivial typeof(SomeRoot) serializers, but custom serializers are not automatically cached, and generate an assembly each; assemblies cannot be unloaded).

answered Jun 29 '11 at 17:59

Marc Gravell

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XmlIgnore isn't an option because I *do* still need the `Child` object to be serializable. – Ciel Jun 29 '11 at 18:16
@Ciel did you see the rest of the post where I explained in quite some detail how you can achieve that on a single model? – Marc Gravell Jun 29 '11 at 19:23
Yes, sorry. I had to go out of town for a few days. Thank you. – Ciel Jul 04 '11 at 16:38

XmlSerialization, Serialize only one Property of a Child Element

2 Answers2