Hi,
Many times we need 2 make transforms object to xml and transform xml to object.
there is a very simple way in XmlSerializer class, we just have to call serialize or Deserialize function and we can get what want. I'll explain it by example:
let's say that we have RootData class:
public class RootData
{
public HeaderElement Header;
public List SubjectsList;
}
public class HeaderElement
{
public int DataType;
}
public class Subject
{
public string SubjectName;
public int SubjectID;
public int SubjectType;
}
and we need to make transforms with this xml:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<RootData xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
<Header>
<DataType>1</DataType>
</Header>
<SubjectsList>
<Subject>
<SubjectName>Name1</SubjectName>
<SubjectID>1</SubjectID>
<SubjectType>1</SubjectType>
</Subject>
<Subject>
<SubjectName>Name2</SubjectName>
<SubjectID>2</SubjectID>
<SubjectType>2</SubjectType>
</Subject>
<Subject>
<SubjectName>Name3</SubjectName>
<SubjectID>3</SubjectID>
<SubjectType>3</SubjectType>
</Subject>
</SubjectsList>
</RootData>
The function 2 make transform from object to xml is:
public string SerializeObject(Type oType, object oRootData)
{
//@@@ Create xml from the object
MemoryStream oMemoryStream = null;
XmlTextWriter oXmlTextWriter = null;
string sXml = null;
try
{
oMemoryStream = new MemoryStream();
XmlSerializer oXmlSerializer = new XmlSerializer(oType);
oXmlTextWriter = new XmlTextWriter(oMemoryStream, Encoding.UTF8);
oXmlSerializer.Serialize(oXmlTextWriter, oRootData);
oMemoryStream = (MemoryStream)oXmlTextWriter.BaseStream;
UTF8Encoding oUTF8Encoding = new UTF8Encoding();
sXml = oUTF8Encoding.GetString(oMemoryStream.ToArray());
}
catch (Exception)
{
throw;
}
finally
{
if (oMemoryStream != null)
oMemoryStream.Close();
if (oXmlTextWriter != null)
oXmlTextWriter.Close();
}
return sXml;
}
The function 2 make transform from xml to object is:
public object DeserializeObject(Type oType, string sXml)
{
//@@@ Create object from the xml
MemoryStream oMemoryStream = null;
object oRootData = null;
try
{
XmlSerializer oXmlSerializer = new XmlSerializer(oType);
UTF8Encoding oUTF8Encoding = new UTF8Encoding();
Byte[] Bytes = oUTF8Encoding.GetBytes(sXml);
oMemoryStream = new MemoryStream(Bytes);
oRootData = oXmlSerializer.Deserialize(oMemoryStream);
}
catch (Exception)
{
throw;
}
finally
{
if (oMemoryStream != null)
oMemoryStream.Close();
}
return oRootData;
}
Before u run this example, u can fill your object with this function:
public RootData CreateData()
{
RootData oRootData = new RootData();
HeaderElement oHeaderElement = new HeaderElement();
oHeaderElement.DataType = 1;
oRootData.Header = oHeaderElement;
Subject oSubject1 = new Subject();
oSubject1.SubjectID = 1;
oSubject1.SubjectName = "Name1";
oSubject1.SubjectType = 1;
Subject oSubject2 = new Subject();
oSubject2.SubjectID = 2;
oSubject2.SubjectName = "Name2";
oSubject2.SubjectType = 2;
Subject oSubject3 = new Subject();
oSubject3.SubjectID = 3;
oSubject3.SubjectName = "Name3";
oSubject3.SubjectType = 3;
List Subjects = new List();
Subjects.Add(oSubject1);
Subjects.Add(oSubject2);
Subjects.Add(oSubject3);
oRootData.SubjectsList = Subjects;
return oRootData;
}
And run this code to execute the transform:
RootData oRootData = CreateData();
string sXml = SerializeObject(typeof(RootData), oRootData);
oRootData = (RootData)DeserializeObject(typeof(RootData), sXml);
In this case when every data member trnsform 2 xml node we dont have to change or add nothing in the class, but there is a few useful attributes that we can use (just add it above the data member class):
- [XmlElement("<Xml Node Name>")] - by default, the XmlSerializer uses the data member name as the xml node name, if u want 2 change it - use this attribute
- [XmlElement(("<Xml Node Name>"), IsNullable = false)] - says that if the data member value is null it will not appear in the transformed xml
- [XmlAttribute] - use it when u want that the data member output will be xml attribute and not xml node
