How to transform between object and xml in c#

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