.NET XML Serialization Options.
I am creating a service that returns XML (no SOAP, no ATOM, just old old XML). Let's say I have domain objects that are already populated with data and I just need to convert them to XML format. What options do I have in .NET?
Requirements:
- The conversion is not 1: 1. Let's say I have an Address property of type Address with nested properties like Line1, City, Postcode, etc. Perhaps this could lead to XML like
<xaddr city="...">Line1, Postcode</xaddr>
, that is, quite different. - Some XML elements / attributes are conditional, for example, if the client is under 18, the XML should contain some additional information.
- I only need to serialize objects to XML, the other direction (XML for objects) is not important
- Some technologies, i.e. Data contracts use .NET attributes. Other configuration tools (XML foreign configuration, friend classes, etc.) would be a plus.
Here are the options I see as a moment. Corrections / additions would be very welcome.
- String concatenation - forget it, it was a joke :)
- Linq 2 XML - Full control, but quite a lot of handwritten code, a good set of unit tests would be required
- View engines in ASP.NET MVC (or even Web Forms in theory), logic in controllers. It's a question of how to structure it, I can have a simple rule engine in my controller and one view template per possible output, or have the decision logic directly in the template. Both have problems and disadvantages.
- XML serialization . I'm not sure about the flexibility here.
- Data contracts from WCF - not sure about flexibility, plus will they work in a simple ASP.NET MVC application (not for a WCF service)? Are they the superset of standard XML serialization now?
- If it exists, some XML-to-object mapping . The more I think about it, the more I think I'm looking for something like this, but I haven't found anything suitable.
Any comments / other options?
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1 answer
Xml Serialization works nicely. Attributes are used to configure it.
You can conditionally include items.
EDIT: I've updated the code to reflect your updated question.
[XmlRoot("pdata")] // this element name used if serialized to doc root
public class PersonalData
{
[XmlElement] // with no name here, elt name = prop name
public string Name;
[XmlElement] // with no name here, elt name = prop name
public int Age;
[XmlElement("xaddr")] // override xml element name
public AddressData Address;
[XmlElement]
public Under18Info Other {get; set;}
// serialize the above element, only if Age < 18
[XmlIgnore] // do not serialize the *Specified" property in any case
private bool OtherSpecified {
get { return Age < 18; }
}
}
public class AddressData
{
[XmlIgnore] // do not serialize (see Composite prop)
public string Line1 { get; set;}
[XmlAttribute("city")] // serialize as an attribute on the parent
public string City {get; set;}
[XmlIgnore] // do not serialize
public string Postcode {get; set;}
[XmlText] // serialize as the Text node
public string Composite
{
get { return Line1 + ", " + Postcode; }
set {
var split = value.Split(',');
Line1 = split[0];
Postcode= split[1];
}
}
}
Then, to serialize an instance of this to a string, for example:
var pdata = new PersonalData
{
Name = "Gordon Brown",
Age = 57,
Address = new AddressData
{
Line1 = "10 Downing St.",
Postcode = "1QR 3E4",
City = "London"
}
};
var ns= new System.Xml.Serialization.XmlSerializerNamespaces();
ns.Add( "", "");
var s1 = new XmlSerializer(typeof(PersonalData));
var builder = new System.Text.StringBuilder();
var xmlws = new System.Xml.XmlWriterSettings { OmitXmlDeclaration = true, Indent= true };
using ( var writer = System.Xml.XmlWriter.Create(builder, xmlws))
{
s1.Serialize(writer, pdata, ns);
}
string xml = builder.ToString();
Results:
<pdata>
<Name>Gordon Brown</Name>
<Age>57</Age>
<xaddr city="London">10 Downing St., 1QR 3E4</xaddr>
</pdata>
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