.NET 2.0: XML Serialization and Deserialization Example

Serialization for me is a pain in the butt. I think the ultimate goal is just to save typing but I'm not so sure that it's worth the aggravation. The following are two methods that do the work of serializing and deserializing objects. Following those are some sample classes with the right syntax and the resulting xml. If all the stars line up, you get interoperable xml and objects. You can even use the magical XSD.exe to generate your classes from well formed XML. As with all magical tools, you need to get pretty lucky to make it work sometimes.

Serialize

public static string SerializeObject(T obj)
{
   try
   {
      string xmlString = null;
      MemoryStream memoryStream = new MemoryStream();
      XmlSerializer xs = new XmlSerializer(typeof(T));
      XmlTextWriter xmlTextWriter = new XmlTextWriter(memoryStream, Encoding.ASCII);
      xs.Serialize(xmlTextWriter, obj);
      memoryStream = (MemoryStream)xmlTextWriter.BaseStream;

       ASCIIEncoding encoding = new ASCIIEncoding();
      xmlString = encoding.GetString(memoryStream.ToArray());

      return xmlString;
   }
   catch
   {
      return string.Empty;
   }
}

Deserialize

public static T DeserializeObject(string xml)
{
   XmlSerializer xs = new XmlSerializer(typeof(T));

   ASCIIEncoding encoding = new ASCIIEncoding();
   byte[] byteArray = encoding.GetBytes(xml);

   MemoryStream memoryStream = new MemoryStream(byteArray);
   XmlTextWriter xmlTextWriter = new XmlTextWriter(memoryStream, Encoding.ASCII);
   return (T)xs.Deserialize(memoryStream);
}

Object Classes

// the root element in the resulting xml, there can be only one
[XmlRoot("adf")]
public class ADF
{
    public ADF()
    {
         Prospect = new Prospect();
    }

    [XmlElement("prospect")]
    public Prospect Prospect;
}

// a wrapper element for all the other elements in the document, not the same as the root element
public class Prospect
{
    public Prospect()
    {
        Vehicles = new Vehicles();
    }

    [XmlElement("requestdate")]
    public string RequestDate;

    [XmlElement("vehicles")]
    public Vehicles Vehicles;

    [XmlElement("customer")]
    public Customer Customer;
}

public class Customer
{
    public Customer()
    {
        Name = new Name();
    }

    [XmlElement("name")]
    public Name Name;
}

// an element with text inside and an attribute called "part"
public class Name
{
    [XmlText]
    public string Text;

    [XmlAttribute("part")]
    public string Part;
}

// an element that contains a list of child elements
[Serializable] // notice this is necessary for using generic collections (using System.Collections.Generic)
public class Vehicles
{
    [XmlElement("vehicle")]
    public List<Vehicle> Vehicle;
}

// a child element with many properties
public class Vehicle
{
    [XmlElement("year")]
    public string Year;

    [XmlElement("make")]
    public string Make;

    [XmlElement("model")]
    public string Model;
}

Resulting XML (or Source XML)

<adf>
 <prospect>
    <customer>
      <name part="full">Patrick Lewis</name>
    </customer>
    <vehicles>
      <vehicle>
        <year>2005</year>
        <make>Toyota</make>
        <model>Tacoma</model>
      </vehicle>
      <vehicle>
        <year>2007</year>
        <make>Ducati</make>
        <model>Monster</model>
      </vehicle>
    </vehicles>
  </prospect>
</adf>

Working with the object

public void serialize()
{
    // create an object, (I didn't use constructors so this is a pita)
    ADF adf = new ADF();
    adf.Prospect.Customer.Name.Text = "Patrick Lewis";
    adf.Prospect.Customer.Name.Part = "full";

    Vehicle v1 = new Vehicle();
    v1.Make = "Toyota";
    v1.Year = "2005";
    v1.Model = "Tacoma";
    adf.Prospect.Vehicles.Vehicle.Add(v1);
    
    Vehicle v2 = new Vehicle();
    v2.Make = "Ducati";
    v2.Model = "Monster";
    v2.Year = "2007";
    adf.Prospect.Vehicles.Vehicle.Add(v2);
    
    // serialize
    string xml = SerializeObject(adf);

    // use the xml for something
    XmlDocument xDoc = new XmlDocument();
    xDoc.LoadXml(xml);

    // deserialize
    ADF adf2 = DeserializeObject(xDoc.OuterXml);

    // use the object data for something
    string name = adf2.Prospect.Customer.Name.Text;
}