XmlRoot() for Xml Serilization does not work

Question

I'm trying to get my httphandler to print out an XML file with the format:

<ScheduledShows>
    <ScheduledShowElement>...</ScheduledShowElement>
    <ScheduledShowElement>...</ScheduledShowElement>
    <ScheduledShowElement>...</ScheduledShowElement>
</ScheduledShows>

But for some reason, the attribute XmlRoot("ScheduledShowElement") in ScheduledShow.cs is not working the way i want it to work. Instead, the output i get is:

<ScheduledShows>
    <ScheduledShow>...<ScheduledShow>
    <ScheduledShow>...<ScheduledShow>
    <ScheduledShow>...<ScheduledShow
</ScheduledShows>

Basically, the name of the node is not being overriden to . How do i get my xml serializer to label nodes as ?

Below is my code and xml output. Thanks!

OneDayScheduleHandler.cs

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Web;

using System.Xml.Serialization;
using Microsoft.Practices.EnterpriseLibrary.Data;
using System.Data.Common;
using System.Data;
using System.IO;
using System.Xml;
using System.Text;
using CommunityServer.Scheduler;
namespace CommunityServer.Scheduler
{

    public class OneDayScheduleHandler : IHttpHandler
    {
        private readonly int NoLimitOnSize = -1;

        public void ProcessRequest(HttpContext context)
        {
            int offsetInDays, timezone, size;

            DateTime selectedDateTime;
            Int32.TryParse(context.Request.QueryString["timezone"], out timezone);
            Int32.TryParse(context.Request.QueryString["daysToOffset"], out offsetInDays);
            if (!String.IsNullOrEmpty(context.Request.QueryString["size"]))
            {
                Int32.TryParse(context.Request.QueryString["size"], out size);
            }
            else
            {
                size = NoLimitOnSize; 
            }

            if (timezone < (int)ScheduleConstants.TimeZone.Eastern)
            {
                selectedDateTime = DateTime.Now.AddMinutes(-180);
            }
            else
            {
                selectedDateTime = DateTime.Now;
            }
            selectedDateTime = selectedDateTime.AddDays(offsetInDays);
            context.Response.ContentType = "text/xml";
            context.Response.Write(SerializeToXML((List<ScheduledShow>)GetSheduledShowsByDateTime(selectedDateTime, size)));
        }

        public bool IsReusable
        {
            get
            {
                return false;
            }
        }



        public static IList<ScheduledShow> GetSheduledShowsByDateTime(DateTime date, int size)
        {
            List<ScheduledShow> shows = new List<ScheduledShow>();
            Database db = DatabaseFactory.CreateDatabase("TVScheduleSqlServer");

            DbCommand cmd = db.GetStoredProcCommand("sp_get_YTVDayShowlist");

            db.AddInParameter(cmd, "@CurrentDay", DbType.DateTime, date);
            IDataReader reader = db.ExecuteReader(cmd);
            int i = 0;
            while (reader.Read() && (i < size || size == -1))
            {
                ScheduledShow show = new ScheduledShow();
                show.AirTime = Convert.ToDateTime(reader["Airing_datetime"].ToString());
                show.StationId = Convert.ToInt32(reader["Station_id"].ToString());
                show.ScheduleRowId = Convert.ToInt32(reader["id"].ToString());
                show.StoryLine = reader["StoryLine"].ToString();
                show.Title = reader["Title_name"].ToString();
                show.SimsTitleId = Convert.ToInt32(reader["Sims_title_id"].ToString());
                show.ProgramId = Convert.ToInt32(reader["Program_id"].ToString());
                show.Genre = reader["Genre_list"].ToString();
                show.ProgramName = reader["program_name"].ToString();
                show.ShowUrl = reader["ShowURL"].ToString();
                show.CssClass = reader["CSSCLASS"].ToString();
                shows.Add(show);
                i++;
            }
            reader.Close();
            reader.Dispose();
            return shows;
        }

        static public string SerializeToXML(List<ScheduledShow> shows)
        {
            XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(List<ScheduledShow>), new XmlRootAttribute("ScheduledShows"));
            //StringWriter stringWriter = new StringWriter();
            string xml;
            using (MemoryStream memoryStream = new MemoryStream())
            {
                using (XmlTextWriter xmlTextWriter = new XmlTextWriter(memoryStream, Encoding.UTF8))
                {
                    serializer.Serialize(xmlTextWriter, shows);
                    using (MemoryStream memoryStream2 = (MemoryStream)xmlTextWriter.BaseStream)
                    {
                        xml = UTF8ByteArrayToString(memoryStream2.ToArray());
                    }
                }
            }

            return xml;
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// To convert a Byte Array of Unicode values (UTF-8 encoded) to a complete String.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="characters">Unicode Byte Array to be converted to String</param>
        /// <returns>String converted from Unicode Byte Array</returns>
        private static String UTF8ByteArrayToString(Byte[] characters)
        {
            UTF8Encoding encoding = new UTF8Encoding();
            String constructedString = encoding.GetString(characters);
            return (constructedString);
        }
    }
}

ScheduledShow.cs

using System;
using System.Xml.Serialization;


namespace CommunityServer.Scheduler
{

    [XmlRoot("ScheduledShowElement")]
    public class ScheduledShow
    {

        [XmlElement("AirTime")]
        public DateTime AirTime
        { get; set; }

        [XmlElement("StationId")]
        public int StationId
        { get; set; }

        [XmlElement("ScheduleRowId")]
        public int ScheduleRowId
        { get; set; }

        [XmlElement("StoryLine")]
        public string StoryLine
        { get; set; }

        [XmlElement("Title")]
        public string Title
        { get; set; }

        [XmlElement("ProgramId")]
        public int ProgramId
        { get; set; }

        [XmlElement("Genre")]
        public string Genre
        { get; set; }

        [XmlElement("ProgramName")]
        public string ProgramName
        { get; set; }

        [XmlElement("SimsTitleId")]
        public int SimsTitleId
        { get; set; }

        [XmlElement("ShowUrl")]
        public string ShowUrl
        { get; set; }

        [XmlElement("CssClass")]
        public string CssClass
        { get; set; }

    }
}

Output of the xml file

 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<ScheduledShows xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"&gt;
    <ScheduledShow>
        <AirTime xmlns="http://example.books.com"&gt;2009-09-17T10:20:00&lt;/AirTime&gt;
        <StationId xmlns="http://example.books.com"&gt;770&lt;/StationId&gt;
        <ScheduleRowId xmlns="http://example.books.com"&gt;17666100&lt;/ScheduleRowId&gt;
        <StoryLine xmlns="http://example.books.com"&gt;When Dooley demonstrates his newest hobby, magic, Willa gets an idea.  A huge backyard magic show!  Starring the Great Doolini and his amazing disappearing elephant trick!  Unfortunately, Lou the elephant misunderstands and thinks Willa wants him to disappear for real.   In the middle of the show Willa must find Lou and apologize so he&amp;rsquo;ll reappear! / When the animals and Willa discover an egg in their backyard, their parental propriety  kicks in.   Especially when Dooley relates a factoid about young hatchlings imprinting on the first critter they see.   Willa&amp;rsquo;s critters vie for egg watching rights, so they can be first to be called Mama!  Or Poppa!</StoryLine>
        <Title xmlns="http://example.books.com"&gt;Disappearing Act / Great Eggspectations</Title>
        <ProgramId xmlns="http://example.books.com"&gt;2202&lt;/ProgramId&gt;
        <Genre xmlns="http://example.books.com"&gt;Animated&lt;/Genre&gt;
        <ProgramName xmlns="http://example.books.com"&gt;Willa's Wild Life</ProgramName>
        <SimsTitleId xmlns="http://example.books.com"&gt;68914&lt;/SimsTitleId&gt;
        <ShowUrl xmlns="http://example.books.com"&gt;willas_wildlife&lt;/ShowUrl&gt;
        <CssClass xmlns="http://example.books.com"&gt;none&lt;/CssClass&gt;
    </ScheduledShow>
    <ScheduledShow>
        <AirTime xmlns="http://example.books.com"&gt;2009-09-17T10:45:00&lt;/AirTime&gt;
        <StationId xmlns="http://example.books.com"&gt;770&lt;/StationId&gt;
        <ScheduleRowId xmlns="http://example.books.com"&gt;17666105&lt;/ScheduleRowId&gt;
        <StoryLine xmlns="http://example.books.com"&gt;It&amp;amp;rsquo;s Club Day in Gloomsville. The gang splinter off to form clubs and prepare for the club&amp;rsquo;s appearance in the big Gloomsville parade.  Skull Boy forms the coolest club of all with some new jazzy skeletal friends that no one ever sees.  At first no one believes Skull Boy has these new friends since every time they want to meet them, they disappear.   When pressed for details, she admits she hasn&amp;rsquo;t met them yet &amp;ndash; they&amp;rsquo;re imaginary. </StoryLine>
        <Title xmlns="http://example.books.com"&gt;Skull Boys Don't Cry</Title>
        <ProgramId xmlns="http://example.books.com"&gt;1418&lt;/ProgramId&gt;
        <Genre xmlns="http://example.books.com"&gt;Animated&lt;/Genre&gt;
        <ProgramName xmlns="http://example.books.com"&gt;Ruby Gloom</ProgramName>
        <SimsTitleId xmlns="http://example.books.com"&gt;54297&lt;/SimsTitleId&gt;
        <ShowUrl xmlns="http://example.books.com"&gt;rubygloom&lt;/ShowUrl&gt;
        <CssClass xmlns="http://example.books.com"&gt;none&lt;/CssClass&gt;
    </ScheduledShow>
    <ScheduledShow>
        <AirTime xmlns="http://example.books.com"&gt;2009-09-17T11:10:00&lt;/AirTime&gt;
        <StationId xmlns="http://example.books.com"&gt;770&lt;/StationId&gt;
        <ScheduleRowId xmlns="http://example.books.com"&gt;17666113&lt;/ScheduleRowId&gt;
        <StoryLine xmlns="http://example.books.com"&gt;When Mad Margaret gets trapped in a jar she becomes a source of entertainment for Erky./Erky and Perky need a place to live and who better to find it for them than Frenzel.</StoryLine>
        <Title xmlns="http://example.books.com"&gt;Erky's Birthday / Location Location Location</Title>
        <ProgramId xmlns="http://example.books.com"&gt;1347&lt;/ProgramId&gt;
        <Genre xmlns="http://example.books.com"&gt;Animated&lt;/Genre&gt;
        <ProgramName xmlns="http://example.books.com"&gt;Erky Perky</ProgramName>
        <SimsTitleId xmlns="http://example.books.com"&gt;49009&lt;/SimsTitleId&gt;
        <ShowUrl xmlns="http://example.books.com"&gt;erky_perky&lt;/ShowUrl&gt;
        <CssClass xmlns="http://example.books.com"&gt;none&lt;/CssClass&gt;
    </ScheduledShow>
    <ScheduledShow>
        <AirTime xmlns="http://example.books.com"&gt;2009-09-17T11:35:00&lt;/AirTime&gt;
        <StationId xmlns="http://example.books.com"&gt;770&lt;/StationId&gt;
        <ScheduleRowId xmlns="http://example.books.com"&gt;17666116&lt;/ScheduleRowId&gt;
        <StoryLine xmlns="http://example.books.com"&gt;SYNOPSIS:The Joyco toy company has heard about George and his Zoopercar and they want to market it as their newest toy.  But George isn't interested in selling his prized mode of transportation.  Afterall, he and his Dad built it together and no one can take that special bond away from him.  But two Joyco toy employees, Barry and Steve, have other plans.  If George won't sell it to them, they will just have to take it, which they do.  But once their boss, Big Ed Easy finds out that George has be</StoryLine>
        <Title xmlns="http://example.books.com"&gt;ZOOPERCAR CAPER</Title>
        <ProgramId xmlns="http://example.books.com"&gt;311&lt;/ProgramId&gt;
        <Genre xmlns="http://example.books.com" />
        <ProgramName xmlns="http://example.books.com"&gt;George Shrinks</ProgramName>
        <SimsTitleId xmlns="http://example.books.com"&gt;25371&lt;/SimsTitleId&gt;
        <ShowUrl xmlns="http://example.books.com" />
        <CssClass xmlns="http://example.books.com"&gt;none&lt;/CssClass&gt;
    </ScheduledShow>
    <ScheduledShow>
        <AirTime xmlns="http://example.books.com"&gt;2009-09-17T11:35:00&lt;/AirTime&gt;
        <StationId xmlns="http://example.books.com"&gt;770&lt;/StationId&gt;
        <ScheduleRowId xmlns="http://example.books.com"&gt;17666116&lt;/ScheduleRowId&gt;
        <StoryLine xmlns="http://example.books.com"&gt;SYNOPSIS:The Joyco toy company has heard about George and his Zoopercar and they want to market it as their newest toy.  But George isn't interested in selling his prized mode of transportation.  Afterall, he and his Dad built it together and no one can take that special bond away from him.  But two Joyco toy employees, Barry and Steve, have other plans.  If George won't sell it to them, they will just have to take it, which they do.  But once their boss, Big Ed Easy finds out that George has be</StoryLine>
        <Title xmlns="http://example.books.com"&gt;ZOOPERCAR CAPER</Title>
        <ProgramId xmlns="http://example.books.com"&gt;311&lt;/ProgramId&gt;
        <Genre xmlns="http://example.books.com" />
        <ProgramName xmlns="http://example.books.com"&gt;George Shrinks</ProgramName>
        <SimsTitleId xmlns="http://example.books.com"&gt;25371&lt;/SimsTitleId&gt;
        <ShowUrl xmlns="http://example.books.com"&gt;george_shrinks&lt;/ShowUrl&gt;
        <CssClass xmlns="http://example.books.com"&gt;none&lt;/CssClass&gt;
    </ScheduledShow>
</ScheduledShows>

Answer 1

[XmlRoot(...)] only affects the outermost element (<ScheduledShows>...</ScheduledShows>). I suspect you want [XmlElement(...)]. Of course, another way is to write an object wrapper:

[XmlRoot("SheduledShows")]
public class Shows {
    [XmlElement("SheduledShowElement")]
    public List<Show> Shows {get;set;}
}

And serialize this wrapper object instead of just a list.

Answer 2

You need to use the overloaded constructor that takes in a XmlAttributeOverrides and make sure you override the name of the ScheduledShow class.

Answer 3

I found an answer to my question here:

http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/asmxandxml/thread/4b228734-a209-445a-991c-0420b381ac93

I just used [XmlType("")] and that worked.

using System;
using System.Xml.Serialization;


namespace CommunityServer.Scheduler
{

    [XmlType("ScheduledShowElement")]
    public class ScheduledShow
    {

      ...
    }
}