Serialize into an XML Fragment - not XML Document

Question

How do I serialize an XML-serializable object to an XML fragment (no XML declaration nor namespace references in the root element)?

Answer 1

Hi Canoehead,

How to serialize an object to XML by using Visual C#

Answer 2

You should be able to just serialize like you usually do, and then use the Root property from the resulting document.

You may need to clear the attributes of the element first.

Answer 3

Here is a hack-ish way to do it without having to load the entire output string into an XmlDocument:

using System;
using System.Text;
using System.Xml;
using System.Xml.Serialization;

public class Example
{
    public String Name { get; set; }

    static void Main()
    {
        Example example = new Example { Name = "Foo" };

        XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(Example));

        XmlSerializerNamespaces emptyNamespace = new XmlSerializerNamespaces();
        emptyNamespace.Add(String.Empty, String.Empty);

        StringBuilder output = new StringBuilder();

        XmlWriter writer = XmlWriter.Create(output,
            new XmlWriterSettings { OmitXmlDeclaration = true });
        serializer.Serialize(writer, example, emptyNamespace);

        Console.WriteLine(output.ToString());
    }
}