Problem with XML Deserialization C#

Question

I am having trouble with XML deserialization.

In a nutshell - I have 2 classes:

• SMSMessage
• SMSSendingResponse

I call an API that takes a bunch of parameters (represented by SMSMessage class)

It returns an XML response. The response looks like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<data>
  <status>1</status>
  <message>OK</message>
  <results>
    <result>
      <account>12345</account>
      <to>012345678</to>
      <from>054321</from>
      <message>Testing</message>
      <flash></flash>
      <replace></replace>
      <report></report>
      <concat></concat>
      <id>f8d3eea1cbf6771a4bb02af3fb15253e</id>
    </result>
  </results>
</data>

Here is the SMSMessage class (with the xml serialization attributes so far)

using System.Xml.Serialization;

namespace XMLSerializationHelp
{
    [XmlRoot("results")]
    public class SMSMessage
    {
        public string To
        {
            get
            {
                return Result.To;
            }
        }

        public string From
        {
            get
            {
                return Result.From;
            }
        }

        public string Message
        {
            get
            {
                return Result.Message;
            }
        }

        [XmlElement("result")]
        public Result Result { get; set; }
    }
}

Here is SMSMessageSendingResponse:

using System.Xml.Serialization;

namespace XMLSerializationHelp
{
    [XmlRoot("data")]
    public class SMSSendingResponse
    {
        //should come from the results/result/account element. in our example "12345"
        public string AccountNumber
        {
            get
            {
                return SMSMessage.Result.AccountNumber;
            }
        }

        //should come from the "status" xml element
        [XmlElement("status")]
        public string Status { get; set; }

        //should come from the "message" xml element (in our example - "OK")
        [XmlElement("message")]
        public string Message { get; set; }

        //should come from the "id" xml element (in our example - "f8d3eea1cbf6771a4bb02af3fb15253e")
        public string ResponseID
        {
            get
            {
                return SMSMessage.Result.ResponseID;
            }
        }

        //should be created from the results/result element - ignore flash, replace, report and concat elements for now.
        [XmlElement("results")]
        public SMSMessage SMSMessage { get; set; }
    }
}

Here is the other class (Result) - I want to get rid of this, so only the 2 previously mentioned classes remain

using System.Xml.Serialization;

namespace XMLSerializationHelp
{
    [XmlRoot("result")]
    public class Result
    {
        [XmlElement("account")]
        public string AccountNumber{ get; set; }

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

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

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

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

I don't want SMSMessage to be aware of the SMSSendingResponse - as this will be handled by a different part of my application

Answer 1

I hope this helps. The XML structure implies the <result> element can occur more than once, so see if this helps you achieve what you need:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Xml.Serialization;
using System.Xml;

namespace XMLSerializationHelp
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            string strXML = @"<?xml version=""1.0"" encoding=""utf-8""?>
<data>
  <status>1</status>
  <message>OK</message>
  <results>
    <result>
      <account>12345</account>
      <to>012345678</to>
      <from>054321</from>
      <message>Testing</message>
      <flash></flash>
      <replace></replace>
      <report></report>
      <concat></concat>
      <id>f8d3eea1cbf6771a4bb02af3fb15253e</id>
    </result>
  </results>
</data>";

            XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(SMSSendingResponse));
            SMSSendingResponse obj = (SMSSendingResponse)serializer.Deserialize(new XmlTextReader(strXML, XmlNodeType.Document, null));

            Console.WriteLine("Status:         {0}", obj.Status);
            Console.WriteLine("Message:        {0}", obj.Message);
            Console.WriteLine("Account Number: {0}", obj.AccountNumber);
            Console.WriteLine("ResponseID:     {0}", obj.ResponseID);
            Console.WriteLine("To:             {0}", obj.To);
            Console.WriteLine("From:           {0}", obj.From);
            Console.WriteLine("ResultMessage:  {0}", obj.ResultMessage);

            Console.ReadLine();
        }
    }

    [Serializable]
    [XmlRoot("data")]
    public class SMSSendingResponse
    {
        public SMSSendingResponse() {}

        //should come from the "status" xml element
        [XmlElement("status")]
        public string Status { get; set; }

        //should come from the "message" xml element (in our example - "OK")
        [XmlElement("message")]
        public string Message { get; set; }

        //should come from the results/result/account element. in our example "12345"
        [XmlIgnore()]
        public string AccountNumber
        {
            get
            {
                Result r = FirstResult;
                return (r != null) ? r.AccountNumber : null;
            }
        }

        //should come from the "id" xml element (in our example - "f8d3eea1cbf6771a4bb02af3fb15253e")
        [XmlIgnore()]
        public string ResponseID
        {
            get
            {
                Result r = FirstResult;
                return (r != null) ? r.ResponseID : null; 
            }
        }

        [XmlIgnore()]
        public string To
        {
            get
            {
                Result r = FirstResult;
                return (r != null) ? r.To : null;
            }
        }

        [XmlIgnore()]
        public string From
        {
            get
            {
                Result r = FirstResult;
                return (r != null) ? r.From : null;
            }
        }

        [XmlIgnore()]
        public string ResultMessage
        {
            get
            {
                Result r = FirstResult;
                return (r != null) ? r.Message : null;
            }
        }

        [XmlArray("results"), XmlArrayItem("result", typeof(Result))]
        public List<Result> Results
        {
            get { return (_Results); }
            set { _Results = value; }
        } private List<Result> _Results = new List<Result>();

        [XmlIgnore()]
        public Result FirstResult
        {
            get
            {
                return (_Results != null && _Results.Count > 0) ? _Results[0] : null;
            }
        }

    }

    [XmlType(TypeName = "result"), Serializable]
    public class Result
    {
        public Result() {}

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

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

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

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

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