views:

432

answers:

1

Is it possible to avoid list property tags when serializing?

//[Serializable()] - removed, unnecessary
public class Foo
{
 protected List<FooBar> fooBars = new List<FooBar>();
 public virtual List<FooBar> FooBars
 {
  get { return fooBars; }
  set { fooBars = value; }
 }
}

// [Serializable()] - removed, unnecessary
public class FooBar
{
 public int MyProperty
 { get; set; }
}

Serializing Foo gives (except the comment):

<Foo xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"&gt;
  <FooBars>    <!-- Unwanted tag -->
    <FooBar>
      <MyProperty>7</MyProperty> 
    </FooBar>
    <FooBar>
      <MyProperty>9</MyProperty> 
    </FooBar>
  </FooBars>
</Foo>

Wanted output:

<Foo xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"&gt;
  <FooBar>
    <MyProperty>7</MyProperty> 
  </FooBar>
  <FooBar>
    <MyProperty>9</MyProperty> 
  </FooBar>

+5  A: 

Adding:

[System.Xml.Serialization.XmlElement("FooBar")]
public virtual List<FooBar> FooBars 
{ 
    get { return fooBars; } 
    set { fooBars = value; }
}

Results in

<FooMain xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http:/
/www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
  <FooBar>
    <MyProperty>7</MyProperty>
  </FooBar>
  <FooBar>
    <MyProperty>76</MyProperty>
  </FooBar>
  <FooBar>
    <MyProperty>67</MyProperty>
  </FooBar>
</FooMain>
JoshBerke