XmlSerializer.Deserialize issue with either root element missing or element not expected

Question

I'm having some issues deserializing an xml document. The document I am trying to deserialize is this:

<slt:CreateGiftRegistryResponse xmlns:slt="http://WWW.example.com/"&gt;
<slt:Response>
<slt:ResponseCode>ERROR</slt:ResponseCode>
<slt:ResponseDescription>Request unsuccessfull null</slt:ResponseDescription>
</slt:Response></slt:CreateGiftRegistryResponse>

My class looks like this:

/// <summary>
/// response to attempt to add items to a registry
/// </summary>
[XmlRoot("CreateGiftRegistryResponse")]
public class CreateRegistryResponse : ResponseBase
{
    // Constant Declarations

    // Variable Declarations

    #region --- Constructors ---

    public CreateRegistryResponse()
        : this(String.Empty) { }

    /// <summary>
    /// response to attempt to add items to a registry
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="response">xml string</param>
    public CreateRegistryResponse(string responseXml)
    {
        try
        {
            Load(responseXml);
        }
        catch (Exception ex)
        {
            // Report the exception and throw to the caller for handling.
            ExceptionManager.Publish(ex,
                "ctor CreateRegistryResponse() failed.",
                Severity.Fatal);
            throw;
        }
    }
    #endregion

    #region --- Properties ---
    /// <summary>
    /// structure for the typical response - code and description
    /// </summary>
    [XmlElement("Response")]
    public ResponseWS Response { get; set; }


    #endregion

    #region --- Static Methods ---
    #endregion

    #region --- CRUD ---
    #endregion

    #region --- Validation ---
    #endregion

    #region --- Business Methods ---
    /// <summary>
    /// Load the web service result string into a Result.
    /// </summary>
    public void Load(string response)
    {
        try
        {
            XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(CreateRegistryResponse), this.GetExtraTypes());
            byte[] byteArray = Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(response);
            MemoryStream stream = new MemoryStream(byteArray);

            // convert the results into a usable format
            CreateRegistryResponse formattedResponse = serializer.Deserialize(stream) as CreateRegistryResponse;

            this.Response = formattedResponse.Response;
            if (formattedResponse.Response.ResponseCode == ResponseCode.SUCCESS.ToString())
            {
                this.IsSuccessful = true;
            }


        }
        catch (Exception ex)
        {
            // Report the exception and throw to the caller for handling.
            ExceptionManager.Publish(ex,
                "Load() failed. Unable to authenticate user.",
                Severity.Fatal);
            throw;
        }
        finally
        {
            //
            // TODO: Add clean-up code here, if needed.
            //
        }
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Get an array of types that are possibly contained within this class
    /// </summary>
    public Type[] GetExtraTypes()
    {
        try
        {
            //
            // TODO: Add code here.
            //
            // build an array of possible types within this type.
            List<Type> types = new List<Type>();
            types.Add(typeof(ResponseWS));


            return types.ToArray();


        }
        catch (Exception ex)
        {
            // Report the exception and throw to the caller for handling.
            ExceptionManager.Publish(ex,
                "GetExtraTypes() failed. Unable to return list",
                Severity.Fatal);
            throw;
        }
    }
    #endregion
}

When I use this code, I get this error: {" was not expected."}

If I change the XmlRoot element to also contain the Namespace, then my error changes to root element is missing.

I thought that one of these would give me the result I expected, but that's not the case. Can someone spot what I'm missing here?

Answer 1

An approach I've used when trying to get my classes decorated correctly when deserializing is to use XSD.exe to generate c# classes based on the XSD, then compare the decoration to my own class. On more than one occasion it has shed light on issues.

Open a visual studio command prompt, then:

xsd /c <filename>.xsd

Answer 2

Set the Namespace property of your XmlRoot attribute according to the namespace of the XML element.

Is it a fragment of the XML document or the complete one? I don't see the XML declaration