Serializing to XML via DataContract: custom output?

Question

I have a custom Fraction class, which I'm using throughout my whole project. It's simple, it consists of a single constructor, accepts two ints and stores them. I'd like to use the DataContractSerializer to serialize my objects used in my project, some of which include Fractions as fields. Ideally, I'd like to be able to serialize such objects like this:

<Object>
    ...
    <Frac>1/2</Frac> // "1/2" would get converted back into a Fraction on deserialization.
    ...
</Object>

As opposed to this:

<Object>
    ...
    <Frac>
        <Numerator>1</Numerator>
        <Denominator>2</Denominator>
    </Frac>
    ...
</Object>

Is there any way to do this using DataContracts?

I'd like to do this because I plan on making the XML files user-editable (I'm using them as input for a music game, and they act as notecharts, essentially), and want to keep the notation as terse as possible for the end user, so they won't need to deal with as many walls of text.

EDIT: I should also note that I currently have my Fraction class as immutable (all fields are readonly), so being able to change the state of an existing Fraction wouldn't be possible. Returning a new Fraction object would be OK, though.

Answer 1

You'll have to switch back to the XMLSerializer to do that. The DataContractSerializer is a bit more restrictive in terms of being able to customise the output.

Answer 2

If you add a property that represents the Frac element and apply the DataMember attribute to it rather than the other properties you will get what you want I believe:

[DataContract]
public class MyObject {
    Int32 _Numerator;
    Int32 _Denominator;
    public MyObject(Int32 numerator, Int32 denominator) {
        _Numerator = numerator;
        _Denominator = denominator;
    }
    public Int32 Numerator {
        get { return _Numerator; }
        set { _Numerator = value; }
    }
    public Int32 Denominator {
        get { return _Denominator; }
        set { _Denominator = value; }
    }
    [DataMember(Name="Frac")]
    public String Fraction {
        get { return _Numerator + "/" + _Denominator; }
        set {
            String[] parts = value.Split(new char[] { '/' });
            _Numerator = Int32.Parse(parts[0]);
            _Denominator = Int32.Parse(parts[1]);
        }
    }
}

Answer 3

DataContractSerializer will use a custom IXmlSerializable if it is provided in place of a DataContractAttribute. This will allow you to customize the XML formatting in anyway you need... but you will have to hand code the serialization and deserialization process for your class.

public class Fraction: IXmlSerializable 
{
    private Fraction()
    {
    }
    public Fraction(int numerator, int denominator)
    {
        this.Numerator = numerator;
        this.Denominator = denominator;
    }
    public int Numerator { get; private set; }
    public int Denominator { get; private set; }

    public XmlSchema GetSchema()
    {
        throw new NotImplementedException();
    }

    public void ReadXml(XmlReader reader)
    {
        var content = reader.ReadInnerXml();
        var parts = content.Split('/');
        Numerator = int.Parse(parts[0]);
        Denominator = int.Parse(parts[1]);
    }

    public void WriteXml(XmlWriter writer)
    {
        writer.WriteRaw(this.ToString());
    }

    public override string ToString()
    {
        return string.Format("{0}/{1}", Numerator, Denominator);
    }
}
[DataContract(Name = "Object", Namespace="")]
public class MyObject
{
    [DataMember]
    public Fraction Frac { get; set; }
}

class Program
{
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        var myobject = new MyObject
        {
            Frac = new Fraction(1, 2)
        };

        var dcs = new DataContractSerializer(typeof(MyObject));

        string xml = null;
        using (var ms = new MemoryStream())
        {
            dcs.WriteObject(ms, myobject);
            xml = Encoding.UTF8.GetString(ms.ToArray());
            Console.WriteLine(xml);
            // <Object><Frac>1/2</Frac></Object>
        }

        using (var ms = new MemoryStream(Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(xml)))
        {
            ms.Position = 0;
            var obj = dcs.ReadObject(ms) as MyObject;

            Console.WriteLine(obj.Frac);
            // 1/2
        }
    }
}

Answer 4

You can do this with the DataContractSerializer, albeit in a way that feels hacky to me. You can take advantage of the fact that data members can be private variables, and use a private string as your serialized member. The data contract serializer will also execute methods at certain points in the process that are marked with [On(De)Serializ(ed|ing)] attributes - inside of those, you can control how the int fields are mapped to the string, and vice-versa. The downside is that you lose the automatic serialization magic of the DataContractSerializer on your class, and now have more logic to maintain.

Anyways, here's what I would do:

[DataContract]
public class Fraction
{
    [DataMember(Name = "Frac")]
    private string serialized;

    public int Numerator { get; private set; }
    public int Denominator { get; private set; }

    [OnSerializing]
    public void OnSerializing(StreamingContext context)
    {
        // This gets called just before the DataContractSerializer begins.
        serialized = Numerator.ToString() + "/" + Denominator.ToString();
    }

    [OnDeserialized]
    public void OnDeserialized(StreamingContext context)
    {
        // This gets called after the DataContractSerializer finishes its work
        var nums = serialized.Split("/");
        Numerator = int.Parse(nums[0]);
        Denominator = int.Parse(nums[1]);
    }
}