XmlSerializer and decorated classes (C#)

Question

I leveraging the XmlSerializer to convert to/from XML. Here is an example class:

[XmlRootAttribute("myClass")]
public class MyClass {
    private string someField;

    [XmlElement("someField")]
    public string SomeField {
        get {
            return someField;
        }

        set {
            someField = value;
        }
    }
}

The XML would look like the following:

<myClass>
    <someField>Some Value</someField>
</myClass>

I want to be able to add an attribute to this class. For example, sometimes I need to add change tracking to the element. An attribute, say "IdRef", would be added to the myClass element.

<myClass t:IdRef="someGuid" xmlns:t="uri:some:uri">
    <someField>SomeValue</someField>
</myClass>

I'm hoping to keep the IdRef attribute out of the main POCO class. Also, since there are many classes like the one above, so I'm hoping not to have to create a subclass for each one, adding the extended attribute. Maybe creating a custom implementation using the IXmlSerializer interface?

UPDATE I'm going with the simple solution described below. I think I was trying to "over think" this implementation and adding complexity where it wasn't needed.

Answer 1

What do I think? I think you'll have to stick them in your "POCO" class, but you can hide them away in a region labeled something like "extra serialization markup properties" and use other attributes to make them mostly invisible to consumers of your class.