.NET XML serialization in 2009

Question

Possible Duplicate:
Replacement for XML Serialization

Is something new besides old XmlSerializer on the world of xml serialization in .Net universe?

Update: This is probably duplicate of better asked question.

Answer 1

DataContractSerializer

It's used by WCF by default for example. See here for a comparison.

Personally, I hate that XmlSerializer can't do internal types. DataContractSerializer doesn't have that problem. Also, the DataContractSerializer is easier with generics for example. If you want to produce a human editable XML format, it might be less than ideal.

As Maxim pointed out, the DataContractSerializer behaves a little different from what you might expect: it doesn't call any constructor to deserialize your object. If you need to do some initialization for whatever reason, you can use the [OnDeserializing] attribute. I use a pattern like this:

[DataContract]
public MyClass
{
    public MyClass()
    {
        Initialize();
    }

    [OnDeserializing]
    private OnDeserializing(StreamingContext context)
    {
        Initialize();
    }

    private void Initialize()
    {
        // Do stuff
    }
}

Similarly, there is an [OnDeserialized] attribute, and versions for serialization as well.