Getting XML serialization to automagically ignore non-serializable properties

Question

I'm using the .NET serialization classes to XML serialize and log argument values that get passed to certain functions in my application. To this end I need a means to XML serialize the property values of any classes that get passes, but ignoring any properties that cannot be XML serialized (e.g. any Image type properties).

I could go through my classes and mark such properties with the [XmlIgnore] attribute, but ideally I'd like a serializer that just skips over such properties.

Is this achievable?

Answer 1

This is probably about as efficient as your "XMLIgnore" idea, but you could use XPath to only pass serializeable parts to the serialize function.

Answer 2

If you control a common base class, you can implement this via reflection - otherwise this is likely to be a hassle. You could implement a custom Xml serialization scheme - it's not that hard, but I doubt it's worth it.

Also, if you "automatically" ignore unserializable properties for all classes, you'll need to think about the level at which you do so - otherwise previously unserializable classes become serializable themselves, but just have a few properties of their own that are not (fully) serializable.

Answer 3

You should subclass XmlSerializer, and override the virtual protected Serialize(object, XmlSerializationWriter) method. You'll probably need to implement your own XmlSerializationWriter.

Good luck!

Edit: Check Thomas' comment below. I guess he's right.

Answer 4

You could use reflection to dynamically create a XmlAttributeOverrides object to add the XmlIgnore attribute on relevant properties. You just need to implement the logic to determine whether a given type is eligible for XML serialization, and browse the object graph recursively. When you're done creating the XmlAttributeOverrides object, just pass it to the XmlSerializer constructor