How do you serialize a string as CDATA using XmlSerializer?

Question

Is it possible via an attribute of some sort to serialize a string as CDATA using the .Net XmlSerializer?

Answer 1

[XmlRoot("root")]
public class Sample1Xml
{
    internal Sample1Xml()
    {
    }

    [XmlElement("node")]
    public NodeType Node { get; set; }

    #region Nested type: NodeType

    public class NodeType
    {
        [XmlAttribute("attr1")]
        public string Attr1 { get; set; }

        [XmlAttribute("attr2")]
        public string Attr2 { get; set; }

        [XmlIgnore]
        public string Content { get; set; }

        [XmlText]
        public XmlNode[] CDataContent
        {
            get
            {
                var dummy = new XmlDocument();
                return new XmlNode[] {dummy.CreateCDataSection(Content)};
            }
            set
            {
                if (value == null)
                {
                    Content = null;
                    return;
                }

                if (value.Length != 1)
                {
                    throw new InvalidOperationException(
                        String.Format(
                            "Invalid array length {0}", value.Length));
                }

                Content = value[0].Value;
            }
        }
    }

    #endregion
}

Answer 2

In addition to the way posted by John Saunders, you can use an XmlCDataSection as the type directly, although it boils down to nearly the same thing:

   private string _message;
   [XmlElement("CDataElement")]
   public XmlCDataSection Message
   {  
      get 
      { 
         XmlDocument doc = new XmlDocument();
         return doc.CreateCDataSection( _message);
      }
      set
      {
         _message = value.Value;
      }
   }