XMl Serialization of Linq-to-Sql objects?

Question

I am working on an Audit Log for an application that uses Linq-To-Sql. I want to serialise an object to stores its values in a XML column in a SQL Server databse.

My problem is that when I try to serialize a Linq-To-Sql obejct that it attempts to serialize all associated entities and entity sets.

My first attempt at a solution was to create seperate class tos tore what I need to serialize and then pass this to an XmlSerializer.

I suppose what I really want to know is how to get the XmlSerializer to ignore certain types of properties - E.g entities and entity sets.

Would I have to write my own XmlSerializer?

All and any advice would be aprreciated.

Answer 1

You need to use the DataContractSerializer, but this will still serialize a partial object graph.

The better solution is to generate your own Linq2SQL classes and apply the XmlIgnore/DataMember attributes (depending on whether you use XmlSerializer or DataContractSerializer).