C# XML serialization error

Question

Hi there,

I have an XML dox like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Server Manufacturer="SQL" Version="1">
  <Database Name="Test123" >
    <Devices>
      <Device Name="Testdata" ..../>
      <Device Name="Testlog" ..../>
    </Devices>
  </Database>
</Server>

I want to deserialize it like this: var database = (Database)xmlSerializer.Deserialize(new StreamReader(xmlFilePath));

where Database is a Class with a collection of Devices.

It works fine when I comment out the Server tags in the XML file but i don't want to. I get an error saying "There is an error in XMl document line (1, 4)"

How can I tell the serialize to ignore the server tag and do I need to put a namespace in the XML file?

I tried putting [XmlRootAttribute("Database")] on the Database object but I still get the same error

Answer 1

You should deserialize Server class which will look like:

public class Server
{
    public string Manufacturer{get;set;}
    public int Version {get;set;}
    public Database Database {get;set;}
}

Then deserialize:

var server = (Server)xmlSerializer.Deserialize(new StreamReader(xmlFilePath));
var database = server.Database;

Answer 2

I believe your XmlRootAttribute is the problem, add Server as XmlRootAttribute .. below the sample code

[Serializable]
[XmlRootAttribute("Server", Namespace = "", IsNullable = false)]    
public class YourClass
{
    public YourClass()
    {

    }
    [XmlAttribute]
    public string Manufacturer { get; set; }
   ....

}

and deserialize the server not database

Answer 3

If you really don't want to create Server class just remove <Server/> "wrapper" from loaded xml.

For example, instead of this:

(Database)xmlSerializer.Deserialize(
    new StreamReader(xmlFilePath));

do this:

(Database)xmlSerializer.Deserialize(
    XElement.Load(xmlFilePath).Element("Database").CreateReader());