Question

How can I serialize an IFeatureClass object to XML?

There are some resources for using IXMLSerializer on other ArcObjects, but that won’t work for IFeatureClass because it doesn’t implement ISerializable.

Answer 1

I’ve actual found my own answer to this question. I’m posting this question and answer here for the benefit of others and for feedback/critique on my approach.

IFeatureClass cannot be serialized directly, but IRecordSet2 can be. So the first step is implementing a method to convert IFeatureClass to IRecordSet2:

private static IRecordSet2 ConvertToRecordset(IFeatureClass fc)
{
    IRecordSet recSet = new RecordSetClass();
    IRecordSetInit recSetInit = recSet as IRecordSetInit;
    recSetInit.SetSourceTable(fc as ITable, null);

    return (IRecordSet2) recSetInit;
}

Then it’s easy to use IXMLSerializer to get XML:

public static XElement StoreAsXml(IFeatureClass fc)
{
    // Can't serialize a feature class directly, so convert
    //  to recordset first.
    IRecordSet2 recordset = ConvertToRecordset(fc);

    IXMLSerializer xmlSer = new XMLSerializerClass();
    string sXml = xmlSer.SaveToString(recordset, null, null);

    return XElement.Parse(sXml);           
}

However, when you convert to IRecordSet2, you lose the feature class name, so when writing to a file, I add an element to the XML to hold the feature class name:

public static void StoreToFile(IFeatureClass fc, string filePath)
{
    XElement xdoc = StoreAsXml(fc);

    XElement el = new XElement("FeatureClass", new XAttribute( "name", fc.AliasName ),
                                xdoc);

    el.Save(filePath);
}

Now, just reverse the process to read the XML into a feature class. Remember that an element was added to store the feature class name:

public static IFeatureClass RetreiveFromFile(string filepath)
{
    XElement xdoc = XElement.Load(filepath);
    string sName = xdoc.FirstAttribute.Value;
    XNode recordset = xdoc.FirstNode;

    return RetreiveFromXml(recordset, sName);
}

Simple de-serialization using IXMLSerializer to get a IRecordSet2:

public static IFeatureClass RetreiveFromXml(XNode node, string sName)
{
    IXMLSerializer xmlDeSer = new XMLSerializerClass();
    IRecordSet2 recordset = (IRecordSet2)xmlDeSer.LoadFromString(node.ToString(), null, null);

    return ConvertToFeatureClass(recordset, sName);
}

This was the tricky part. I’m open to suggestions on how to improve this … covert the IRecordSet2 object into an IFeatureClass:

private static IFeatureClass ConvertToFeatureClass(IRecordSet2 rs, string sName)
{
    IWorkspaceFactory pWSFact = new ShapefileWorkspaceFactory();

    string sTempPath = Path.GetTempPath();
    IFeatureWorkspace pFWS = (IFeatureWorkspace)pWSFact.OpenFromFile( sTempPath, 0);

    // Will fail (COM E_FAIL) if the dataset already exists
    DeleteExistingDataset(pFWS, sName);

    IFeatureClass pFeatClass = null;
    pFeatClass = pFWS.CreateFeatureClass(sName, rs.Fields, null, null, esriFeatureType.esriFTSimple,
                                         "SHAPE", "");

    // Copy incoming record set table to new feature class's table
    ITable table = (ITable) pFeatClass;
    table = rs.Table;

    IFeatureClass result = table as IFeatureClass;

    // It will probably work OK without this, but it makes the XML match more closely
    IClassSchemaEdit3 schema = result as IClassSchemaEdit3;
    schema.AlterAliasName(sName);
    schema.AlterFieldAliasName("FID", "");
    schema.AlterFieldModelName("FID", "");
    schema.AlterFieldAliasName("Shape", "");
    schema.AlterFieldModelName("Shape", "");

    // If individual fields need to be edited, do something like this:
    //      int nFieldIndex = result.Fields.FindField("Shape");
    //      IFieldEdit2 field = (IFieldEdit2)result.Fields.get_Field(nFieldIndex);

    // Cleanup 
    DeleteExistingDataset(pFWS, sName);

    return table as IFeatureClass;
}

Finally, a utility method for deleting an existing dataset. This was copy/pasted from somewhere, but I can’t remember the source.

public static void DeleteExistingDataset(IFeatureWorkspace pFWS, string sDatasetName)
{
    IWorkspace pWS = (IWorkspace)pFWS;
    IEnumDatasetName pEDSN = pWS.get_DatasetNames(esriDatasetType.esriDTFeatureClass);
    bool bDatasetExists = false;
    pEDSN.Reset();
    IDatasetName pDSN = pEDSN.Next();
    while (pDSN != null)
    {
        if (pDSN.Name == sDatasetName)
        {
            bDatasetExists = true;
            break;
        }
        pDSN = pEDSN.Next();
    }
    if (bDatasetExists)
    {
        IFeatureClass pFC = pFWS.OpenFeatureClass(sDatasetName);
        IDataset pDataset = (IDataset)pFC;
        pDataset.Delete();
    }
}