Question

I am trying to encrypt data that a serializable (xml) class contains. Here is a simple example:

[XmlRootAttribute("FooClass")] 
public class FooClass
{
    private string _personalData;

    public PersonalData
    {
        set { _personalData = value;}
        get { return _personalData; }
    }
}

Assume there are ready to be used tho methods: Encrypt & Decrypt. Is there a way to use them somehow during the serialization in order to encrypt PersonalData in the serialized output?

Answer 1

Yes. Mark PersonalData as nonserialized, then add a new property to return and accept the serialized data (note that the XmlAttribute is optional):

[XmlRootAttribute("FooClass")] 
public class FooClass
{
    private string _personalData;

    [NonSerialized()]
    public string PersonalData
    {
        set { _personalData = value;}
        get { return _personalData; }
    }

    [XmlAttribute("PersonalData")]
    public string PersonalDataEncrypted
    {
        set { _personalData = DecryptData(value);}
        get { return EncryptData(_personalData); }
    }
}