Question

I have 2 classes:

public class LocalizationEntry
{
    public List<TranslationPair> Translations
    {
        get;
        set;
    }
}

public class TranslationPair
{
    public string Language
    {
        get;
        set;
    }

    public string Translation
    {
        get;
        set;
    }
}

Is it possible to get such a XML using standard serializer?

<LocalizationEntry>
    <Translations>
        <EN>apple<EN>
        <PL>jabłko<PL>
        <DE>apfel<DE>
    </Translations>
</LocalizationEntry>

I was thinking about something like XmlArrayItem(ElementName=this.Language) attribute but of course this construction is illegal apart from that attribute value cannot be determined in runtime.

Thanks for any help. Surely I can use other structure, but I’m curious is it possible.

Answer 1

To customise the element names is a pain; I would forget about XmlSerializer here, as you’d have to use IXmlSerializable which is a royal pain. I’d use XElement instead:

var source = new LocalizationEntry {
    Translations = new List<TranslationPair> {
        new TranslationPair {Language="EN", Translation="apple"},
        new TranslationPair {Language="PL", Translation="jabłko"},
        new TranslationPair {Language="DE", Translation="apfel"},
     }
};

var el = new XElement("LocalizationEntry",
    new XElement("Translations",
        from pair in source.Translations
        select new XElement(pair.Language, pair.Translation)));

var xml = el.ToString();