Question

i have a class and wish to serialize it into xml.
the class contains a dictionary.. switched it to a serializeable version (with writexml / readxml).

the problem is that when the dictionary parameter gets serialized.. it wraps the dictionary elements with a parent element “Attributes” and i dont want that.

Example:

public class Product
{
    public String Identifier{ get; set; }
    [XmlElement]
    public SerializableDictionary<string,string> Attributes { get; set; } //custom serializer
}

This Product class gets put in a List structure, then the whole thing serialized, resulting to:

<Products>
<Product>
     <Identifier>12345</Identifier>
     <Attributes>
          <key1> value 1</key1>
          <key2> value 2</key2>
     </Attributes>
</Product>
</Products>

Id like to not have the node wrapper.

Im using a Serialized Dictionary class that goes around, but through its WriteXml im only able to influence the key value pairs.. not the parent element.

Any self sufficient examples that i could plug to say linqpad would be great..
Heres a short version of the serializable dictionary..

   [XmlRoot("dictionary")]
public class SerializableDictionary<TKey, TValue> : Dictionary<TKey, TValue>, IXmlSerializable
{
    #region IXmlSerializable Members
    public System.Xml.Schema.XmlSchema GetSchema()
    {
        return null;
    }

    public void ReadXml(System.Xml.XmlReader reader)
    {
        //not including for the sake of brevity
    }
    public void WriteXml(System.Xml.XmlWriter writer)
    {
        XmlSerializer keySerializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(TKey));
        XmlSerializer valueSerializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(TValue));
        foreach (TKey key in this.Keys)
        {
            writer.WriteStartElement(key.ToString());
            TValue value = this[key];
            if (value == null)
                writer.WriteValue(String.Empty); //render empty ones.
            else
                writer.WriteValue(value.ToString());
            writer.WriteEndElement();
        }
    }
    #endregion
}

Answer 1

If you don’t want the <Attributes> element, you need to move the WriteXml method to the Product-class.

public void WriteXml(XmlWriter writer)
{
    writer.WriteElementString("Identifier", Identifier.ToString("d"));
    XmlSerializer valueSerializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(TValue));
    foreach (TKey key in Attributes.Keys)
    {
        writer.WriteStartElement(key.ToString());
        TValue value = Attributes[key];
        if (value == null)
            writer.WriteValue(String.Empty); //render empty ones.
        else
            writer.WriteValue(value.ToString());
        writer.WriteEndElement();
    }
}