Question

I have a data class that is serialized with the DataContractSerializer. The class uses the [DataContract] attribute with no explicit Namespace declaration. As such, the namespace in the resulting xml file is generated based on the namespace of the class.

The class basically looks like this:

namespace XYZ
{
   [DataContract]
   public class Data
   {
      [DataMember(Order = 1)]
      public string Prop1 { get; set; }

      [DataMember(Order = 2)]
      public int Prop2 { get; set; }
   }
}

…and the resulting xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Data xmlns:i="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns="http://schemas.datacontract.org/2004/07/XYZ">
   <Prop1>StringValue</Prop1>
   <Prop2>11</Prop2>
</Data>

Now I want to change the namespace of the class (actually remove it) by changing the [DataContract] attribute to [DataContract(Namespace = "")]. However, once I do this any file previously serialized with the original namespace with no longer deserialize. I receive the following exception:

Error in line 1 position XXX. Expecting element 'Data' from namespace ''.. Encountered 'Element' with name 'Data', namespace 'http://schemas.datacontract.org/2004/07/XYZ'.

This makes perfect sense. I changed the namespace. I’m ok with that. However, it seems like there must be a way to tell the DataContractSerializer to go ahead and deserialize that data even though the namespaces don’t match.

Answer 1

One possible way is to wrap the reader used by the serializer in a reader which maps the old namespace to the new one, as shown below. A lot of code, but mostly trivial.

public class StackOverflow_11092274
{
    const string XML = @"<?xml version=""1.0"" encoding=""utf-8""?> 
<Data xmlns:i=""http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"" xmlns=""http://schemas.datacontract.org/2004/07/XYZ""> 
   <Prop1>StringValue</Prop1> 
   <Prop2>11</Prop2> 
</Data>";

    [DataContract(Name = "Data", Namespace = "")]
    public class Data
    {
        [DataMember(Order = 1)]
        public string Prop1 { get; set; }

        [DataMember(Order = 2)]
        public int Prop2 { get; set; }
    }

    public class MyReader : XmlReader
    {
        XmlReader inner;
        public MyReader(XmlReader inner)
        {
            this.inner = inner;
        }

        public override int AttributeCount
        {
            get { return inner.AttributeCount; }
        }

        public override string BaseURI
        {
            get { return inner.BaseURI; }
        }

        public override void Close()
        {
            inner.Close();
        }

        public override int Depth
        {
            get { return inner.Depth; }
        }

        public override bool EOF
        {
            get { return inner.EOF; }
        }

        public override string GetAttribute(int i)
        {
            return inner.GetAttribute(i);
        }

        public override string GetAttribute(string name, string namespaceURI)
        {
            return inner.GetAttribute(name, namespaceURI);
        }

        public override string GetAttribute(string name)
        {
            return inner.GetAttribute(name);
        }

        public override bool IsEmptyElement
        {
            get { return inner.IsEmptyElement; }
        }

        public override string LocalName
        {
            get { return inner.LocalName; }
        }

        public override string LookupNamespace(string prefix)
        {
            return inner.LookupNamespace(prefix);
        }

        public override bool MoveToAttribute(string name, string ns)
        {
            return inner.MoveToAttribute(name, ns);
        }

        public override bool MoveToAttribute(string name)
        {
            return inner.MoveToAttribute(name);
        }

        public override bool MoveToElement()
        {
            return inner.MoveToElement();
        }

        public override bool MoveToFirstAttribute()
        {
            return inner.MoveToFirstAttribute();
        }

        public override bool MoveToNextAttribute()
        {
            return inner.MoveToNextAttribute();
        }

        public override XmlNameTable NameTable
        {
            get { return inner.NameTable; }
        }

        public override string NamespaceURI
        {
            get
            {
                if (inner.NamespaceURI == "http://schemas.datacontract.org/2004/07/XYZ")
                {
                    return "";
                }
                else
                {
                    return inner.NamespaceURI;
                }
            }
        }

        public override XmlNodeType NodeType
        {
            get { return inner.NodeType; }
        }

        public override string Prefix
        {
            get { return inner.Prefix; }
        }

        public override bool Read()
        {
            return inner.Read();
        }

        public override bool ReadAttributeValue()
        {
            return inner.ReadAttributeValue();
        }

        public override ReadState ReadState
        {
            get { return inner.ReadState; }
        }

        public override void ResolveEntity()
        {
            inner.ResolveEntity();
        }

        public override string Value
        {
            get { return inner.Value; }
        }
    }

    public static void Test()
    {
        DataContractSerializer dcs = new DataContractSerializer(typeof(Data));
        MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream(Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(XML));
        try
        {
            XmlReader r = XmlReader.Create(ms);
            XmlReader my = new MyReader(r);
            Data d = (Data)dcs.ReadObject(my);
            Console.WriteLine("Data[Prop1={0},Prop2={1}]", d.Prop1, d.Prop2);
        }
        catch (Exception e)
        {
            Console.WriteLine(e);
        }
    }
}