Question

I have a scenario in which I have a class Resource which has two other classes nested in it; Action and ResourceURL. I need to write custom xmlserializer for Resource and Action but not for ResourceURL. I implemented IXmlSerializable for both.

The problem is, when Resource is serialized, i call the Action.WriteXML(XmlWriter) to get the serialized form of Action, but i can’t get serialized form of ResourceURL. The tags become all messed up and it also adds an tag.

So how do i serialize an object which has customer serilzation for some nested objects but not for others?

Answer 1

Here is a sample WriteXml method:

    void IXmlSerializable.WriteXml(XmlWriter writer)
    {
        // Simple string value:
        writer.WriteAttributeString("Name", this.Name);

        // Object without IXmlSerializable implementation:
        writer.WriteStartElement("NonCustomObject");
        new XmlSerializer(NonCustomObjectType).Serialize(writer, this.NonCustomObject);
        writer.WriteEndElement();

        // Object with IXmlSerializable implementation:
        writer.WriteStartElement("CustomObject");
        (this.CustomObject as IXmlSerializable).WriteXml(writer);
        writer.WriteEndElement();
    }

Here is a corresponding ReadXml method:

    void IXmlSerializable.ReadXml(XmlReader reader)
    {
        // Simple string value
        this.Name = reader.GetAttribute("Name");

        // Object without IXmlSerializable implementation here:
        reader.ReadStartElement();
        if (reader.Name == "NonCustomObject")
        {
            reader.ReadStartElement();
            this.NonCustomObject = new XmlSerializer(NonCustomObjectType).Deserialize(reader);
            reader.ReadEndElement();
        }

        // Object with IXmlSerializable implementation here:
        reader.ReadStartElement();
        if (reader.Name == "CustomObject")
        {   
            (this.CustomObject as IXmlSerializable).ReadXml(reader);
            reader.ReadEndElement();
        }
    }