Question

I have this code to keep some configuration data

XmlSerializer xmlSerializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(Entities.Application));
TextReader textReader = new StreamReader(XMLFile);
sequences = (Entities.Application)xmlSerializer.Deserialize(textReader);
textReader.Close();

Now I want to hide it a little bit and somehow use a binary format over XML (to keep XML anyway).

Is it possible to do? (Or there are some others approaches as well?)

How do it can be done?

Thank you!

Answer 1

If you want to obscure the XML, then two simple options are encoding the XML with Base64 or using Base64 in an XML element.

// Simple Base64 conversion (using UTF8 for simplicity)
// ========

// Assume [sequences] is variable of type [Entities.Application]
string xmlString;
var xs = new XmlSerializer(typeof(Entities.Application));
using (var sw = new StringWriter())
{
    xs.Serialize(sw, sequences);
    xmlString = sw.ToString();
}
string encoded = System.Convert.ToBase64String(
                    System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(xmlString));

// Converting encoded [Entities.Application] to decoded XML string,
// using some of your code for consistency.
string encoded;
using (TextReader textReader = new StreamReader(XMLFile))
{
    encoded = textReader.ReadToEnd();
    textReader.Close();
}
string decoded = System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetString(
                    System.Convert.FromBase64String(encoded));
XmlSerializer xmlSerializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(Entities.Application));
using (var sr = new StringReader(decoded))
{
    sequences = (Entities.Application)xmlSerializer.Deserialize(sr);
}


// Inserting Base64 in XmlElement
// ========

// Optional: the old MSXML.DOMDocument had nodeTypedValue, and you
// can set the same attributes if you are going to use DOMDocument, although
// it is still a good idea to tag the element so you know its datatype.
node.SetAttribute("xmlns:dt", "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:datatypes");
node.SetAttribute("dt", "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:datatypes", "bin.base64");

// Assume serialized data has already been encoded as shown above
var elem = node.AppendChild(xmlDoc.CreateTextNode(encoded));