Question

I might have messed up on a design decision. Instead of using a strongly typed collection of custom objects, I have used a generic List. Essentially, what i have is:

public class AreaFields {     [XmlArray('Items')]     [XmlArrayItem('Item')]     public List<Fields> Fields { set; get; }      [XmlAttribute]     int id { set; get; } }  public class Fields {     [XmlAttribute]     public string Name { set; get; } } 

Throughout the application, I have used List<AreaFields> Now, I am in need of serializing the list into XML. What I am hoping to get is:

   <SomeXMLTag>     <AreaFields id='1000'>      <Items>        <Item Name='Test1' />        <Item Name='Test2' />      </Items>     </AreaFields>     <AreaFields id='1001'>      <Items>        <Item Name='Test1' />        <Item Name='Test2' />      </Items>     </AreaFields>     </SomeXMLTag> 

Since I cannot serialize List<> (or can I?), I will have to serialize every item of the list.

Ex: List<AreaFields> list = new List<AreaFields>(); //    more code to add to list     list[0].GetRawXML(); //A method i have to serialize 

Answer 1

You’ll need a wrapper class; then serialize the instance of MyWrapper to get the xml as per your example.

[XmlRoot('SomeXMLTag')] public class MyWrapper {     [XmlElement('AreaFields')]     public List<AreaFields> AreaFields { get; set; } }  public class AreaFields {     [XmlArray('Items')]     [XmlArrayItem('Item')]     public List<Fields> Fields { set; get; }      [XmlAttribute]     public int id { set; get; } }  public class Fields {     [XmlAttribute]     public string Name { set; get; } }