Question

I need to construct an XML transaction of the following format:

<RateV3Request USERID="MyId">
    <Package ID="1ST">
        <Service>ALL</Service>
        <FirstClassMailType>LETTER</FirstClassMailType>
        <ZipOrigination>06226</ZipOrigination>
        <ZipDestination>06231</ZipDestination>
        <Pounds>0</Pounds>
        <Ounces>4.5</Ounces>
        <Size>REGULAR</Size>
        <Machinable>true</Machinable>
    <ShipDate Option="EMSH">21-Dec-2009</ShipDate> 
    </Package>
</RateV3Request>

My thought was to create an object RateV3Request that contains typed properties for each XML property (I assume property is not the correct word here.)

I was thinking of creating a “GetXml” function on my object that returns the XML representation of the values in the object instance.I could do all the string concatenation myself, but surely there is a cleaner way.

Suggestions? I am using VB.NET

Answer 1

The XmlSerializer should do this work for you. You can use XML attributes to control how your properties and fields should be serialized to XML (e.g. as an attribute, as a specific element, not at all, …).

For example, your Package class could look like this (untested):

Public Class Package

    <XmlAttribute("ID")> _
    Public Property ID As String
        ...
    End Property

    Public Service As String

    ...

End Class

Then you can do something like this (untested):

Dim packageSerializer As New XmlSerializer(GetType(Package))
Dim writer As New StringWriter()
packageSerializer.Serialize(writer, myPackage)
Console.WriteLine(writer.ToString())