Question

I Save An onject into a xml file with serialize like this:

        FileStream stream = new FileStream(tempFilename,FileMode.Create);
        XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer(newType);
        serializer.Serialize(stream,objectname);

but with this code i can just enter one item in my xml file and it will be overwrite if i insert new item in it.how can i enter multiple item in my file?Sholud I Use List For it?

Answer 1

I do this quite often. I usually use a top level class that encapsulates the collection property as a member and has a one to one relationship with the xml file. Members of that class can be collections or simple attributes etc.

Here is a code snippet for having a collection of custom objects:

[System.SerializableAttribute()]
[System.Xml.Serialization.XmlRootAttribute(ElementName = "DeployRuns", Namespace = "", IsNullable = false)]
public class DeployRuns : List<RunDetail>
{

And then if you want to encapsulate your collection inside another class which will be serialized, see the bottom property of this class:

[System.SerializableAttribute()]
[System.Xml.Serialization.XmlTypeAttribute(AnonymousType = true)]
public class DeployDetails
{
   public DeployDetails()
   {
      this.DeployRuns = new DeployRuns();
   }

   [System.Xml.Serialization.XmlAttributeAttribute("sourcePath")]
   public string SourcePath { get; set; }

   [System.Xml.Serialization.XmlAttributeAttribute("archiveDestinationPath")]
   public string ArchiveDestinationPath { get; set; }

   [System.Xml.Serialization.XmlAttributeAttribute("databaseDestinationPath")]
   public string DatabaseDestinationPath { get; set; }

   public DeployRuns DeployRuns { get; set; }
}

And to finish off the code example, here is my top level class for this hierarchy:

[System.SerializableAttribute()]
[System.Xml.Serialization.XmlRootAttribute(ElementName = "ExecutionHistory", Namespace = "", IsNullable = false)]
public class ExecutionHistory
{
   public ExecutionHistory()
   {
      this.CaptureDetails = new CaptureDetails();
      this.DeployDetails = new DeployDetails();
   }

   [XmlElementAttribute("CaptureDetails", Form = System.Xml.Schema.XmlSchemaForm.Unqualified)]
   public CaptureDetails CaptureDetails { get; set; }

   [XmlElementAttribute("DeployDetails", Form = System.Xml.Schema.XmlSchemaForm.Unqualified)]
   public DeployDetails DeployDetails { get; set; }