I’m having trouble deserializing some XML into it’s appropriate object structure. When I call

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Asked: June 15, 20262026-06-15T09:08:39+00:00 2026-06-15T09:08:39+00:00

I’m having trouble deserializing some XML into it’s appropriate object structure. When I call

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I’m having trouble deserializing some XML into it’s appropriate object structure. When I call ReadObject(stream) on my DataContractSerializer it returns an empty array. No errors, not null, just an empty array.

The Story

I’m using a 3rd-party service and they have provided a wsdl. I have added the wsdl as a Service Reference to my project. I’ve successfully called out to this service and received a response, which is properly deserialized by .Net. So I know the response is capable of being deserialized.

I call out to the service once to get some initial data. Then, when the 3rd-party updates that data, they are going to POST to an MVC URL using the same response XML returned by the service. When I try to deserialize the XML from Request.InputStream I get an empty array.

I’ve searched and searched, but apparently not in the right places as I’ve come up totally blank.

I’d really appreciate any direction you can provide.

Here are the code and files in play:

My Deserialization Code – pretty straightforward stuff, no? updatedData is the null array in question.

    var dcs = new DataContractSerializer(typeof(IEnumerable<Account1>),
        "ListOfIrstAccountBrandAccountResponseIo",
        "http://www.siebel.com/xml/IRST%20Account%20Brand%20Account%20Response%20IO");

    var updatedData = (IEnumerable<Account1>)dcs.ReadObject(stream);

    return updatedData;

The XML – The data has been sanitized, but for this example it’s not important.

<ListOfIrstAccountBrandAccountResponseIo xmlns="http://www.siebel.com/xml/IRST%20Account%20Brand%20Account%20Response%20IO">
    <Account>
        <AccountStatus>Active</AccountStatus>
        <IRSTAccoutSectorNum>xxxxx</IRSTAccoutSectorNum>
        <MainFaxNumber>xxxxx</MainFaxNumber>
        <MainPhoneNumber>xxxxx</MainPhoneNumber>
        <Name>xxxxx</Name>
        <ParentAccountId></ParentAccountId>
        <ParentAccountName></ParentAccountName>
        <AccountRowId>xxxxx</AccountRowId>
        <ListOfCutAddress>
            <CutAddress>
                <City>xxxxx</City>
                <Country>xxxxx</Country>
                <County>xxxxx</County>
                <PostalCode>xxxxx</PostalCode>
                <PrimaryAddressFlg>x</PrimaryAddressFlg>
                <State>xx</State>
                <StreetAddress>xxxxx</StreetAddress>
                <StreetAddress2></StreetAddress2>
            </CutAddress>
        </ListOfCutAddress>
        <ListOfIrstBrandAccount>
            <IrstBrandAccount>
                <IRSTBrand>xxxxx</IRSTBrand>
                <IRSTBrandAccountNumber>xxxxx</IRSTBrandAccountNumber>
                <IRSTSIC>xx</IRSTSIC>
                <Name>xxxxx</Name>
            </IrstBrandAccount>
            <IrstBrandAccount>
                <IRSTBrand>xxxxx</IRSTBrand>
                <IRSTBrandAccountNumber>xxxxx</IRSTBrandAccountNumber>
                <IRSTSIC>xx</IRSTSIC>
                <Name>xxxxx</Name>
            </IrstBrandAccount>
            <IrstBrandAccount>
                <IRSTBrand>xxxxx</IRSTBrand>
                <IRSTBrandAccountNumber>xxxxx</IRSTBrandAccountNumber>
                <IRSTSIC>xx</IRSTSIC>
                <Name>xxxxx</Name>
            </IrstBrandAccount>
        </ListOfIrstBrandAccount>
        <ListOfInternalDivision>
            <InternalDivision>
                <Organization>xxxxx</Organization>
            </InternalDivision>
            <InternalDivision>
                <Organization>xxxxx</Organization>
            </InternalDivision>
        </ListOfInternalDivision>
        <ListOfServiceAgreement>
            <ServiceAgreement>
                <AccountId>xxxxx</AccountId>
                <AgreementId>xxxxx</AgreementId>
                <AgreementNumber>xxxxx</AgreementNumber>
                <AgreementStatus>xxxxx</AgreementStatus>
                <ListOfFsAgreementItem>
                    <FsAgreementItem>
                        <AgreementId>xxxxx</AgreementId>
                        <BPTier1>xx</BPTier1>
                        <BPTier2>xx</BPTier2>
                        <IRSTBuyingProgram>xxxxx</IRSTBuyingProgram>
                        <Product>xxxxx</Product>
                        <ProductId>xxxxx</ProductId>
                    </FsAgreementItem>
                    <FsAgreementItem>
                        <AgreementId>xxxxx</AgreementId>
                        <BPTier1>xx</BPTier1>
                        <BPTier2>xx</BPTier2>
                        <IRSTBuyingProgram>xxxxx</IRSTBuyingProgram>
                        <Product>xxxxx</Product>
                        <ProductId>xxxxx</ProductId>
                    </FsAgreementItem>
                    <FsAgreementItem>
                        <AgreementId>xxxxx</AgreementId>
                        <BPTier1>xx</BPTier1>
                        <BPTier2>xx</BPTier2>
                        <IRSTBuyingProgram>xxxxx</IRSTBuyingProgram>
                        <Product>xxxxx</Product>
                        <ProductId>xxxxx</ProductId>
                    </FsAgreementItem>
                    <FsAgreementItem>
                        <AgreementId>xxxxx</AgreementId>
                        <BPTier1>xx</BPTier1>
                        <BPTier2>xx</BPTier2>
                        <IRSTBuyingProgram>xxxxx</IRSTBuyingProgram>
                        <Product>xxxxx</Product>
                        <ProductId>xxxxx</ProductId>
                    </FsAgreementItem>
                    <FsAgreementItem>
                        <AgreementId>xxxxx</AgreementId>
                        <BPTier1>xx</BPTier1>
                        <BPTier2>xx</BPTier2>
                        <IRSTBuyingProgram>xxxxx</IRSTBuyingProgram>
                        <Product>xxxxx</Product>
                        <ProductId>xxxxx</ProductId>
                    </FsAgreementItem>
                </ListOfFsAgreementItem>
            </ServiceAgreement>
        </ListOfServiceAgreement>
    </Account>
</ListOfIrstAccountBrandAccountResponseIo>

The wsdl – I removed the endpoint IP address from the file. It’s not a public service, but calling the service isn’t necessary for testing this scenario.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><definitions
 xmlns="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/wsdl/"
 xmlns:soap="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/wsdl/soap/"
 xmlns:xsdLocal1="http://www.siebel.com/xml/IRST%20Account%20Address%20Query%20Request%20IO"
 targetNamespace="http://siebel.com/CustomUI"
 xmlns:soapenc="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/"
 xmlns:xsdLocal2="http://www.siebel.com/xml/IRST%20Account%20Brand%20Account%20Response%20IO"
 xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"
 xmlns:tns="http://siebel.com/CustomUI"
><types
><xsd:schema
 elementFormDefault="qualified"
 attributeFormDefault="unqualified"
 targetNamespace="http://www.siebel.com/xml/IRST%20Account%20Brand%20Account%20Response%20IO"
 xmlns:xsdLocal2="http://www.siebel.com/xml/IRST%20Account%20Brand%20Account%20Response%20IO"
 xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"
><xsd:annotation
><xsd:documentation
>Copyright (C) 2001-2004 Siebel Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Siebel XSD Generation</xsd:documentation
></xsd:annotation
><xsd:element
 name="ListOfIrstAccountBrandAccountResponseIo"
 type="xsdLocal2:ListOfIrstAccountBrandAccountResponseIo"
></xsd:element
><xsd:complexType
 name="ListOfIrstAccountBrandAccountResponseIoTopElmt"
><xsd:sequence
><xsd:element
 name="ListOfIrstAccountBrandAccountResponseIo"
 maxOccurs="1"
 minOccurs="1"
 type="xsdLocal2:ListOfIrstAccountBrandAccountResponseIo"
></xsd:element
></xsd:sequence
></xsd:complexType
><xsd:complexType
 name="ListOfIrstAccountBrandAccountResponseIo"
><xsd:sequence
><xsd:element
 name="Account"
 maxOccurs="unbounded"
 minOccurs="0"
 type="xsdLocal2:Account"
></xsd:element
></xsd:sequence
></xsd:complexType
><xsd:complexType
 name="Account"
><xsd:sequence
><xsd:element
 name="Id"
 maxOccurs="1"
 minOccurs="0"
 type="xsd:string"
></xsd:element
><xsd:element
 name="AccountStatus"
 maxOccurs="1"
 minOccurs="0"
 type="xsd:string"
></xsd:element
><xsd:element
 name="IRSTAccoutSectorNum"
 maxOccurs="1"
 minOccurs="0"
 type="xsd:string"
></xsd:element
><xsd:element
 name="MainFaxNumber"
 maxOccurs="1"
 minOccurs="0"
 type="xsd:string"
></xsd:element
><xsd:element
 name="MainPhoneNumber"
 maxOccurs="1"
 minOccurs="0"
 type="xsd:string"
></xsd:element
><xsd:element
 name="Name"
 maxOccurs="1"
 minOccurs="1"
 type="xsd:string"
></xsd:element
><xsd:element
 name="ParentAccountId"
 maxOccurs="1"
 minOccurs="0"
 type="xsd:string"
></xsd:element
><xsd:element
 name="ParentAccountName"
 maxOccurs="1"
 minOccurs="0"
 type="xsd:string"
></xsd:element
><xsd:element
 name="AccountRowId"
 maxOccurs="1"
 minOccurs="0"
 type="xsd:string"
></xsd:element
><xsd:element
 name="ListOfCutAddress"
 maxOccurs="1"
 minOccurs="0"
 type="xsdLocal2:ListOfCutAddress"
></xsd:element
><xsd:element
 name="ListOfIrstBrandAccount"
 maxOccurs="1"
 minOccurs="0"
 type="xsdLocal2:ListOfIrstBrandAccount"
></xsd:element
><xsd:element
 name="ListOfInternalDivision"
 maxOccurs="1"
 minOccurs="0"
 type="xsdLocal2:ListOfInternalDivision"
></xsd:element
><xsd:element
 name="ListOfServiceAgreement"
 maxOccurs="1"
 minOccurs="0"
 type="xsdLocal2:ListOfServiceAgreement"
></xsd:element
></xsd:sequence
></xsd:complexType
><xsd:complexType
 name="ListOfCutAddress"
><xsd:sequence
><xsd:element
 name="CutAddress"
 maxOccurs="unbounded"
 minOccurs="0"
 type="xsdLocal2:CutAddress"
></xsd:element
></xsd:sequence
></xsd:complexType
><xsd:complexType
 name="CutAddress"
><xsd:sequence
><xsd:element
 name="City"
 maxOccurs="1"
 minOccurs="1"
 type="xsd:string"
></xsd:element
><xsd:element
 name="Country"
 maxOccurs="1"
 minOccurs="1"
 type="xsd:string"
></xsd:element
><xsd:element
 name="County"
 maxOccurs="1"
 minOccurs="0"
 type="xsd:string"
></xsd:element
><xsd:element
 name="PostalCode"
 maxOccurs="1"
 minOccurs="1"
 type="xsd:string"
></xsd:element
><xsd:element
 name="PrimaryAddressFlg"
 maxOccurs="1"
 minOccurs="0"
 type="xsd:string"
></xsd:element
><xsd:element
 name="State"
 maxOccurs="1"
 minOccurs="1"
 type="xsd:string"
></xsd:element
><xsd:element
 name="StreetAddress"
 maxOccurs="1"
 minOccurs="1"
 type="xsd:string"
></xsd:element
><xsd:element
 name="StreetAddress2"
 maxOccurs="1"
 minOccurs="0"
 type="xsd:string"
></xsd:element
></xsd:sequence
></xsd:complexType
><xsd:complexType
 name="ListOfIrstBrandAccount"
><xsd:sequence
><xsd:element
 name="IrstBrandAccount"
 maxOccurs="unbounded"
 minOccurs="0"
 type="xsdLocal2:IrstBrandAccount"
></xsd:element
></xsd:sequence
></xsd:complexType
><xsd:complexType
 name="IrstBrandAccount"
><xsd:sequence
><xsd:element
 name="Id"
 maxOccurs="1"
 minOccurs="0"
 type="xsd:string"
></xsd:element
><xsd:element
 name="IRSTBrand"
 maxOccurs="1"
 minOccurs="1"
 type="xsd:string"
></xsd:element
><xsd:element
 name="IRSTBrandAccountNumber"
 maxOccurs="1"
 minOccurs="1"
 type="xsd:string"
></xsd:element
><xsd:element
 name="IRSTSIC"
 maxOccurs="1"
 minOccurs="0"
 type="xsd:string"
></xsd:element
><xsd:element
 name="Name"
 maxOccurs="1"
 minOccurs="0"
 type="xsd:string"
></xsd:element
></xsd:sequence
></xsd:complexType
><xsd:complexType
 name="ListOfInternalDivision"
><xsd:sequence
><xsd:element
 name="InternalDivision"
 maxOccurs="unbounded"
 minOccurs="0"
 type="xsdLocal2:InternalDivision"
></xsd:element
></xsd:sequence
></xsd:complexType
><xsd:complexType
 name="InternalDivision"
><xsd:sequence
><xsd:element
 name="Organization"
 maxOccurs="1"
 minOccurs="1"
 type="xsd:string"
></xsd:element
></xsd:sequence
></xsd:complexType
><xsd:complexType
 name="ListOfServiceAgreement"
><xsd:sequence
><xsd:element
 name="ServiceAgreement"
 maxOccurs="unbounded"
 minOccurs="0"
 type="xsdLocal2:ServiceAgreement"
></xsd:element
></xsd:sequence
></xsd:complexType
><xsd:complexType
 name="ServiceAgreement"
><xsd:sequence
><xsd:element
 name="AccountId"
 maxOccurs="1"
 minOccurs="0"
 type="xsd:string"
></xsd:element
><xsd:element
 name="AgreementId"
 maxOccurs="1"
 minOccurs="0"
 type="xsd:string"
></xsd:element
><xsd:element
 name="AgreementNumber"
 maxOccurs="1"
 minOccurs="0"
 type="xsd:string"
></xsd:element
><xsd:element
 name="AgreementStatus"
 maxOccurs="1"
 minOccurs="1"
 type="xsd:string"
></xsd:element
><xsd:element
 name="ListOfFsAgreementItem"
 maxOccurs="1"
 minOccurs="0"
 type="xsdLocal2:ListOfFsAgreementItem"
></xsd:element
></xsd:sequence
></xsd:complexType
><xsd:complexType
 name="ListOfFsAgreementItem"
><xsd:sequence
><xsd:element
 name="FsAgreementItem"
 maxOccurs="unbounded"
 minOccurs="0"
 type="xsdLocal2:FsAgreementItem"
></xsd:element
></xsd:sequence
></xsd:complexType
><xsd:complexType
 name="FsAgreementItem"
><xsd:sequence
><xsd:element
 name="Id"
 maxOccurs="1"
 minOccurs="0"
 type="xsd:string"
></xsd:element
><xsd:element
 name="AgreementId"
 maxOccurs="1"
 minOccurs="0"
 type="xsd:string"
></xsd:element
><xsd:element
 name="BPTier1"
 maxOccurs="1"
 minOccurs="1"
 type="xsd:string"
></xsd:element
><xsd:element
 name="BPTier2"
 maxOccurs="1"
 minOccurs="1"
 type="xsd:string"
></xsd:element
><xsd:element
 name="IRSTBuyingProgram"
 maxOccurs="1"
 minOccurs="0"
 type="xsd:string"
></xsd:element
><xsd:element
 name="Product"
 maxOccurs="1"
 minOccurs="0"
 type="xsd:string"
></xsd:element
><xsd:element
 name="ProductId"
 maxOccurs="1"
 minOccurs="0"
 type="xsd:string"
></xsd:element
></xsd:sequence
></xsd:complexType
></xsd:schema
><xsd:schema
 elementFormDefault="qualified"
 attributeFormDefault="unqualified"
 targetNamespace="http://siebel.com/CustomUI"
 xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"
><xsd:import
 namespace="http://www.siebel.com/xml/IRST%20Account%20Brand%20Account%20Response%20IO"
></xsd:import
><xsd:import
 namespace="http://www.siebel.com/xml/IRST%20Account%20Address%20Query%20Request%20IO"
></xsd:import
><xsd:element
 name="IRST_spcQuery_spcAccount_spcAnd_spcBrand_spcAccnt_Version_Input"
><xsd:complexType
><xsd:sequence
><xsd:element
 ref="xsdLocal1:ListOfIrstAccountAddressQueryRequestIo"
></xsd:element
></xsd:sequence
></xsd:complexType
></xsd:element
><xsd:element
 name="IRST_spcQuery_spcAccount_spcAnd_spcBrand_spcAccnt_Version_Output"
><xsd:complexType
><xsd:sequence
><xsd:element
 ref="xsdLocal2:ListOfIrstAccountBrandAccountResponseIo"
></xsd:element
><xsd:element
 name="Error_spcCode"
 type="xsd:string"
></xsd:element
><xsd:element
 name="Error_spcMessage"
 type="xsd:string"
></xsd:element
></xsd:sequence
></xsd:complexType
></xsd:element
></xsd:schema
><xsd:schema
 elementFormDefault="qualified"
 attributeFormDefault="unqualified"
 xmlns:xsdLocal1="http://www.siebel.com/xml/IRST%20Account%20Address%20Query%20Request%20IO"
 targetNamespace="http://www.siebel.com/xml/IRST%20Account%20Address%20Query%20Request%20IO"
 xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"
><xsd:annotation
><xsd:documentation
>Copyright (C) 2001-2004 Siebel Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Siebel XSD Generation</xsd:documentation
></xsd:annotation
><xsd:element
 name="ListOfIrstAccountAddressQueryRequestIo"
 type="xsdLocal1:ListOfIrstAccountAddressQueryRequestIo"
></xsd:element
><xsd:complexType
 name="ListOfIrstAccountAddressQueryRequestIoTopElmt"
><xsd:sequence
><xsd:element
 name="ListOfIrstAccountAddressQueryRequestIo"
 maxOccurs="1"
 minOccurs="1"
 type="xsdLocal1:ListOfIrstAccountAddressQueryRequestIo"
></xsd:element
></xsd:sequence
></xsd:complexType
><xsd:complexType
 name="ListOfIrstAccountAddressQueryRequestIo"
><xsd:sequence
><xsd:element
 name="Account"
 maxOccurs="unbounded"
 minOccurs="0"
 type="xsdLocal1:Account"
></xsd:element
></xsd:sequence
></xsd:complexType
><xsd:complexType
 name="Account"
><xsd:sequence
><xsd:element
 name="AccountRowId"
 maxOccurs="1"
 minOccurs="0"
 type="xsd:string"
></xsd:element
></xsd:sequence
></xsd:complexType
></xsd:schema
></types
><message
 name="IRST_spcQuery_spcAccount_spcAnd_spcBrand_spcAccnt_Version_Input"
><part
 name="IRST_spcQuery_spcAccount_spcAnd_spcBrand_spcAccnt_Version_Input"
 element="tns:IRST_spcQuery_spcAccount_spcAnd_spcBrand_spcAccnt_Version_Input"
></part
></message
><message
 name="IRST_spcQuery_spcAccount_spcAnd_spcBrand_spcAccnt_Version_Output"
><part
 name="IRST_spcQuery_spcAccount_spcAnd_spcBrand_spcAccnt_Version_Output"
 element="tns:IRST_spcQuery_spcAccount_spcAnd_spcBrand_spcAccnt_Version_Output"
></part
></message
><portType
 name="IRST_spcQuery_spcAccount_spcAnd_spcBrand_spcAccnt_Version"
><operation
 name="IRST_spcQuery_spcAccount_spcAnd_spcBrand_spcAccnt_Version"
><input
 message="tns:IRST_spcQuery_spcAccount_spcAnd_spcBrand_spcAccnt_Version_Input"
></input
><output
 message="tns:IRST_spcQuery_spcAccount_spcAnd_spcBrand_spcAccnt_Version_Output"
></output
></operation
></portType
><binding
 name="IRST_spcQuery_spcAccount_spcAnd_spcBrand_spcAccnt_Version"
 type="tns:IRST_spcQuery_spcAccount_spcAnd_spcBrand_spcAccnt_Version"
><soap:binding
 transport="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/http"
 style="document"
></soap:binding
><operation
 name="IRST_spcQuery_spcAccount_spcAnd_spcBrand_spcAccnt_Version"
><soap:operation
 soapAction="document/http://siebel.com/CustomUI:IRST_spcQuery_spcAccount_spcAnd_spcBrand_spcAccnt_Version"
></soap:operation
><input
><soap:body
 use="literal"
></soap:body
></input
><output
><soap:body
 use="literal"
></soap:body
></output
></operation
></binding
><service
 name="IRST_spcQuery_spcAccount_spcAnd_spcBrand_spcAccnt_Version"
><port
 binding="tns:IRST_spcQuery_spcAccount_spcAnd_spcBrand_spcAccnt_Version"
 name="IRST_spcQuery_spcAccount_spcAnd_spcBrand_spcAccnt_Version"
><soap:address
 location="http://xx.xx.xx.xx/path/to/service"
></soap:address
></port
></service
></definitions
>

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1 Answer

Editorial Team · Answer 1 · 2026-06-15T09:08:40+00:00

Editorial Team

2026-06-15T09:08:40+00:00Added an answer on June 15, 2026 at 9:08 am

It appears that I was trying to deserialize using the wrong serializer. Previous editions of the 3rd party service’s wsdl was working fine with DataContractSerializer. Changes they implemented are apparently incompatible with DataContractSerializer and svcutil.exe switched to using XmlSerializer, unbeknownst to me.

I switched to using XmlSerializer for deserialization and things are finally working.

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