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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-05-21T11:03:06+00:00

To start: This is also for REST deserialiaztion, so a custom XmlSerializer is out

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To start: This is also for REST deserialiaztion, so a custom XmlSerializer is out of the question.

I have a hjierarchy of classes that need to be serializable and deserializable from an “Envelope”. It has an arrayelement named “Items” that can contain subclasses of the abstract “Item”.

[XmlArray("Items")]
public Item [] Items { get; set; }

Now I need to add XmlArrayItem, but the number is not “fixed”. We use so far reflection to find all subclasses with a KnownTypeProvider so it is easy to extend the assembly with new subtypes. I dont really want to hardcode all items here.

The class is defined accordingly:

[XmlRoot]
[KnownType("GetKnownTypes")]
public class Envelope {

but it does not help.

Changing Items to:

[XmlArray("Items")]
[XmlArrayItem(typeof(Item))]
public Item [] Items { get; set; }

results in:

{“The type
xxx.Adjustment
was not expected. Use the XmlInclude
or SoapInclude attribute to specify
types that are not known statically.”}

when tyrying to serialize.

Anyone an idea how I can use XmlInclude to point to a known type provider?

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    The KnownTypesAttribute does not work for XmlSerializer. It’s only used by a DataContractSerializer. I’m quite sure that you can exchange the serializer in WCF, because I have done that for the DataContractSerializer. But if that’s not an option, you have to implement IXmlSerializable yourself and handle type lookup there.

    Before disqualifying this solution: You just have to implement IXmlSerializable just for a special class which replaces Item[]. Everything else can be handled by the default serializer.

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