Can I configure the DataContractSerializer to not create optional (i.e. Nullable<> and List<>) elements in output XML?

Question

I am using the new .NET 3.0 DataContractSerializer. I have both Nullable<> and List<> objects I am going to serialize. Example:

[DataContract(Na         


        

Answer 1

I really needed the same thing, but applied globally to lots of fields in generated RIA classes. I'm not sure if this XML is acceptable to DataConstract for deserializing. But it is readable, which suites my purposes...

    public override string ToString()
    {
        var doc = XDocument.Parse(this.ToXML());
        WalkElement(doc.Root);
        return doc.ToString( SaveOptions.None );
    }
    void WalkElement(XElement e)
    {
        var n = e.GetNamespaceOfPrefix("i");
        if (n != null)
        {
            var a = e.Attribute(n + "nil");
            if (a != null && a.Value.ToLower() == "true")
                e.Remove();
        }
        foreach (XElement child in e.Elements().ToList())
            WalkElement(child);
    }