Deserialize object property with StringReader vs XmlNodeReader

Question

Why does XmlSerializer populate my object property with an XmlNode array when deserializing an empty typed element using XmlNodeReader

Answer 1

It looks like this is a very old XmlNodeReader bug that Microsoft have no intention of fixing. (Archived Microsoft Connect link here). I found a workaround on Lev Gimelfarb's blog here that adds namespaces to the reader's NameTable as prefixes are looked up.

public class ProperXmlNodeReader : XmlNodeReader
{
    public ProperXmlNodeReader(XmlNode node) : base(node)
    {
    }

    public override string LookupNamespace(string prefix)
    {
        return NameTable.Add(base.LookupNamespace(prefix));
    }
}