Deserialize XML without namespaces but in a class expecting namespaces

Question

Duplicate:
Omitting all xml namespaces when serializing an object? Not the same.. I want in the other way: Deserialize!

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I

Answer 1

You could read the file in as text, remove the offending namespace text, then deserialize it.

You may need to write the "good" text back into a [memory/string/etc] stream so that the XmlSerializer's Deserialize can be called.

Answer 2

In order to deserialize XML without namespace add XmlRoot attribute to the class that represents the top of your hierarchy:

[XmlRoot(ElementName="plugins", Namespace="")]

In my example the Xml has no namespace and starts like

<plugins><...

The class that it deserializes to:

[XmlRoot(ElementName="plugins", Namespace="")]
public class Plugins
{
   //...
}

Obviously, your situation may be a slightly different, but this code works for me:

using (FileStream stream = File.Open(filePath, FileMode.Open))
{
   XmlReader reader = new XmlTextReader(stream);                
   XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(Plugins));
   var plugins = (Plugins)serializer.Deserialize(reader);
}

-Stan

Answer 3

I had run into a similar challenge with a proxy class. For reasons that I won't go into, I needed to serialize the class manually using the XmlSerializer on web server and deserialize on client. I was not able to find an elegant solution online, so I just avoided the issue by removing the XmlTypeAttribute from the proxy class manually after I auto-generated it in Visual Studio.

I kept coming back to see if there was a way to get the namespace to workout. Here is how I got it working without the need to modify the auto-generated classes. I ended up using an XmlTextReader to return the desired namespace on nodes matching a property name. There is room for improvement, but i hope it helps someone.

class Program
{
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        //create list to serialize
        Person personA = new Person() { Name = "Bob", Age = 10, StartDate = DateTime.Parse("1/1/1960"), Money = 123456m };
        List<Person> listA = new List<Person>();
        for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++)
        {
            listA.Add(personA);
        }

        //serialize list to file
        XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(List<Person>));
        XmlTextWriter writer = new XmlTextWriter("Test.xml", Encoding.UTF8);
        serializer.Serialize(writer, listA);
        writer.Close();

        //deserialize list from file
        serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(List<ProxysNamespace.Person>));
        List<ProxysNamespace.Person> listB;
        using (FileStream file = new FileStream("Test.xml", FileMode.Open))
        {
            //configure proxy reader
            XmlSoapProxyReader reader = new XmlSoapProxyReader(file);
            reader.ProxyNamespace = "http://myappns.com/";      //the namespace of the XmlTypeAttribute 
            reader.ProxyType = typeof(ProxysNamespace.Person); //the type with the XmlTypeAttribute

            //deserialize
            listB = (List<ProxysNamespace.Person>)serializer.Deserialize(reader);
        }

        //display list
        foreach (ProxysNamespace.Person p in listB)
        {
            Console.WriteLine(p.ToString());
        }

        Console.ReadLine();
    }
}

public class Person
{
    public string Name { get; set; }
    public int Age { get; set; }
    public DateTime StartDate { get; set; }
    public decimal Money { get; set; }
}

namespace ProxysNamespace
{
    [XmlTypeAttribute(Namespace = "http://myappns.com/")]
    public class Person
    {
        public string Name { get; set; }
        public int Age { get; set; }
        public DateTime Birthday { get; set; }
        public decimal Money { get; set; }

        public override string ToString()
        {
            return string.Format("{0}:{1},{2:d}:{3:c2}", Name, Age, Birthday, Money);
        }
    }
}

public class XmlSoapProxyReader : XmlTextReader
{
    List<object> propNames;
    public XmlSoapProxyReader(Stream input)
        : base(input)
    {
        propNames = new List<object>();
    }

    public string ProxyNamespace { get; set; }

    private Type proxyType;
    public Type ProxyType
    {
        get { return proxyType; }
        set
        {
            proxyType = value;
            PropertyInfo[] properties = proxyType.GetProperties();
            foreach (PropertyInfo p in properties)
            {
                propNames.Add(p.Name);
            }
        }
    }

    public override string NamespaceURI
    {
        get
        {
            object localname = LocalName;
            if (propNames.Contains(localname))
                return ProxyNamespace;
            else
                return string.Empty;
        }
    }
}

Answer 4

You need to implement IXmlSerializable to improve your custom serialization.