IXmlSerializable and inheritance

Question

Let\'s say that I have two classes, a base class and a derived class. They are fairly simple classes, and mainly just act as data structures (with the derived class obviousl

Answer 1

Well, I've managed to do what you're trying to do using the DataContractSerializer.

You should either put KnownTypes attribute on the base classes you want to serialize, or better yet, use a DataContractResolver to find the derived types.

I've seen a generic implementation on the web, I'll post it here if I find it again.

Edit

Found it here

Let me know if you need more help.

Answer 2

XmlSerialization is not polymorphic (the member attributes, however, go with the declaring class; i.e. unless you overrule a member with the new keyword (in contrast to override) you'll 'inherit' the serialization attributes.

Deserialization always results in the actual type that was serialized. This makes a lot of sense, really.