Override XML Serialization Method

Question

I\'m having trouble trying to customize the way DateTime variables are serialized in my objects. I want it to be output as 2011-09-26T13:00:00Z but when I override the GetOb

Answer 1

You're trying to customize standard serialization (ISerializable) for a property type whose containing type is being serialized with XmlSerializer. You need implement the IXmlSerializable interface to customize XML Serialization. Try something like this:

public class gdEvent : IXmlSerializable
{
    private DateTime _startTime;
    private DateTime _endTime;

    public gdEvent(DateTime startTime, DateTime endTime)
    {
        _startTime = startTime;
        _endTime = endTime;
    }

    public gdEvent()
    {
        _startTime = DateTime.MinValue;
        _endTime = DateTime.MinValue;
    }

    public XmlSchema GetSchema()
    {
        return null;
    }

    public void WriteXml(XmlWriter writer)
    {
        if (_startTime != DateTime.MinValue)
            writer.WriteAttributeString("startTime", _startTime.ToString("yyyy-MM-ddTHH:mm:ssZ"));
        if (_endTime != DateTime.MinValue)
            writer.WriteAttributeString("endTime", _endTime.ToString("yyyy-MM-ddTHH:mm:ssZ"));
    }

    public void ReadXml(XmlReader reader)
    {
        string startTimeString = reader.GetAttribute("startTime");
        if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(startTimeString))
        {
            _startTime = DateTime.Parse(startTimeString);
        }
        string endTimeString = reader.GetAttribute("startTime");
        if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(endTimeString))
        {
            _endTime = DateTime.Parse(endTimeString);
        }
    }

}

Answer 2

I had a suggestion from @craighawker to format the DateTime into a string when calling a set() method for the DateTime. Seemed the simplest method although I would like to implement it the proper way using IXMLSerializable at some point in the future to do more powerful things

 public class gdEvent
    {
    [XmlAttribute(AttributeName = "startTime")]
    private string m_startTimeOutput;
    private DateTime m_startTime; //format 2011-11-02T09:00:00Z

    [XmlAttribute(AttributeName = "endTime")]
    private string m_endTimeOutput;
    private DateTime m_endTime; //2011-11-02T10:00:00Z

    public DateTime startTime
    {
        get
        {
        return m_startTime;
        }
        set
        {
        m_startTime = value;
        m_startTimeOutput = m_startTime.ToString("yyyy-MM-ddTHH:mm:ssZ");
        }
    }

    public DateTime endTime
    {
        get
        {
        return m_endTime;
        }
        set
        {
        m_endTime = value;
        m_endTimeOutput = m_endTime.ToString("yyyy-MM-ddTHH:mm:ssZ");
        }
    }