Is svcutil.exe a replacement for xsd.exe?

Question

I am using xsd.exe to generate some c# classes from a .xsd file. I ran into the same issue that is covered here and on other sites where xsd.exe generates Type[] arrays instead

Answer 1

Yes, svcutil.exe can be used as a replacement for xsd.exe but it sounds like you are having trouble getting generic collections to be generated. svcutil.exe has a collectionType switch that allows you to specify the type to be used for a collection:

svcutil /o:Svc.cs /ct:System.Collections.Generic.List`1 http://example.com

Answer 2

Clarification

Andrew Hare's answer above will work, but the example command that jameswelle pasted just above his last section of code:

svcutil.exe /target:code /dataContractOnly /serializer:XmlSerializer /importXmlTypes /collectionType:System.Collections.Generic.List`1 Example.xsd

does not work because, as stated on MSDN, '. . .the /r and /ct switches for referencing types are for generating data contracts. These switches do not work when using XmlSerializer.'

HTH.

Answer 3

I have found Xsd2Code to be much better than xsd.exe does does exactly what you need. See here: http://xsd2code.codeplex.com/

Answer 4

I would just create your own xsd.exe. Sorry having trouble pasting but if you copy this code into your main:

        XmlSchemas xsds = new XmlSchemas();
        xsds.Add(xsd);
        xsds.Compile(null, true);
        XmlSchemaImporter schemaImporter = new XmlSchemaImporter(xsds);

        // create the codedom
        CodeNamespace codeNamespace = new CodeNamespace(strNamespace);
        XmlCodeExporter codeExporter = new XmlCodeExporter(codeNamespace);

        List<XmlTypeMapping> maps = new List<XmlTypeMapping>();
        foreach (XmlSchemaType schemaType in xsd.SchemaTypes.Values)
        {
            maps.Add(schemaImporter.ImportSchemaType(schemaType.QualifiedName));
        }
        foreach (XmlSchemaElement schemaElement in xsd.Elements.Values)
        {
            maps.Add(schemaImporter.ImportTypeMapping(schemaElement.QualifiedName));
        }
        foreach (XmlTypeMapping map in maps)
        {
            codeExporter.ExportTypeMapping(map);
        }

        ReplaceArrayWithList(codeNamespace);

        // Check for invalid characters in identifiers
        CodeGenerator.ValidateIdentifiers(codeNamespace);

        // output the C# code
        CSharpCodeProvider codeProvider = new CSharpCodeProvider();

        using (StreamWriter writer = new StreamWriter(strCsPath, false))
        {
            codeProvider.GenerateCodeFromNamespace(codeNamespace, writer, new CodeGeneratorOptions());
        }
    }
    private static void ReplaceArrayWithList(CodeNamespace codeNamespace)
    {
        codeNamespace.Imports.Add(new CodeNamespaceImport("System.Collections.Generic"));
        foreach (CodeTypeDeclaration codeType in codeNamespace.Types)
        {
            foreach (CodeTypeMember member in codeType.Members)
            {
                if (member is CodeMemberField)
                {
                    CodeMemberField field = (CodeMemberField)member;
                    if (field.Type.ArrayRank > 0)
                    {
                        CodeTypeReference type = new CodeTypeReference();
                        type.BaseType = "List<" + field.Type.BaseType + ">";
                        field.Type = type;
                    }
                }
                if (member is CodeMemberProperty)
                {
                    CodeMemberProperty property = (CodeMemberProperty)member;
                    if (property.Type.ArrayRank > 0)
                    {
                        CodeTypeReference type = new CodeTypeReference();
                        type.BaseType = "List<" + property.Type.BaseType + ">";
                        property.Type = type;
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }

}

}

Answer 5

I have tested the same commands on another schema, ang received similar "junk" results from svcutil. So, the might be a way to make it work like xsd.exe, but so far all Ive seen are far less useful ones.

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Updated answer: I found that many of these generic arrays of xml nodes were replaced by strong types when all the referenced XSD's are forcibly included. In my case, i have many xsd files all referenced by each other, but svcutil doesnt seem to include them. i had to instead tell it to use *.xsd to get them all.