Serializing List<> with XmlSerializer

Question

I have defined the following classes.

Document.cs

public class Document {
  // ...
  [XmlAttribute]
  public string Status { get; set; }
}

DocumentOrder.cs

public class DocumentOrder {
  // ...
  [XmlAttribute]
  public string Name { get; set; }
  public List<Document> Documents { get; set; }
}

When serializing this to an XML I get:

<DocumentOrder Name="myname">
  <Documents>
    <Document Status="new"/>
    // ...
  </Documents>
</DocumentOrder>

But I would like to have it like that, i.e. be the Document elements to be children of DocumentOrder.

<DocumentOrder Name="myname">
  <Document Status="new"/>
  <Document Status="new"/>
  <Document Status="new"/>
  // The document element has other attributes to distinguish...
</DocumentOrder>

How can I do that?

see [this](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3303165/using-xmlarrayitem-attribute-without-xmlarray-on-serializable-c-sharp-class) answer — Jens Kloster, Jun 24 '13 at 12:42

score 4 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 24 '13 at 12:42

4

you can try :

public class DocumentOrder {
  // ...
  [XmlAttribute]
  public string Name { get; set; }
  [XmlElement("Document")]
  public List<Document> Documents { get; set; }
}

answered Jun 24 '13 at 12:42

Joffrey Kern

6,449
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score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 24 '13 at 12:48

1

Should just be a case of:

public class DocumentOrder {
  // ...
  [XmlAttribute]
  public string Name { get; set; }

  [XmlArrayItem("Document")]
  public List<Document> Documents { get; set; }
}

There are some good examples on MSDN on what the various XML serialization attributes do

answered Jun 24 '13 at 12:48

Rowland Shaw

37,700
14
97
166

doesn't this still create the `` tag? – Jens Kloster Jun 24 '13 at 12:56

Serializing List<> with XmlSerializer

2 Answers2