deserialize xml from azure response

Question

I am looking to deserialize data and place it into a generic class from a response from Azure.

<ServiceResources xmlns:i="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/windowsazure">
<ServiceResource>
    <Name>Airport1</Name>
    <Type>Microsoft.SqlAzure.FirewallRule</Type>
    <State>Normal</State>
    <SelfLink>https://management.core.windows.net:xxx/xxx/services/sqlservers/servers/xxx/firewallrules/Airport1</SelfLink>
    <ParentLink>https://management.core.windows.net:xxxx/services/sqlservers/servers/xxx</ParentLink>
    <StartIPAddress>000.000.000.000</StartIPAddress>
    <EndIPAddress>2000.000.000.000</EndIPAddress>
  </ServiceResource>

There are several objects I need to deserialze into my class.

[Serializable, XmlRoot(ElementName = "ServiceResource", Namespace = "http://schemas.microsoft.com/windowsazure/")]
public class ServiceResource
{
    [XmlElement("Name")]
    public string Name { get; set; }
    [XmlElement("Type")]
    public string Type { get; set; }
    [XmlElement("State")]
    public string State { get; set; }
    [XmlElement("SelfLink")]
    public string SelfLink { get; set; }
    [XmlElement("ParentLink")]
    public string ParentLink { get; set; }
    [XmlElement("StartIPAddress")]
    public string StartIPAddress { get; set; }
    [XmlElement("EndIPAddress")]
    public string EndIPAddress { get; set; }
} 

I have tried several different ventures into this and can't nail it. I have used the xmlSerializer but hit blocks on that.

using (var responseStreamReader = new StreamReader(webResponse.GetResponseStream()))
{
    XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(ServiceResource));
    ServiceResource deserialized = (ServiceResource)serializer.Deserialize(responseStreamReader);

}

Any help would be gratefully accepted.

Answer 1

Answer

The Azure REST Api is returning a list of ServiceResource in the XML. So you need to encapsulate that into a class. Here is an example.

[XmlRoot(
    ElementName = "ServiceResources",
    Namespace = "http://schemas.microsoft.com/windowsazure")]
public class ServiceResources
{
    public ServiceResources()
    {
        Items = new List<ServiceResource>();
    }

    [XmlElement("ServiceResource")]
    public List<ServiceResource> Items { get; set; }
}

public class ServiceResource
{
    [XmlElement("Name")]
    public string Name { get; set; }
    [XmlElement("Type")]
    public string Type { get; set; }
    [XmlElement("State")]
    public string State { get; set; }
    [XmlElement("SelfLink")]
    public string SelfLink { get; set; }
    [XmlElement("ParentLink")]
    public string ParentLink { get; set; }
    [XmlElement("StartIPAddress")]
    public string StartIPAddress { get; set; }
    [XmlElement("EndIPAddress")]
    public string EndIPAddress { get; set; }
}

With those two classes, you can now do the following.

var response = request.GetResponse();
var message = string.Empty;
using (var responseStreamReader = new StreamReader(response.GetResponseStream()))
{
    message = responseStreamReader.ReadToEnd();
}

var textReader = new StringReader(message);
var serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(ServiceResources));
var serviceResources = 
    serializer.Deserialize(textReader) as ServiceResources;

Demo Console App

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.IO;
using System.Linq;
using System.Net;
using System.Security.Cryptography.X509Certificates;
using System.Text;
using System.Xml;
using System.Xml.Serialization;

namespace DeserializeAzureXmlResponse
{
    class Program
    {
        private static string certificateThumbprint = "19DAED4D4ABBE0D400DC33A6D99D00D7BBB24472";
        private static string subscriptionId = "14929cfc-3501-48cf-a5c9-b24a7daaf694";
        static string sqlServerName = "mvp2015";

        static string managementUri = "https://management.core.windows.net";
        static string sqlServerApi = "services/sqlservers/servers";
        static string firewallRules = "firewallrules";

        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            var restUri = CreateRestUri();
            var clientCert = GetX509FromPersonalStore();

            var request = (HttpWebRequest)HttpWebRequest.Create(restUri);
            request.Headers.Add("x-ms-version", "2012-03-01");
            request.ClientCertificates.Add(clientCert);

            var response = request.GetResponse();
            var message = string.Empty;
            using (var responseStreamReader = new StreamReader(response.GetResponseStream()))
            {
                message = responseStreamReader.ReadToEnd();
            }

            var textReader = new StringReader(message);
            var serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(ServiceResources));
            var serviceResources = serializer.Deserialize(textReader) as ServiceResources;
            foreach (var sr in serviceResources.Items)
            {
                Console.WriteLine("Name".PadRight(20) + sr.Name);
                Console.WriteLine("Type".PadRight(20) + sr.Type);
                Console.WriteLine("State".PadRight(20) + sr.State);
                Console.WriteLine("SelfLink".PadRight(20) + sr.SelfLink);
                Console.WriteLine("ParentLink".PadRight(20) + sr.ParentLink);
                Console.WriteLine("StartIP".PadRight(20) + sr.StartIPAddress);
                Console.WriteLine("EndIP".PadRight(20) + sr.EndIPAddress);
                Console.WriteLine("+++++++++++");
            }
            Console.ReadLine();
        }

        static Uri CreateRestUri()
        {
            // https://management.core.windows.net/{subscriptionID}/services/sqlservers/servers/{server}/firewallrules/
            var builder = new StringBuilder();
            builder.Append(managementUri + "/");
            builder.Append(subscriptionId + "/");
            builder.Append(sqlServerApi + "/");
            builder.Append(sqlServerName + "/");
            builder.Append(firewallRules + "/");
            var uri = new Uri(builder.ToString());
            return uri;
        }

        static X509Certificate GetX509FromPersonalStore()
        {
            // To view the personal store, press `Win + R` and then type `certmgr.msc`
            var store = new X509Store(StoreLocation.CurrentUser);
            store.Open(OpenFlags.ReadOnly);
            var certificates = store.Certificates.Find(X509FindType.FindByThumbprint, certificateThumbprint, true);
            var certificate = certificates[0];
            store.Close();
            return certificate;
        }
    }

    [XmlRoot(
        ElementName = "ServiceResources",
        Namespace = "http://schemas.microsoft.com/windowsazure")]
    public class ServiceResources
    {
        public ServiceResources()
        {
            Items = new List<ServiceResource>();
        }

        [XmlElement("ServiceResource")]
        public List<ServiceResource> Items { get; set; }
    }

    public class ServiceResource
    {
        [XmlElement("Name")]
        public string Name { get; set; }
        [XmlElement("Type")]
        public string Type { get; set; }
        [XmlElement("State")]
        public string State { get; set; }
        [XmlElement("SelfLink")]
        public string SelfLink { get; set; }
        [XmlElement("ParentLink")]
        public string ParentLink { get; set; }
        [XmlElement("StartIPAddress")]
        public string StartIPAddress { get; set; }
        [XmlElement("EndIPAddress")]
        public string EndIPAddress { get; set; }
    }
}

Output

Name                My-House
Type                Microsoft.SqlAzure.FirewallRule
State               Normal
SelfLink            https://management.core.windows.net/14929cfc-35
ParentLink          https://management.core.windows.net/14929cfc-35
StartIP             123.435.234.643
EndIP               123.435.234.643
+++++++++++
Name                AllowAllWindowsAzureIps
Type                Microsoft.SqlAzure.FirewallRule
State               Normal
SelfLink            https://management.core.windows.net/14929cfc-35
ParentLink          https://management.core.windows.net/14929cfc-35
StartIP             0.0.0.0
EndIP               0.0.0.0
+++++++++++

See Also

Is it possible to deserialize XML into List<T>?

List Firewall Rules

Answer 2

I am assuming you are trying to deserialize the whole object graph. Given xml has root node ServiceResources which contains ServiceResource. You have two options, you can mimic the whole xml into classes and desrialize; or just get the inner node of ServiceResource and deserialize that part.

If you use first option, then you would need to store ServiceResource inside another class which has mapped collections property with XmlElement name set to "ServiceResource", e.g.:

[XmlType(Namespace="http://schemas.microsoft.com/windowsazure")]
[XmlRoot(Namespace="http://schemas.microsoft.com/windowsazure")]        
public class ServiceResource
{
    public string Name { get; set; }

    public string Type { get; set; }

    public string State { get; set; }

    public string SelfLink { get; set; }

    public string ParentLink { get; set; }

    public string StartIPAddress { get; set; }

    public string EndIPAddress { get; set; }

}

[XmlType(Namespace="http://schemas.microsoft.com/windowsazure")]
[XmlRoot(Namespace="http://schemas.microsoft.com/windowsazure")]
public class ServiceResources
{
    [XmlElement("ServiceResource")]
    public List<ServiceResource> ServiceResource { get; set; }
}

With that you should be able to deserialize directly. Container class has the collections mapped to the ServiceResource element, which will load all of the nodes for service resource. Note: deserialization target type is now "ServiceResources" not the inner type "ServiceResource"

using (var responseStreamReader = new StreamReader(webResponse.GetResponseStream()))
{
    XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(ServiceResources));
    ServiceResources deserialized = (ServiceResources)serializer.Deserialize(responseStreamReader);

     //you can access each item in loop
    foreach(var res in deserialized.ServiceResource)
    {
       //access items e.g.
       var name = res.Name;
    }
}