XmlSerializer enumeration deserialization failing on (non existent) whitespace

Question

I have an object I'm deserializing which contains an enum 'JourneyPatternLinkDirectionEnumeration', it's used as a value for a node 'Direction'.

When 'Direction' is specified with a value, or not specified and it's represented in xml as

<Direction />

Everything works fine. However, if it's in the xml as

<Direction></Direction>

I get the following error:

"Instance validation error: '' is not a valid value for JourneyPatternLinkDirectionEnumeration."

My code is as follows:

var xmlTextReader = new XmlTextReader(xmlDocUri);
xmlTextReader.WhitespaceHandling = WhitespaceHandling.None;
xmlTextReader.Normalization = false;

var serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(T),  typeof(T).Assembly.GetTypes());

ouput = (T)serializer.Deserialize(xmlTextReader);

Any thoughts? Is there a better way to do this.

(Sorry I can't post the full code, the xml doc is a 65000-line TransXchange doc)

why do you mention whitespace? if there is none, why would it be the cause? — fejesjoco, Dec 24 '10 at 14:57

score 3 · Answer 1 · answered Dec 24 '10 at 15:01

3

I don't think you have a choice here, if it's an error, then it's an error. Change the source XML, or declare your value as a string, and provide a non-serialized enum wrapper property, or create a wrapper class for the enum type which implements IXmlSerializable.

answered Dec 24 '10 at 15:01

fejesjoco

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Thanks, I'll give that a go when I refactor. – Doobi Dec 24 '10 at 22:29

score 2 · Accepted Answer · edited Apr 12 '19 at 21:09

There are a few places where an empty (self-closing) element gets treated as significantly different to an element that has an empty text content.

Assuming you don't control the source, I wonder if in this case you should be pragmatic and change it to a string member:

public string Direction {
    get { return enumField.ToString(); }
    set { enumField = (EnumType)Enum.Parse(typeof(EnumType), value);}
}

XmlSerializer enumeration deserialization failing on (non existent) whitespace

2 Answers2

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