Best way to deserialize this XML into an object

Question

In other examples I've seen that are similar to mine, there is a root node, then an array node, and then a bunch of array items. My problem is, my root node is my array node, so examples I've seen don't seem to work for me, and I can't change the XML schema. Here's the XML:

<articles>  
    <article>
      <guid>7f6da9df-1a91-4e20-8b66-07ac7548dc47</guid>
      <order>1</order>
      <type>deal_abstract</type>
      <textType></textType>
      <id></id>
      <title>Abu Dhabi's IPIC Eyes Bond Sale After Cepsa Buy</title>
      <summary>Abu Dhabi's IPIC has appointed banks for a potential sterling and euro-denominated bond issue, a document showed on Wednesday, after the firm acquired Spain's Cepsa in a $5 billion deal earlier this month...</summary>
      <readmore></readmore>
      <fileName></fileName>
      <articleDate>02/24/2011 00:00:00 AM</articleDate>
      <articleDateType></articleDateType>
    </article>

    <article>
      <guid>1c3e57a0-c471-425a-87dd-051e69ecb7c5</guid>
      <order>2</order>
      <type>deal_abstract</type>
      <textType></textType>
      <id></id>
      <title>Big Law Abuzz Over New China Security Review</title>
      <summary>China’s newly established foreign investment M&amp;A review committee has been the subject of much legal chatter in the Middle Kingdom and beyond. Earlier this month, the State Council unveiled legislative guidance on…</summary>
      <readmore></readmore>
      <fileName></fileName>
      <articleDate>02/23/2011 00:00:00 AM</articleDate>
      <articleDateType></articleDateType>
    </article>  
</articles>

Here's my class:

public class CurrentsResultsList
{
    public Article[] Articles;
}

public class Article
{
    public string Guid { get; set; }
    public int Order { get; set; }
    public string Type { get; set; }
    public string Title { get; set; }
    public string Summary { get; set; }
    public DateTime ArticleDate { get; set; }
}

This is an XML response from an external API.

I beilive you need to tag your class with one of these bad boys: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.xml.serialization.xmltypeattribute.aspx — asawyer, Mar 04 '11 at 19:24
FYI, if you've already got a copy of the schema, there's no reason to run the XML you posted above through the XSD utility as everyone below is suggesting. Just run the schema that you have through the XSD utility to generate classes that will allow you to serialize/deserialze correctly. — pmartin, Mar 04 '11 at 19:56

score 8 · Answer 1 · edited Mar 08 '22 at 08:04

8

put it in a xml inside visual studio
create the xsd schema

use:

"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\SDK\v2.0\Bin\xsd.exe" "MyXsd.xsd" /t:lib /l:cs /c  /namespace:my.xsd /outputdir:"C:\testtttt"

now you have your c# class ready.
and you can use this:

internal class ParseXML 
{
    public static xsdClass ToClass<xsdClass>(XElement ResponseXML)
    {
        return deserialize<xsdClass>(ResponseXML.ToString(SaveOptions.DisableFormatting));
    }

    private static result deserialize<result>(string XML)
    {
        using (TextReader textReader = new StringReader(XML))
        {
            XmlSerializer xmlSerializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(result));
            return (result) xmlSerializer.Deserialize(textReader);
        }
    } 
}

edited Mar 08 '22 at 08:04

shA.t

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answered Mar 04 '11 at 19:46

Fredou

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Hi, I have Visual Studio 10.0, I can't seem to find the xsd.exe anywhere, any tips? Thanks. – Samo Mar 07 '11 at 15:58
@Samo a quick search revield to be in `C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v10.0A\bin\NETFX 4.8 Tools` – Squirrel in training Jun 12 '20 at 14:45

score 5 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 04 '11 at 21:36

You have to be trixy with some Xml-attributes, this code should hopefully produce the xml you like, hope it helps:

using System;
using System.IO;
using System.Xml.Serialization;

namespace xmlTest
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            var articles = new Articles();
            articles.ArticleArray = new ArticlesArticle[2]
            {
                new ArticlesArticle()
                    {
                        Guid = Guid.NewGuid(),
                        Order = 1,
                        Type = "deal_abstract",
                        Title = "Abu Dhabi...",
                        Summary = "Abu Dhabi...",
                        ArticleDate = new DateTime(2011,2,24)
                    },
                new ArticlesArticle()
                    {
                        Guid = Guid.NewGuid(),
                        Order = 2,
                        Type = "deal_abstract",
                        Title = "Abu Dhabi...",
                        Summary = "China...",
                        ArticleDate = new DateTime(2011,2,23)
                    },
            };

            var sw = new StringWriter();
            var xmlSer = new XmlSerializer(typeof (Articles));
            var noNamespaces = new XmlSerializerNamespaces();
            noNamespaces.Add("", ""); 
            xmlSer.Serialize(sw, articles,noNamespaces);
            Console.WriteLine(sw.ToString());
        }
    }

    [XmlRoot(ElementName = "articles", Namespace = "", IsNullable = false)]
    public class Articles
    {
        [XmlElement("article")]
        public ArticlesArticle[] ArticleArray { get; set; }
    }

    public class ArticlesArticle
    {
        [XmlElement("guid")]
        public Guid Guid { get; set; }
        [XmlElement("order")]
        public int Order { get; set; }
        [XmlElement("type")]
        public string Type { get; set; }
        [XmlElement("textType")]
        public string TextType { get; set; }
        [XmlElement("id")]
        public int Id { get; set; }
        [XmlElement("title")]
        public string Title { get; set; }
        [XmlElement("summary")]
        public string Summary { get; set; }
        [XmlElement("readmore")]
        public string Readmore { get; set; }
        [XmlElement("fileName")]
        public string FileName { get; set; }
        [XmlElement("articleDate")]
        public DateTime ArticleDate { get; set; }
        [XmlElement("articleDateType")]
        public string ArticleDateType { get; set; }
    }
}

Thanks, this worked rather well without having to screw around with xsd. — Samo, Mar 07 '11 at 17:19

score 3 · Answer 3 · answered Mar 04 '11 at 19:38

Probably the easiest way I can think of would be to use the xsd tool. You give it the XML and it will generate a schema from it. You might need to tweak the schema a bit, but it should be close.

From there, you can send that same schema back through xsd to generate classes from it.

score 2 · Answer 4 · answered Mar 04 '11 at 19:48

>xsd test.xml
Microsoft (R) Xml Schemas/DataTypes support utility
[Microsoft (R) .NET Framework, Version 4.0.30319.1]
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
Writing file 'test.xsd'.

>xsd /c test.xsd
Microsoft (R) Xml Schemas/DataTypes support utility
[Microsoft (R) .NET Framework, Version 4.0.30319.1]
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
Writing file 'test.cs'.

Result:

//------------------------------------------------------------------------------
// <auto-generated>
//     This code was generated by a tool.
//     Runtime Version:4.0.30319.1
//
//     Changes to this file may cause incorrect behavior and will be lost if
//     the code is regenerated.
// </auto-generated>
//------------------------------------------------------------------------------

using System.Xml.Serialization;

// 
// This source code was auto-generated by xsd, Version=4.0.30319.1.
// 


/// <remarks/>
[System.CodeDom.Compiler.GeneratedCodeAttribute("xsd", "4.0.30319.1")]
[System.SerializableAttribute()]
[System.Diagnostics.DebuggerStepThroughAttribute()]
[System.ComponentModel.DesignerCategoryAttribute("code")]
[System.Xml.Serialization.XmlTypeAttribute(AnonymousType=true)]
[System.Xml.Serialization.XmlRootAttribute(Namespace="", IsNullable=false)]
public partial class articles {

    private articlesArticle[] itemsField;

    /// <remarks/>
    [System.Xml.Serialization.XmlElementAttribute("article", Form=System.Xml.Schema.XmlSchemaForm.Unqualified)]
    public articlesArticle[] Items {
        get {
            return this.itemsField;
        }
        set {
            this.itemsField = value;
        }
    }
}

/// <remarks/>
[System.CodeDom.Compiler.GeneratedCodeAttribute("xsd", "4.0.30319.1")]
[System.SerializableAttribute()]
[System.Diagnostics.DebuggerStepThroughAttribute()]
[System.ComponentModel.DesignerCategoryAttribute("code")]
[System.Xml.Serialization.XmlTypeAttribute(AnonymousType=true)]
public partial class articlesArticle {

    private string guidField;

    private string orderField;

    private string typeField;

    private string textTypeField;

    private string idField;

    private string titleField;

    private string summaryField;

    private string readmoreField;

    private string fileNameField;

    private string articleDateField;

    private string articleDateTypeField;

    /// <remarks/>
    [System.Xml.Serialization.XmlElementAttribute(Form=System.Xml.Schema.XmlSchemaForm.Unqualified)]
    public string guid {
        get {
            return this.guidField;
        }
        set {
            this.guidField = value;
        }
    }

    /// <remarks/>
    [System.Xml.Serialization.XmlElementAttribute(Form=System.Xml.Schema.XmlSchemaForm.Unqualified)]
    public string order {
        get {
            return this.orderField;
        }
        set {
            this.orderField = value;
        }
    }

    /// <remarks/>
    [System.Xml.Serialization.XmlElementAttribute(Form=System.Xml.Schema.XmlSchemaForm.Unqualified)]
    public string type {
        get {
            return this.typeField;
        }
        set {
            this.typeField = value;
        }
    }

    /// <remarks/>
    [System.Xml.Serialization.XmlElementAttribute(Form=System.Xml.Schema.XmlSchemaForm.Unqualified)]
    public string textType {
        get {
            return this.textTypeField;
        }
        set {
            this.textTypeField = value;
        }
    }

    /// <remarks/>
    [System.Xml.Serialization.XmlElementAttribute(Form=System.Xml.Schema.XmlSchemaForm.Unqualified)]
    public string id {
        get {
            return this.idField;
        }
        set {
            this.idField = value;
        }
    }

    /// <remarks/>
    [System.Xml.Serialization.XmlElementAttribute(Form=System.Xml.Schema.XmlSchemaForm.Unqualified)]
    public string title {
        get {
            return this.titleField;
        }
        set {
            this.titleField = value;
        }
    }

    /// <remarks/>
    [System.Xml.Serialization.XmlElementAttribute(Form=System.Xml.Schema.XmlSchemaForm.Unqualified)]
    public string summary {
        get {
            return this.summaryField;
        }
        set {
            this.summaryField = value;
        }
    }

    /// <remarks/>
    [System.Xml.Serialization.XmlElementAttribute(Form=System.Xml.Schema.XmlSchemaForm.Unqualified)]
    public string readmore {
        get {
            return this.readmoreField;
        }
        set {
            this.readmoreField = value;
        }
    }

    /// <remarks/>
    [System.Xml.Serialization.XmlElementAttribute(Form=System.Xml.Schema.XmlSchemaForm.Unqualified)]
    public string fileName {
        get {
            return this.fileNameField;
        }
        set {
            this.fileNameField = value;
        }
    }

    /// <remarks/>
    [System.Xml.Serialization.XmlElementAttribute(Form=System.Xml.Schema.XmlSchemaForm.Unqualified)]
    public string articleDate {
        get {
            return this.articleDateField;
        }
        set {
            this.articleDateField = value;
        }
    }

    /// <remarks/>
    [System.Xml.Serialization.XmlElementAttribute(Form=System.Xml.Schema.XmlSchemaForm.Unqualified)]
    public string articleDateType {
        get {
            return this.articleDateTypeField;
        }
        set {
            this.articleDateTypeField = value;
        }
    }
}

Best way to deserialize this XML into an object

4 Answers4

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