Having an issue with my small & simple serializer for xml files

Question

I was using a simple serializer to load an xml file to my game (I'm implementing mod support). The way I had it first (it's not my own serializer) was like this:

public static EnemyList Load(string path)
{
    TextAsset _xml = Resources.Load<TextAsset>(path);

    XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(EnemyList));

    StringReader reader = new StringReader(_xml.text);

    EnemyList enemies = serializer.Deserialize(reader) as EnemyList;

    reader.Close();

    return enemies;
}

The problem with that is that "Resources.Load" is being used. Since I want the players to write/install mods the Resources folder can't be used here (because as far as I know they can't access the Resources folder). Therefore I created a "Mods" folder in the build folder and in that Mods folder other peoples folders (for example if I would make a mod I would have a folder like "MyMod" and that folder would have other folders like "entities" with an "entities.xml" file) are located. To get all the files from a folder I used DirectoryInfo. And here is my problem: I'm trying to change the serializer to work with DirectoryInfo. This is the code so far:

public static EnemyList LoadXml(string path)
{
    DirectoryInfo direcInfo = new DirectoryInfo(path);
    FileInfo[] fileInfo = direcInfo.GetFiles();

    XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(EnemyList));

    StringReader reader = new StringReader(fileInfo[0].ToString());

    EnemyList enemies = serializer.Deserialize(reader) as EnemyList;

    reader.Close();

    return enemies;
}

but when I start the game I'm getting the Error: XmlException: Data at the root level is invalid. Line 1, position 1. I've also tried things like File.ReadAllText(path) but I'm getting an "unauthorizedaccessexception". When I googled that problem I found out that I need to specify a file in the path and not the directory (not just Mods/entities but Mods/entities/entities.xml) but I don't want to just read one single file. I want to ready every xml file that is in there. And even if I change it to entities.xml I'm still getting an Error IOException: Error 267 (couldn't find any answers to fix that)

I hope someone can help me with that. I've already googled but the people on the forum did completely different things, I couldn't apply that to my case.

Thank you in advance!

In case the xml is needed:

Answer 1

First you need to get the path to the directory you want to search in and then loop through each XML File in that Directory. With SearchOption.AllDirectory you also search in all sub directories that are in the current directory.

Loop through your Directory:

string folderWithModFiles = "YourPath";
List<Enemy> enemylist = new List<Enemy>();

foreach (string xmlFile in Directory.EnumerateFiles(folderWithModFiles, "*.xml", SearchOption.AllDirectories)) {
    try {
        enemylist = SerializeXML(xmlFile);
    }
    catch(Exception e) { 
       Debug.LogException(e); 
    }
}

The try catch is to ensure that no faulty XML files are read.

De-serializing XML File:

private List<Enemy> SerializeXMLS(string filePath) {
        using (FileStream fileStream = System.IO.File.Open(filePath, FileMode.Open)) {
            var serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(EnemyList));
            var enemyList = serializer.Deserialize(fileStream) as EnemyList;

            // Read the data you need from the XML File
            // If the user didn't specify certain things he need to specify,
            // you can throw an ArgumentExpection and the file will be skipped
            return enemyList.ListOfEnemies;
        }
    }
}

Example of the EnemyList XML Parse File:

[XmlRoot("Entities")]
[CreateAssetMenu(menuName = "Nations of Cubion/Item/List of Enemies")]
public class EnemyList {
    [XmlArray]
    [XmlArrayItem("Entity")]
    public List<Entity> ListOfEnemies {
        get; set;
    }
}

public class Entity{
    [XmlAttribute("name")]
    public string name{
        get; set;
    }

    [XmlElement("mesh")]
    public string mesh {
        get; set;
    }

    [XmlElement("material")]
    public string material {
        get; set;
    }

    [XmlElement("enemyType")]
    public string enemyType {
        get; set;
    }

   [XmlElement("elementType")]
    public string elementType {
        get; set;
    }

    [XmlElement("maxHealth")]
    public string maxHealth {
        get; set;
    }
}