Any way to specify the XML string used in xsi:type=""?

Question

I have a hierarchy of classes that are serialised to XML using XMLSerialiser. To do this I am declaring all the concrete types with [XmlInclude]. eg.

 [XmlInclude(typeof(Derived))]
 public class Base
 {
 }

 public class Derived : Base
 {
 }

An instance of Derived gets serialised as:

<Base xsi:type="Derived" />

Is there any way change the type text to something other than the class name? eg:

<Base xsi:type="Fred" />

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 02 '12 at 15:25

2

I think you do it as follows:

[XmlType(TypeName = "Fred")]
public class Derived : Base
{
}

answered Apr 02 '12 at 15:25

Daniel Moses

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score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 02 '12 at 15:29

Use the XmlType attribute:

[XmlInclude(typeof(Derived))]
public class Base
{
}

[XmlType("Fred")]
public class Derived : Base
{
}

This will give you the desired xsi:type when serializing a Derived object using a Base serializer. My test program output:

<Base xsi:type="Fred"/>

Any way to specify the XML string used in xsi:type=""?

2 Answers2