XML array with custom attribute and element names

Question

I want to serialize/deserialize xml document in C# like:

<library>
    <my.books genre =""classic"">
         <book title = ""1984"" author=""George Orwell"" />
         <book title = ""Robinson Crusoe"" author=""Daniel Defoe"" />
         <book title = ""Frankenstein"" author=""Mary Shelly"" />
    </my.books>
</library>";

There are 2 important things:

Element "my.books" must have custom name (not a property name)
my.books element must have an attribute ("genre").

Here is my code (sample is on https://dotnetfiddle.net/bH5WVX) :

   using System;
   using System.Xml;
   using System.Xml.Linq;
   using System.Collections.Generic;
   using System.ComponentModel;
   using System.Xml.Serialization;
   using System.IO;

   public class Program
   {
    public static void Main()
    {

        Library lib = new Library(myBooks: new MyBooks(
            genre: "classic",
            booklist: new List<Book>{
                new Book("1984", "George Orwell"),
                new Book("Robinson Crusoe", "Daniel Defoe"),
                new Book("Oliver Twist", "Mary Shelly"),

            }));


          XmlSerializer formatter = new XmlSerializer(typeof(Library));

            using (StringWriter sw = new StringWriter())
            {
                formatter.Serialize(sw, lib);
                Console.Write(sw.ToString());
            }

        string desiredOutput =
                @"<library>

                    <my.books genre =""classic"">
                        <book title = ""1984"" author=""George Orwell"" />
                        <book title = ""Robinson Crusoe"" author=""Daniel Defoe"" />
                        <book title = ""Frankenstein"" author=""Mary Shelly"" />
                    </my.books>

                </library>";            
    }


[XmlRoot("library")]    
public class Library
        {
        public MyBooks MyBooks { get; set; }

        [XmlElement("my.books")] 
        public List<Book> Books { get; set; }

        public Library()
    {

    }

    public Library(MyBooks myBooks = null)
    {
        MyBooks = myBooks;
    }
}


[XmlType("my.books")]
public class MyBooks
{
     [XmlAttribute("genre")]
        public string Genre { get; set; }

     [XmlElement("book")]
        public List<Book> Booklist { get; set; }

      public MyBooks(string genre, List<Book> booklist = null)
        {
            Genre = genre;
            Booklist = booklist;
        }

          public MyBooks()
        {

        }   
}   

public class Book
    {
        [XmlAttribute("title")]
        public string Title { get; set; }
        [XmlAttribute("author")]
        public string Author { get; set; }

        public Book() { }

        public Book(string title, string author)
        {
        Title = title;
        Author = author;    
        }
    }
}

And the output is:

<library>
  <MyBooks genre="classic">
    <book title="1984" author="George Orwell" />
    <book title="Robinson Crusoe" author="Daniel Defoe" />
    <book title="Oliver Twist" author="Mary Shelly" />
  </MyBooks>
</library>

The only problem is that I can't force element "MyBooks" to use name "my.books"

I found only one related article on this topic - http://www.codemeit.com/xml/c-xmlserializer-add-an-attribute-to-an-array-element.html, it suggests to use "XmlType" attribute on class, but it doesn't work here.

Is there any way to apply custom name attribute on this element?

I have no choice, by some reason the xml configuration I work with has such element names. It's a legacy product configuration, and I can't modify it, but I need to serialize it... — Vladimir
– Vladimir, Commented Apr 20, 2018 at 0:22

Enigmativity · Accepted Answer · 2018-04-20 00:24:43Z

1

It looks like your attribute was on the wrong property.

Try this:

[System.Xml.Serialization.XmlElement("my.books")]
public MyBooks MyBooks { get; set; }

public List<Book> Books { get; set; }

I now get this output:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?>
<library xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
  <my.books genre="classic">
    <book title="1984" author="George Orwell" />
    <book title="Robinson Crusoe" author="Daniel Defoe" />
    <book title="Oliver Twist" author="Mary Shelly" />
  </my.books>
</library>

Well done on a superbly written question!

answered Apr 20, 2018 at 0:24

Enigmativity

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1 Comment

Vladimir Over a year ago

Wow, thanks to your eyes! I spent a whole day and couldn't find this my blunder. You've saved my another day :)

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